Family Court Adviser (Social Worker) - Early Intervention Team covering Coventry, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Social Work Hubs

Job content

As a Social Worker you know your work changes lives. But it’s not an easy job and you want to work somewhere where you can work flexibly, proportionally and safely to deliver the best outcomes.

And there is no better place to do this than with the largest employer of Social Workers in England that was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2018 and leads the way in when it comes to professional development, flexible working, use of technology and health and wellbeing support

As part of our Private Law Early Intervention Team (EIT) you will be based from our Coventry / National Business Centre office, covering Coventry, Warwickshire Northamptonshire and Social Work Hubs in London (so occasional travel may be required). You will work with families up to and including their initial appearance in Family court drawing on your experience and use your analytical and risk assessment skills to answer the question "What does this mean for the child and what needs to happen now to achieve a safe and positive outcome for them?"

As a Family Court Adviser - this is what we call our Social Workers although you may have heard them referred to as Children’s Guardians - within EIT you will play a key role in ensuring Cafcass only intervenes in the lives of those children who needs a service. This role is fast paced, draws on Child Protection expertise and requires analytical and effective risk assessment to identify key issues for the court and make safe recommendations in the best interests of the child. You will predominantly achieve this through effective telephone interviews with applicants and respondents and by assessing information received from other agencies. You will then collate this to allow you to succinctly and expertly communicate advice in the court through clear, evidence-based reports and representations, which will occasionally mean attending initial Court Hearings to ensure that children remain central to all decision making.

Should you join us, not only will you receive a competitive salary but a range of other benefits which we believe collectively makes for a market-leading offer. Further information is in the attached document as is the formal job description / person specification and other relevant information.

In the meantime, if you would like to informally find out about the role before deciding to apply, you are welcome to contact the Recruiting Manager by email advising of the best number to contact you on and most suitable time(s) Adam Birchall - . However, please note we cannot accept applications / CVs by email and you must apply online but rest assured the process is quick and simple.

As you would expect there are a few key things we need you to be:

• Qualified Social Worker with 3+ years’ experience(or will have by time join us).
• Social Work England registered.
• Experienced at working with highly vulnerable children and families.
• Expert in safeguarding, child engagement, inter-agency working, case analysis, planning and recording.
  
  

Our work is demanding so for you to succeed and truly make a difference you should be someone who;

• Is resilient and organised
• Can work proportionately
• Has strong, intuitive IT skills
• Is an effective verbal and written communicator
  
  

We would also like to draw your attention that this role has been identified as suiting someone who has a full driving licence. This is because of the nature of the work undertaken, the geographical area involved, and that public transport is not considered a viable alternative.

Last Date For Applications

To apply we have a simple application process and you can upload your current, up-to-date CV and provide a short supporting statement. We know how busy Social Workers are, so we’d like to give you some dates for your diary to help you understand the timescales we are working to. These dates are subject to change but rest assured we will be in touch as quickly as we can:

Sunday 08 August 2021

Telephone Interviews

TBC

Final Interview / Assessment

w/c 09 August and w/c 16 August 2021

We continue to closely monitor the situation surrounding the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and are following official guidance from the government and the advice given by Public Health England. We are continuing to recruit but are adapting our timescales and processes to reflect the guidance and advice. Therefore, if we progress your application we will engage with you remotely, either by telephone and/or video call.

We particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with. We are also a Disability Confident Employer which further underlines our commitment to employ, train, retain and develop the careers of colleagues with disabilities.

Please note, if you apply for more than one current FCA vacancy (maybe in different teams or parts of the country) as we can only progress one application at a time, you will be contacted to ask you to tell us which opportunity you wish to pursue. Please note if your application for one vacancy is unsuccessful, there may be limitations on when you can re-apply.

Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information on what the assessment covers can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS policy.

Finally, if you want to find out a bit more about us why should consider joining us visit https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/careers or if you wish to view all of our current vacancies, go to Current Cafcass Vacancies.