Children's Safeguarding and Social Care
At the Royal Borough of Greenwich we believe children should enjoy their childhoods, and we are determined to apply child-centred best practice in everything that we do. We are proud of our Our Children and Young People's Plan and Good - OFSTED rating.
Quick Links:
- Our Structure
- Our Children & Families Social Work Offer
- Our Youth Offending Social Work Offer
- Our Practice Manager & Team Leader Offer
- Children’s Services Project Management Opportunities
- Our Benefits Package
Welcome to the Children in Care Council from Royal What it's like being a looked after child in Royal Greenwich
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Greenwich Young People's Council
Our Structure
Safeguarding and Social Care provides services for our most vulnerable children and young people. Our service areas include:
- Safeguarding
- Permanence
- Youth Offending and Targeted Youth Support Service
Safeguarding
Key tasks
Safeguarding and Social Care provides services for our most vulnerable children and young people. This includes:
- screening referrals from all agencies e.g. police, health, schools, individuals for a social work assessment/intervention via MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub)
- undertaking child protection investigations required according to the London Child Protection Procedures
- providing assessments of child(ren) and families by social workers to determine the levels of risk and the required intervention/pathway
- providing a social work service to children in need in partnership with other involved agencies such as Health, Schools, Children’s Centres, Voluntary Organisations etc. to support children achieving an improvement in their health, education and overall development
- providing a social work service to children who are subject to child protection plans in partnership with other involved agencies such as Health, Schools, Children's Centres, Voluntary Organisations etc. to reduce the risk of significant harm
- supporting families that care for their children at home with community-based supports unless this compromises the safety and protection of children
- in the event a child or children are not able to stay at home because of serious safeguarding concerns, to assess alternative options regarding where a child or children can live while further assessments are carried out to determine the viability of a return home or need for other care arrangements.
Teams
The Safeguarding Service comprises the following teams:
- MASH
- Assessment and Support Teams
- Child and Families in Need Teams
- Pre-birth Support and Assessment - based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Permanence for Looked After Children
Key tasks
The main tasks of the Permanence Service include:
- providing a social work service to children in care and young people leaving care between the ages of 0 - 25 years
- formulating and implementing robust care planning to support permanence for children, which may include legal permanence through adoption and Special Guardianship Orders or through supporting a child to return home
- presenting to the court to ensure that plans are supported by the right legal framework to enable children to be safe and well cared for
- working directly with our most vulnerable children to reduce the risk of harm through exploitation
- providing a service in partnership with the Virtual School for Looked After Children to secure good educational achievement and attainment so every child realises their full potential
- providing a service in partnership with the Looked After Children's Health Team and CAMHS to ensure all young people get their physical and mental health needs met
- providing effective adoption and post adoption services to children and adopters
- providing fostering services which meet the needs of local children
- supporting foster carers and children in their care
- providing a social work service to children who are living in private fostering arrangements
- providing safe supervised contact services for looked after children
- providing a safe and loving home through our Children's Home
Teams
The Permanence Service comprises the following teams:
- Children's Teams (0-18 years)
- Care Leavers Teams (17 - 25 years)
- Fostering Service
- Adoption Service
- Broadwalk Residential Children's Home
- Supervised Contact Centre
Youth Offending and Targeted Youth Support
Key tasks
The main duties of the Youth Offending and Targeted Youth Support service include:
- preventing young people who are at high risk of offending from becoming involved in criminal activity, thus reducing the number of first time entrants into the youth justice system
- providing reports that assist the courts in making decisions about appropriate programmes or sentences for young offenders
- working with young people on a range of court orders to reduce re-offending and improve their life chances
- supporting young people who are in custody and supporting their resettlement back into the community to prevent their re-offending and assist their progression into adulthood
- working restoratively with victims of crime and working with other agencies to identify and protect potential victims
- working closely with partners in other agencies to deliver holistic services to young people
- working with parents to support them and their family to achieve sustained change
Our Children & Families Social Worker Offer
Royal Greenwich is an innovative learning organisation and we are proud to part of the Teaching Partnership with Goldsmiths University. We are pro-active in investing in the career development of our Social Workers. A high proportion of our Social Workers have undergone post qualifying training and education, including practice education.
