This is a great time to join Plymouth Children’s Services as a social worker. Our recent Ofsted inspection confirmed we are making good progress and have good plans in place to improve further. We are pleased to be advertising opportunities for Newly Qualified Social Workers to join Plymouth’s Assessed and Supported Year in Employment programme. Our programme, delivered by our dedicated Academy Team, was recently found by Ofsted to be helping improve services for children and young people. When you join Plymouth’s Children, Young People and Families Service we will support your development from the start. We will support you to develop and diversify your knowledge and skills to build an influential and impactful career making a difference for children, young people and families.
We have opportunities to join our ASYE programme in our Targeted Help Service and Initial Response Teams carrying out assessments and supporting children and families newly referred to the service, in our Children’s Social Work Service working with families in need of protection and in our Permanence Teams where you will support our children in care to achieve the very best life chances.
Plymouth are proud to be one of only a small number of authorities nationally who are an ‘Early Adopter’ of the Department for Education’s Early Career Framework. This will enable us to give you a high-quality and supported development package for the first two years of your career, enabling you to become confident in your abilities and to provide the best possible support to the children, young people and families with whom you work. Our nationally leading programme is academically accredited and you will gain master’s level credits towards an MA in Advanced Practice for all work which is successfully completed during the Early Career Framework (ECF).
The Early Career Framework consists of two years:
- ECF Year 1 (Formerly known as the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment): Grade G
- ECF Year 2 (An extended continuous professional development year): Grade H
We are looking for NQSWs who are committed to building their skills in working restoratively and relationally with children and families, to build on strengths, keep children safe and improve wider outcomes. You will be a strong team player, able to demonstrate strong communication skills, a commitment to relationship-based practice and skills in working creatively with partners to improve outcomes.
As a Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) you will receive:
- Access to high quality support from the Academy of Social Work, through dedicated ECF year 1 and 2 coordinators.
- The commitment and full support of our management team and colleagues within your service to ensure you achieve your goals and get the best development during your ECF years 1 and 2.
- Protected induction time.
- Enhanced supervision with your line manager and regular action learning sets to support learning from reflective practice.
- Protected caseload
- Access to a diverse and progressive training curriculum.
- Access to a dedicated training and learning support educator, who will provide coaching and mentoring to assist you in embedding our curriculum learning outcomes.
- Protected development time, including five paid study days in both ECF year 1 and 2.
- Opportunity to shape the development of the Early Career Framework through direct engagement activity with the Department for Education.