Head of Service - Family Help & Care

Job Description

Discover yourself in Lewisham where what you do makes a difference to our vibrant and culturally diverse communities!

We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.

Introduction

We are looking for three Senior Leader's to join Lewisham Children’s Social Care, Family Help and Care to provide strategic and operational leadership across our children’s social care services.

The roles are senior leadership role for an ambitious, values-driven professional's who are passionate about improving outcomes for children, young people and families. You will play a key role in shaping and delivering high-quality, effective and innovative services, ensuring that children are safe, heard and supported to achieve their potential.

What’s the role? …

As Head of Service, you will:

• Provide strong, visible leadership across children’s social care teams and services.
• Drive improvements in practice, performance, quality and outcomes for children and families.
• Ensure services are delivered in line with statutory duties, legislation, safeguarding requirements and best practice.
• Lead and develop managers and practitioners, creating a culture of accountability, learning and continuous improvement.
• Use performance data, quality assurance and professional intelligence to identify priorities and drive improvement.
• Work collaboratively with education, health, police, housing, early help and other partners.
• Ensure children and young people’s voices and experiences are central to service design and decision-making.
• Contribute to strategic planning, service development, workforce planning and budget management.
• Support the service to respond effectively to inspection, audit and regulatory requirements.
• Promote a strengths-based, relationship-focused approach that improves outcomes for children and families.
• To carry out duties with due regards to the Councils Values and behaviours.

What’s in it for you?

Excellent training and development opportunities, plus a range of benefits including:

• Generous holiday allowance
• Local Government Pension scheme
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Season ticket and bicycle loans
• A range of staff discounts including local subsidised gym memberships
• Supportive staff networks

What we’re looking for

You will be an experienced social care leader with a strong track record of managing complex children's services and delivering sustainable improvement.

You will have:

• A professional qualification in Social Work and current Social Work England registration.
• Significant post-qualification experience within children’s social care.
• Proven experience at senior management level within a statutory children’s social care environment.
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding, child protection, corporate parenting and relevant legislation.
• A demonstrable record of improving practice, performance and outcomes.
• Excellent leadership, communication and relationship-building skills.
• The ability to inspire teams while maintaining clear standards of accountability.
• Strong analytical, strategic and decision-making skills.
• Can inspire and motivate those they work with, manage and lead
• Experience of working effectively with senior leaders, elected members and multi-agency partners.
• A commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and ensuring the voice of the child informs our work.

Location

The job is primarily based in Laurence House, Catford, London, SE6 4RU, but we operate a hybrid approach where you will be required to work both in the office and from home on a regular basis.

Special conditions

• To apply for this post, you must have a degree in social work or equivalent qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
• Weekend working is required for this job
• The job is subject to an enhanced DBS check

The recruitment process is anonymous and we don’t accept CVs.

Applicant handbook - please read the guidance in this handbook when applying. It is essential that you complete the application fully and that your supporting statement covers how you meet each of the person specification criteria listed.

For an informal discussion about this job, please contact  [email removed]

Please click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification

Salary

£79,629-£86,121 SMG3 per annum (SCP 61-65)

N.B: All appointments will be offered at the minimum spinal column point (SCP) for the grade of the role. The only exception to this will be when matching current salary (up to the maximum of the scale), which is subject to evidential proof.

Diversity

Lewisham Council is a Disability Confident employer. We welcome and encourage job applications of all abilities. If you require any reasonable adjustments in the application or interview, please contact the lead contact on this advert. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure our disabled applicants and those with health conditions are supported throughout our recruitment process. We support the access to work scheme, further details are available at www.gov.uk/access-to-work/apply

The Council reserves the right to close adverts early if there is a large response.

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