Team Manager (SEND Family Help)

About the Borough

The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.

Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.

About the Service and Team

Following a restructure of Children's Services in Sutton, in accordance with the Families First Partnership Programme, our Children and Young People's Disability Service has changed into a larger SEND Family Help Service. 

This is an exciting time for our service, which consists of a social work team of five social workers, which you would manage, and two further family help teams with family help practitioners supporting families. The social workers manage complex CIN, CP, CLA and Court proceedings work and there is a high level of partnership working across our multi-agency network to ensure that children and their families are receiving holistic plans that are family centred and led. 

Over the next 18 months, the service is further developing a physically located multi agency SEND Family Hub, so that we can provide robust support to all children with SEND from a welcoming and family focused location, with the SEND Family Help Service meeting the needs of children with a complex and specialist area of need. 

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

The purpose of this role is to manage a team of 5-6 social workers who will be working with a number of complex children in need, child protection, children looked after and court proceedings.  The team manager will provide robust supervision, support and oversight of the work of the social workers to ensure that children are safeguarded, that they thrive and are supported to achieve the best possible outcomes as they approach adulthood. 

The job requires:
Robust oversight of performance, in terms of assessments, plans, visits and measurable outcomes for children
Good multi-agency working and relationship building as well as the ability to constructively challenge, to ensure well rounded plans are in place for families
Supporting social workers by working alongside them to chair complex meetings, challenging visits and modelling good practice
Team work with the other team managers to ensure a consistent service is provided
Working with social workers to ensure excellent support on a value for money basis, identifying a wide range of options in the voluntary and partnership sector.
Ensuring that preparation for adulthood work is completed to a high standard by the team.

We are looking for a passionate, motivated and experienced social worker with experience of management, or an ambition to move into management. You will be experienced in working with families to safeguard children with disabilities, have excellent knowledge of appropriate legislation and procedures and have the ability to support those you manage into the best practitioners they can be.

You will have genuine care for and high expectations of what can be achieved for children with SEND and create a team culture and environment that expects the best for the children that we work with.

You will have excellent verbal and communication skills and be able to support workers to create SMART plans with families that are restorative, clear and measurable.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-32 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade 
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role) 
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities. 
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been