Children's First Contact Service - Social Worker
31/05/2024, 23:55
In Sutton, there is much for us to be proud of both as a council and as a borough. This includes high levels of resident satisfaction, the quality of our services, our success in addressing our financial challenges to date, the way that we involve and engage with residents on key issues facing the borough, and the enthusiastic and motivated staff that we employ.
Looking ahead, there are plans for the delivery of new homes and new schools and the London Cancer Hub is being developed, while the Council is also seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment.
All of this demonstrates a good track record and an authority that is ambitious and set to deliver more improvements for the borough. We've set out our vision for the future of Sutton in our corporate plan - Ambitious for Sutton. This strategic plan will shape the outcomes we achieve, the services we provide, and the impact we have on residents, to make Sutton a great place to live, work and raise a family.
Situated in Zone 5, Sutton is less than 30 minutes by train from central London, and south and south west London are easily accessible by public transport. There are 10 train stations which serve key neighbourhoods within the borough providing direct connections to London Victoria, London Bridge, London Blackfriars and St Pancras International. Sutton also has direct rail connections with Epsom, Dorking, Guildford and Horsham, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and West Croydon for the London Overground. There’s also an extensive road network which provides close and easy access to the M25 and M23.
Sutton Children's First Contact Service (CFCS) is the single point of contact for professionals or the public where there are concerns about children or young people and their families which need a coordinated response.
As a Social Worker in CFCS You will work within a multi-agency staff group consisting of police, social workers, education/ health professionals and Early Help professionals, ensuring that those children and families referred to Sutton CFCS get the right help at the right time from the right service.
This role offers a £1000 welcome payment. A retention payment on an increasing scale, starting with £1000 on completion of your first year, £2000 on completion of your second year and £3000 every year thereafter.
Sutton’s Children’s First Contact Service is a single point of contact for all early help and children’s social care services, support for children through to identifying children in need and Child protection matters. The lines is open to all practitioners and the general public.
Sutton’s Children’s First Contact Service aims to ensure a consistent and efficient response to referrals to the Children’s Service’s. The Children’s First contact Service co-ordinates incoming referrals and seeks to ensure that they follow the appropriate pathway for the child's needs according to Pan London threshold matrix.
As a Social worker in the service you will need to have experience of working in a social work setting, and a sound knowledge of Pan London Safeguarding thresholds, you will need to be able to operate at a fast pace and work autonomously making recommendations for next actions on contacts allocated to you.
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps. Our Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme embraces new ways of working. It provides improved work life balance for our staff as it allows staff to work from a variety of locations and staff are not required to work within the office 5 days a week.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
- Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
- Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
- Three volunteering days per year in Sutton
- Comprehensive learning and development programme
- Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Car parking scheme
- Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
- Zip car scheme
- Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
- Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
- Subsidised gym membership
Please apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please ensure you refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.
To support our diversity agenda and reduce the risk of bias in our recruitment activities, our short listing process completely anonymises personal information that can identify job applicants e.g. name, title etc. Our hiring managers review and short list applications based on the information provided as part of your application as to how well you meet the requirements and criteria for the role, as outlined in the job profile.
The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
We pride ourselves on being a diverse, inclusive and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve - the key highlights from our recent Equalities Workforce Report can be seen here. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates, as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce. As part of our Disability Confident Committed status, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.
We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.
The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.
