Team Manager – Together for Families Team
Brighter Futures for Children
About us
Brighter Futures for Children is a not-for-profit company, owned by, but independent of, Reading Borough Council. Although we are independent, we are very much part of the Reading Family. Our people enjoy all of benefits as other Council employees including membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and continuous service.
We work closely with partners in the local community and key organisations including Reading Borough Council, policy, public health and voluntary groups. We are responsible for the delivery of children’s social care, early help & prevention, education services (including SEND).This also includes fostering and adoption, the Youth Offending Service and traded services with schools.
Our main aim is to protect and enhance the lives of the children of Reading. We help families find long-term solutions to ensure children lead happy, healthy and successful lives.
About the role
We currently have vacancies for experienced Team Managers to join our Together for Families Teams, part of the Family Help & Safeguarding service. We firmly believe that relationship-based social work makes a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families, and our generic Together for Families Teams focus on delivering outstanding support to families.
Our Together for Families (TfF) Teams have been developed in order to allow children and families to benefit from the continuity of having only one social worker, and to form a relationship with that worker that promotes sustained positive change.The benefit for our social workers in this practice model is the ability to form consistent, meaningful relationship with children and their families; the opportunity to learn and to develop new skills whilst working across the journey of the child in statutory social work; to have lower caseloads, and a supportive environment that makes relationship-based social work flourish.
Our Together for Families teams work with children during S.17 (Children Act, 1989) single assessments, S.47 child protection investigations, as well as working with children subject to Child In Need Plans, Child Protection Plans, pre-proceedings, proceedings and those becoming looked after.
As a Team Manager you will be responsible for leading and managing a small team of 5 social workers, and taking new cases from our Children’s Single Point of Access Team (MASH) on a 9 week duty cycle. You will provide passionate and inspiring leadership to your Team, providing regular high-quality supervision and support, and will ensure that the child’s lived experience is at the very heart of everything that is done.At Brighter Futures for Children, we have a culture of providing high support and high challenge, in the very best interests of children. We are immensely proud to be growing and developing our staff in Family Help & Safeguarding service and now benefit from having a very stable workforce where over 90% of our staff are permanent, our reliance on agency cover is low, and caseloads are mostly manageable.
We need skilled and committed people to join our Team and support our delivery within this relationship-based practice model and make a real difference to our children and families in Reading. In return we offer a very competitive salary and benefits package, a recruitment and retention allowance, generous pension, relocation package, annual leave up to 26 days, and excellent career progression opportunities.
Whether you want to develop your skills and experience as a social worker or step into more senior roles including management, we offer a comprehensive range of training and learning opportunities to do so, making a commitment to investing in you.
At Brighter Futures for Children, we invest in the well-being of our staff too, and know that we can’t deliver excellent outcomes for families if our staff are also not exceptionally well supported. We really do like to “grow our own” and are immensely proud at how so many of our staff have stayed working with us, and have been supported to progress in their careers, including to more senior roles.
If you like the sound of this, please get in touch with us today for a confidential discussion about the post.
For more information about the role, please read the job description and person specification.
Our offer
We offer a supportive environment to grow and develop your career with the opportunity to put your ideas across. Innovation and ambition are strongly encouraged, and you’ll get a great feel for that working in our friendly and collaborative environment.
Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.
Asking for Adjustments
Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.
Closing date: 13 October 2024Interview dates: 18 and 22 October 2024 (in person)
We look forward to hearing from you!