Children's Services Practitioner (Social Worker)

The National Clinical Assessment and Treatment Service (NCATS) operates in partnership with the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. We provide assessments and a range of specialist interventions for children and young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour. We work with children and young people up to the age of 21 and their families/carers. We also provide training and consultation to professionals.

NCATS sits within the Partnerships and Development department which is part of the Services Directorate of the NSPCC. The Services Directorate supports parents and families in caring for their children, provides therapeutic services to help children move on from abuse an assists professionals in making the best decisions for children, across the UK.

Job Purpose

Provide direct services to children, families, carers, or professionals working in an inter-agency context where activities will be complex and where there is a requirement to take considerable responsibility and work autonomously.

Key relationships – Internal

·       Report to team manager and clinical lead (NCATS)

• Partnerships Service Manager
• Specialist partnerships teams practitioners
• London and south-east Hub practitioners and support staff
• Consultant Social Workers

Key relationships – External

• Professionals from other agencies
• NSPCC colleagues from other directorates i.e. Strategy and Knowledge Fundraising.

Main duties and responsibilities

Provide direct services for children, their families, carers and adults maintaining professional practicestandards as outlined in legislation/guidance and consistent with NSPCC practice standards and guidance.

Be accountable for a caseload most of which will be complex, ensuring all safeguarding practice and caserecording conforms to NSPCC practice standards and guidance. Provide professional advice to internaland external enquiries.

Liaise and work positively with partner agencies and to respectfully challenge where necessary in order to promote the best interests of children.

Involve service users in planning, decision making and evaluation and promote the participation of Children andYoung People.

Plan and deliver services and contribute to their evaluation and ensure that issues of equality and inclusionare identified and addressed in accordance with equal opportunity practices.

Develop and maintain professional relationships and work in partnership with other agencies in order to deliver effective services and attend a range of internal and external meetings as required.

Actively prepare for and participate in supervision, team meetings, briefings and training events andcontribute to the development of learning materials or other resources.

Take responsibility for developing and improving your own professional knowledge and skills and contribute to policy development within the organisation.

Work with fundraising staff to promote the work of the team and the organisation to various audiences including supporters, fundraisers and volunteers.

Support and learn from colleagues through co-working, mentoring or critical appraisal and supervise students as appropriate in line with agency policy.

Responsibilities for all Staff within the Services Directorate

A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people Understand and comply with Services' Information Security Guidance

Take reasonable care of the health and safety of themselves and others in offices/bases, regional/ nationalhubs, third-party sites (including service users' homes) and where hybrid/ homeworking is in place

Person specification

All items are essential.

1.  A recognised social work qualification (or equivalent) and registration with the relevant social carebody within the UK (or equivalent).

2. Experience of direct work with children and their families alongside proven ability in identifying risk and need and initiating child protection activity.

3. Good knowledge of up-to-date safeguarding and child protection best practice, research and legislation.

4. Experience of and ability to work in a way that reflects a child-centred approach and an understanding of children's rights, participation, needs and best interests.

5. Experience of and ability to engage with service users, involving them in planning, decision-making andevaluation whilst adhering to effective safeguarding practice.

6. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including report writing.

7. Experience of and ability to work on your own initiative and as part of a team, within a multi-disciplinarysetting.

8. Ability to effectively prioritise workload, manage time, and resources

9.  Ability to represent the NSPCC effectively to other child protection agencies and to supporters.

10. Experience of and ability to consider equality and inclusion in all aspects of your professional role.

Safer Recruitment

As an organisation, we are committed to creating and fostering a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children and adults at risk.

Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and thorough process ofobtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all persons appointed are suitable to work with our children and adults.

The recruitment and selection of our people will be conducted in a professional, timely and responsive manner and incompliance with current employment legislation, and relevant safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.

Our principles:

• Always seek to recruit the best candidate for the role based on merit including their skills, experience,motivation and competencies. Our robust recruitment and selection process should ensure the identificationof the person best suited to the role and the organisation.

• Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity and will interview all applicants (internal and external)who self-declare at application as having a disability and who meet the minimum requirements in the person specification of the vacancy they are applying for.

•  We will make reasonable adjustments at all stages of the recruitment process in order to enable successfulcandidates who declare disabilities to start working or volunteering their time with us.

•  Any current member of staff or volunteer who wishes to apply for vacancies and is suitably qualified will be considered and addressed fairly and objectively based on their merit.

•  As an organisation committed to safeguarding, we will ensure all under 18's joining the organisation willhave ongoing risk assessments to ensure their role and activities are safe and appropriate.

•  All documentation relating to candidates will be treated confidentially in accordance with the GDPR legislation.