Social Workers who work with us can progress through the tiers based on their professional competence and experience.
Social Worker Career Progression Scheme
Salary Range
|
Level |
SCP Range |
Salary Range |
|
Unregistered Social Worker who will be working as Children’s Social Care Officer |
20 |
£33,957 |
|
Level 1 - Social Worker - Assessed & Supported year in Employment |
29 - 30 |
£39,951 - £40,833 |
|
Level 2 - Social Worker - Consolidating Professional Practice |
32 - 35 |
£42,840 - £46,041 |
|
Level 3 - Social Worker - Proficient |
35 – 41 |
£46,041 - £52,116 |
Our Youth Offending Service Social Worker Offer
Youth Offending Social Worker Career Progression Scheme
Salary Range
|
Tier |
SCP Range |
Salary Range including:
|
|
Unregistered Social Worker who will be working as Children’s Social Care Officer |
SCP 20 |
£33,957 |
|
Tier 1 Newly Qualified Social Worker on ASYE with HCPC registration |
SCP 24 |
£36,045 |
|
Tier 2 Social Worker |
SCP 26 – 28 |
£37,443 - £39,264 |
|
Tier 3 Social Worker |
SCP 30 – 32 |
£40,833 - £42,840 |
|
Tier 4 Social Worker |
SCP 33 – 35 |
£44,019 - £46,041 |
Our Practice Manager & Team Leader Offer
In Royal Greenwich, Social Work practice is based on an empowering and coaching model. The coaching method is used throughout all levels of the service and empowers frontline practitioners who then use similar approaches to empower the children and families they work with. We believe this is effective in improving outcome for children, young people and families. We aim to develop outstanding leaders who can energise teams to improve the impact they make, give them stability, clear direction and opportunities to reflect on practice and develop their own leadership skills.
Practice Manager: Grade PO6
- £51,093 - £54,129
Team Leader: Grade PO8
- £60,468 - £63,879
Children's Services Project Management Opportunities
Development and Sustainability (Projects and Programmes)
We are changing the way we work to work to continually improve our services to children, young people and families. We are using the collective skills and expertise from our diverse teams to create Delivery Teams within the directorate to drive sustainable change at a child/young person, family and organisational level.
Furthermore, to meet the challenges ahead and capitalise on the many opportunities, a new service area has been created to support senior leaders across Children’s Services deliver projects, programmes and drive innovation and service improvement. This new service has been designed to help deliver brilliant outcomes and ensure each child, young person and family in and across Royal Greenwich receive an outstanding service.
What is a Design Team?
As part of our methods of building brilliant outcomes and driving improvement across Children’s Services, we have created a number of Design Teams.
As a member and leader of a Design Team with the responsibility for a number of projects or workstreams, you will help implement key changes (depending on the nature of the change project or programme) and will work with a diverse range of colleagues ensuring the active involvement of colleagues, stakeholders and service users.
As we develop and trial new ways of working or changes to service delivery, Workstreams will ensure that the changes are iterated and sufficiently tested to ensure that change is embedded, impactful and sustained and it makes a difference to those with whom we work.
If you think you have what it takes to lead projects or workstreams, we would like to hear from you.
We are currently recruiting 2 full-time Development and Sustainability Officer posts for 2 years. We are looking for individuals with a wide and varied background including those with experience and the proven ability of delivering change. This may be an ideal role for those who are experienced practitioners or managers and are interested in fresh challenges or those with the ability and drive to make a difference.
Your role will be wide and varied and will focus on the delivery and management of projects and workstreams whilst ensuring that change and improvement is developed and sustained with our staff, for our children, young people and families.
Benefits Package
In addition to our general Royal Greenwich Benefits Package, Social Workers, Practice Managers and Team Leaders also receive:
- Rota days equating to an additional 10 days off per year
- Ongoing professional development, including a minimum 50 hours protected professional development each year
- Small teams allowing more direct contact with and supervision of your staff
- Excellent support from a highly skilled Service Leader.
- Travel costs reimbursement worth £1k+, OR Essential car user car parking (very close to the workplace, worth £800+)
- Royal Greenwich Keyworker housing (after being employed for six months and subject to application and meeting criteria)