Job Introduction
Bradford Children and Families Trust are looking for Experienced, Innovative and Dedicated Practice Supervisors to drive our services forward and to ensure that our promise to improve the lives of Children and Young People in Bradford becomes a reality.
You will have a passion and drive to ensure children are at the heart of all we do. You will practice within a relational and restorative culture of continuous learning and reflective practice that inspires staff to give their best in their roles.
If you’re up for the Challenge and want to help us achieve our vision, then we’d love to hear from you!
We are recruiting in the following Services/Localities:
- Bradford East - currently based at Sir Henry Mitchell House
- Bradford South – currently based at Sir Henry Mitchell House
- Keighley and Shipley – based in Keighley Townhall.
About Us
Bradford Children and Families Trust was established in April 2023 to bring a step change in the quality and delivery of Children’s Services across our district.
Our purpose is clear - to ensure that our promise to improve the lives of children and young people in Bradford becomes a reality. It’s a tough ask. It requires dedication, determination, and resilience – but under our Chief Executive, Senior Leadership team and an unswerving drive to deliver the best outcomes, we are confident that we will achieve our ambition. Our Ofsted monitoring visits over the past 18 months, evidence that we are on the right trajectory and that significant improvements have been made and are being embedded. This means that the children and families we come in to contact with are having a better experience with the right support being offered at the right time. We are not sitting on our laurels and know that there is still a lot of work to do but there is a solid commitment to getting this right.
Working for the Bradford Children and Families Trust offers the opportunity to work with some great people who are passionate about delivering change in a city whose culture offers as much diversity as it’s geography. We cannot do this alone and have strong, collaborative working relationships with our partners. You can make a real difference to families and children and be an active part in delivering the service Bradford families should receive. Our workforce is unwavering in their pursuit to give the best possible services to those who need support.
We have invested in our services to ensure that we are the best we can be. We have and continue to invest in our Early Help services so that we are reaching as many people as possible who need support to prevent things escalating into statutory services; this includes the development of a Family Help Team who offer intensive support to families.
Families are the experts in their own lives and we need to listen to what they have to say; to that end, we have also invested in our voice and participation service to support children and families to have a voice in what happens next and our aspiration is that all our development is co-produced with those who need our support in their lives.
We are striving to ensure that we are a restorative and relational organisation and have been working with Leeds Relational Practice Centre for over 12 months, they will continue to work with us for the next 12 months, working with our leaders, managers and workforce so that we all have a shared understanding of what this means for children and families. We have invested in conferences and workshops led by Mark Finnis who is a renowned expert in this field.
Our ASYE academy is well established, and we have a high number of applicants who want to have the dedicated support the academy offers during the full 1 months of the ASYE programme; those who have gone through the academy have felt supported through dedicated practice educators, the learning and development offer and the experience of those delivering. We are committed to the ongoing development of all our workforce.
About the Role
You’ll know how to keep everyone in your team energised and focused on doing the right thing for the children of Bradford.
Managing a team of professional Social Workers and Community Resource Workers, you’ll help us achieve our aim of delivering outcomes for the children, young people, and families of Bradford. It’s about showing strong leadership, driving continuous improvement, and putting the needs of children first, always.
Here in Bradford, we lead from the front, and we know our most valuable resource is our staff, helping us to meet the needs of our communities. We have built a strong culture of listening to our staff and involving them to ensure every child receives the right help.
Bradford is a great place to build your career. You’ll receive an extensive training and support package that will help you develop as a professional, a manageable caseload that will enable you to make a difference and the backing of a supportive leadership team.
Bradford in split into four localities, Bradford East, Bradford, South, Bradford West and Keighley and Shipley. We are recruiting for Team Managers across the localities.
Key Responsibilities
- Managing a team of 6 social workers of differing levels, a practice supervisor and a community resource worker
- Supporting social workers to help and support families while managing and reducing risk
- Offering reflective supervision to workers, both child focused and personal
- Supporting progression of your workers and tackling performance issues when needed.
- Performance monitoring of your team through audit activity, reflective group supervision and quality assurance activity.
- Undertake audit activity and disseminate identified learning.
- Undertake practice development projects with those who use our services, colleagues, and stakeholders.
- Attendance at relevant partner agency meetings and service manager meetings.
- Implementing and supporting change within the team and offering a supportive and nurturing leadership style
- Chairing multi-agency meetings and making decisions linked to a thorough understanding of safeguarding thresholds.
About You
- Hold a DIPSW or equivalent qualification and are registered with the Social Work England as a qualified social worker, with at least four years post qualifying experience.
- Be registered with Social Work England (Formerly HCPC) as a qualified Social Worker
- Strong interpersonal skills.
- Experienced and expert in managing the delivery of quality outcomes for children and young people.
- An ability to build strong relationships with children, their families, colleagues and partner agencies.
- Passionate about the development of others
- Embrace change and strive for excellent practice placing children and young people at the heart of decision making; you have experience of tackling the most complex needs with enthusiasm, drive, and determination.
- An experience and understanding of relevant statutory and legal requirements to safeguard children and young people
Benefits
- West Yorkshire Pension Fund membership – with generous employer contributions
- Competitive salary and pay progression structure
- Real living wage as the minimum rate of pay
- Supportive carer and parental policies
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
- Access to Occupational Health and confidential counselling services
- Supportive staff networks
- Opportunity to have a mentor and/or coach
- Access to Blue Light Card discounts
- Professional development/support
- Career progression
- Enhanced annual leave entitlement - 31 days and rises to max of 34 days with service. (plus, public holidays)
- Social Worker Registration fees paid
- Flexible working / hybrid options subject to service need
- Retention Payment Applicable – as part of this role you will be eligible for our annual retention payment, paid in 12 monthly instalments. This is non contractual (reviewed annually)
Want to Know More
If you would like to know more about the role, the recruitment process or working for Bradford Children and Families Trust feel free to contact Kasem Khan at kasem.khan@bradfordcft.org.uk
Bradford Children and Families Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment.
If shortlisted, you will be required to disclose relevant information regarding criminal history prior to interview.
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check including a check against the Children’s barred list, will be carried out on preferred candidates.
