Deputy Team Manager - Family Support Plus

At Bath & North East Somerset Council we have one overriding purpose – to improve people’s lives.

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If your passion is around collaborative work with families, centred on building relationships in order to help families develop resilience and make changes for their children, then we are the Local Authority for you. Working with families to keep children at home wherever possible, our dynamic teams work with families from point of contact through to long term support and intervention. Our practice model is underpinned by relationship-based, systemic approaches to facilitate change, alongside trauma informed practice.

Bath and North East Somerset Children’s Social Care are an innovative small Local Authority focused on therapeutic assessment and support. Rated Good by OFSTED, with continued vision and drive to improve further.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Deputy Team Manager (with a Social Work qualification) to join our Family Support Plus Team, within the Safeguarding Outcomes Service. We are committed to being a dynamic and creative Local Authority, working hard to think differently about how we approach our work with families. We are deeply committed to providing tailored high-quality services and well thought out interventions to families to keep children safe. Our practice is values -driven with a strong ethos of child-focussed interventions.

About the role:

You will work in partnership with the Team Manager to lead an enthusiastic team of Family Support practitioners, Family Group Conference coordinators and Administrative staff.

This rewarding role will see you leading the New Way domestic abuse service and have oversight of our Caring Dad’s Group. A passion and experience in thinking and doing differently in working with the complex issues surrounding domestic abuse practice is sought.

Alongside this you will have oversight of our Footprints service which supports parents who have had their children removed from their care.

The Family Support Plus team has oversight of the Lighthouse Family Group for parents managing their mental health issues (which utilises the MBT model) and knowledge of this approach is preferable, although training will be provided.

You will also supervise one casual Supervised Family Time Practitioner and have oversight of requests from the Williamson Charity Fund.

You will also actively support the team manager in the delivery of the Family Group Conference and Lifelong Links services.

Working closely with our colleagues across the service and established partnerships with agencies across health, education, support services and adult services you will continue to develop the diverse services offered by the Family Support Plus team to ensure we can respond as effectively as possible to the needs of children, young people, and their families.

The post holder will offer monthly one-one supervision to the Footprints and New Way staff, overseeing allocations, you will also coordinate Caring Dads and Lighthouse groups, being available to support practitioners. We are seeking a deputy manager who is committed to understanding and promoting the performance of the Family Support Plus team to ensure children are receiving a consistent and high-quality service.

About you:

Ideally you will have management and supervisory experience or will have relevant experience of supporting less experienced workers in a social care setting.

Applicants need to have very strong organisational skills to manage their time whilst continuing to develop the diverse services within the Family Support Plus Team effectively and will be committed to working as part of a team to support colleagues in delivering optimum services to children and families.

You can expect:

• A comprehensive induction
• Regular supervision – at a minimum of monthly one to one
• Monthly Peer Circles to ensure strong relationships and support between Deputy Team Managers across the teams
• Extensive training opportunities, which include SARI workshops around culturally sensitive practice, opportunities to join a 6-month long training in Systemic Supervision delivered by the Centre for Systemic Social Work, attachment-based workshops, and trauma-informed workshops
• Excellent administrative support
• Bi-annual Social Work Conferences with guest speakers who are experts in their field
• Paid Social Work England membership renewal
• Access to Research in Practice
• Access to coaching
• Laptop to promote flexible working, to enhance your work-life balance
• Relocation Payments are available
• A stable leadership team

To apply you will have:

• A relevant social work qualification
• Significant social work experience
• Ideally you will have supervisory experience, and/or a PEPS qualification
• Sound knowledge of the legislative framework and guidance that governs children’s services, and safeguarding children
• Knowledge of theory and practice applicable to social work
• IT skills to enable operation of standard electronic systems
• Well-developed emotional literacy
• Passion, commitment, and motivation to support the most vulnerable families in our area

If you are interested in this post and require more details or just to chat through the role and what’s involved, please contact Freyja Baber, Team Manager Family Support Plus on 01225 396961 or email freyja_baber@bathnes.gov.uk

Interview date: TBC

No agencies please.

*Please note, BANES Council operates a policy of prior consideration for roles for any individual on the Council’s at-risk register (redeployee). This means should a redeployee express an interest in this role, providing they meet the essential criteria for the role they will be considered ahead of external applicants.

Please note that this advert may close earlier than the stated closing date due to high demand. We advise all interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.