We have a career development pathway internally for our practitioners, but we can also consider entry points to the pathway as part of the recruitment of experienced social workers, which would be discussed at interview.
The development and support of advanced practitioners has clear benefits for children, young people and their families in terms of the associated experience, knowledge and skills that highly trained social workers may offer to them. Achieving better outcomes for children and young people is at the heart of the Academy’s career progression pathway, which seeks to motivate and reward front line staff, whilst retaining their expertise within front line teams. Preparation for and achievement of Advanced Practitioner progression provides consolidation of a range of knowledge and skills and is an important preparatory step towards future promotion to Team Manager.
Advanced Practitioners in Plymouth Services for Children, Young People and Families need to demonstrate that they meet the Government’s Knowledge and Skills Statement (KSS) for Child and Family Practitioners (DfE 2018) and meet the criteria for Grade I on the internal role profile.
Of course, we do not expect you to achieve that without support. Once you are identified as being on the pathway, we will fund your professional courses and training, providing you with opportunities and paid study time so that you can achieve your career aspirations.