Children’s Social Care Service Managers (x3) – Quality Assurance
PO9: Starting salary £66,669 pa rising to £71, 056 pa incl LW.
Permanent Contract: Location Hybrid working Brixton / Home
“Lambeth – a borough with social and climate justice at its heart. By harnessing the power and pride of our people and partnerships, we will proactively tackle inequalities so that children and young people can have the best start in life and so everyone can feel safe and thrive in a place of opportunity” Lambeth Borough Plan 2023.
In Lambeth we put children and their families at the heart of practice, and practice at the heart of all that we do. Our new Borough Plan has social justice at the centre and a clear vision for improving outcomes for our children and families.
You will be joining an ambitious, passionate and committed leadership team. We are working at pace to create the conditions for effective social work to flourish and for all our children to receive a good service. We are clear on the challenges we face and have the courage and vision to deliver improvements. Following our inspection in 2022 Ofsted recognised the momentum and investment in Children’s Services. We are now seeking to complete our transformational leadership team at a Service Manager level.
About you:
You will have a successful track record in leading innovation and improvement in Children’s Social Care, a commitment to working with Lambeth’s diverse communities, and the drive to bring positive changes to a service committed to achieving success at every level.
About the roles:
These are senior management roles reporting to the Assistant Director, Quality Assurance and working closely with the Principal Social Worker. You will deliver high practice standards and best possible outcomes for children and families within Lambeth’s Quality Assurance Framework and across the safeguarding partnership. All roles will provide critical challenge and scrutiny to the quality of practice standards across the system, You will work collaboratively with a range of practitioners and leaders to implement recommendations for service enhancements. You will be agile and work across all the 3 service areas referred below.
Service Manager (Safeguarding)
This is a key role in managing the Child Protection Conference Chairs, Conference Secretary service and Family Group Conferencing service, as well as the Designated Officer service. Continuously improving the quality and impact of child protection planning to secure best possible outcomes for children.
Service Manager (Independent Reviewing Service)
This is a key role in managing the Independent Reviewing Officers, Children Participation service, Independent Volunteering & Advocacy and Lambeth Information, Advice and Support Service
Service Manager (Practice Evaluation and Quality Assurance)
Strengthen the quality and impact for children through leading auditing and practice evaluation programmes across the system and ensure learning from the quality assurance activities, case reviews, learning from complaints, LSCP multi agency audits, reviews and national reviews are embedded in practice.
You will be working collaboratively with your colleagues across the department and with partners, to deliver high-quality and responsive social work to some of the most vulnerable children and families in Lambeth. We value each staff member in the service and want each and every one to be a leader and champion of exemplary practice, able to work with families to make changes, and to achieve early permanence for children when they cannot remain at home.
To find out more about our ‘Children at the Heart of Practice’ framework visit our dedicated Children’s Social Care website; Inspire Lambeth
Successful candidates will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Further information about the DBS can be found at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/agencies-public-bodies/dbs
If you have any queries in relation to this vacancy, please contact Ranganathan Gajendran, [email protected]
Please note we operate an anonymised application process. If you are uploading your CV or a personal statement, please remove your personal details and replace these with your unique candidate application number.
To apply, please complete an on-line application explicitly evidencing in supporting statement field how you meet the criteria marked with an 'A' at shortlist stage, along with uploading your CV.
The statement must be no longer than 1000 words.
Job Description and Specification
The closing date for receiving your completed application and CV is 4th June 2023 at midnight
Interviews will be held in Brixton on 9th June 2023.
Lambeth aims for quality services and equal opportunities for all and is committed to safer recruitment.