Consultant Social Worker

About the role

The Family Support and Advice Line, Dorset Council’s Children’s Services “Front Door” team, is a supportive and forward-thinking service, where you will be invested in and have every opportunity to make that positive difference to children’s lives.  Our Front Door Social Workers are known as Consultant Social Workers and form a dedicated, collaborative and highly regarded team.

The Family Support and Advice Line is a telephone, conversation and consultation-based service for all safeguarding contacts and referrals, one where relationships and collaboration is promoted to ensure that children and young people receive the right support, first time and in their communities. We work closely with our Family Help colleagues and MASH partners, so being an effective communicator and adopting a strengths-based approach is key.

We truly are ‘One Team’ where relationship-based and restorative practice is central to our service culture. Our team have been able to develop operational leads within the service, contributing to practice development within the service and wider organisation.

Our focus is on supporting families to meet the needs of their children and keeping children at home where it is safe to do so. You’ll find a variety of exciting challenges, working with our children, families, and partners, in a workplace that’s part of a community that values your skills, appreciates your passion, and recognises the difference you can make.

The Family Support and Advice Line works 365 days per year and includes our Out of Hours service. Our Consultant Social Workers work on a rota basis including an overnight, on call requirement once per fortnight. This requires a flexible and solution-focused approach, with a clear understanding of service demand and how we all work together.

We offer a flexible and supportive work environment with hybrid working. Our Consultant Social Workers currently work their full-time hours over a 4-day working week (amended for our part-time staff), contributing to a great work/life balance.

About You:

You are a skilled practitioner and registered social worker who can work flexibly, demonstrate calmness and reflection whilst under pressure. You are someone who supports your colleagues and promotes relationships with partner agencies, and our communities to ensuring our children in Dorset thrive.

We actively support a learning together culture. As a successful candidate you would demonstrate how you develop and promote a positive learning culture, not only in respect of your own learning but for others, whether this is within the service, the wider organisation, in our work with partners or with our children and families.

You will have a Diploma/Degree/MA in Social Work and have a minimum of 4 years post qualifying experience in Children's Services. You will also be registered with Social Work England.

You’ll join a forward-thinking service, where you’ll be encouraged to think creatively, question how we do things, and devise new, innovative approaches through our Partnership Workforce Events – our Children's Services' employee forum. There are opportunities to be involved in and chair multi-agency meetings, and for career progression through, for example, supervising members of the team, providing training for partners, and developing a lead role for our conversational model.

Join us and be part of our exceptional Children's Services team, recently recognised by Ofsted as Outstanding. The Family Support and Advice Line was described in the following way: “ Children’s levels of need and risk are considered carefully to decide the right course of action. Social workers robustly analyse all risks, such as child exploitation, gang violence and domestic abuse… Children and families benefit from the same effective response when concerns are raised during evenings and weekends.”

We offer a diverse career where the positive impacts of your work will extend a long way beyond your day-to-day role. Identifying the support needs for children and their families, with an overall aim of children being safe, means that you are giving children and their families a better chance of a happy, healthy, and thriving future.

Our innovative model of working, Dorset Children Thrive, will support you to be part of a service that:

• Puts children and families at the heart of everything we do
• Focuses on ‘getting it right first time’ by providing early help
• Makes services easily accessible for all
• Develops a skilled, supported and confident workforce
• Provides quality and efficient services that meet the highest standards
• Measures success by how we have made life better for children and young people

Further Information

  For an informal discussion about the role, please contact one of our Team Managers:

Jonnie Daniels – [phone removed]

Jane Gillett – [phone removed]

Rachel Gauntlett – [phone removed]

Below is a copy of our current 14 week rota, providing an outline of what your working pattern would look like:

Week

Sat

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

1

9am-10pm

1pm-10pm

12pm-10pm

R

R

R

9am-7pm

2

R

R

R

8am-6.15pm

8am-6.15pm

8am-6.15pm

8am-6.15pm

3

R

R

9am-7pm

12pm-10pm

12pm-10pm

R

9am-7pm

4

R

R

8am-6.15pm

R

8am-6.15pm

8am-6.15pm

8am-6.15pm

5

R

R

9am-7pm

R

9am-7pm

9am-7pm

12pm-10pm

6