Team manager role profile

Primary purpose of role

To manage a team of Social Workers and other child care workers within Children Young People and Families; Referral and Assessment Service; Children’s Social Work Service; delivering high quality, timely and cost effective interventions in the lives of children and young people who are deemed to be in need and/or in need of protection, and to ensure that children looked after are supported and provided with the best opportunity to meet their full potential; ensuring the implementation of, and adherence to ‘statutory requirements’, organisational policy and procedure and to represent the Local Authority in other forums and with other professional groups.

Key accountabilities and key measures

Role outcomes

Within organisational, statutory and legal boundaries be responsible and accountable for decision-making, allocating, managing and prioritising work, workers’ safety and well-being, their professional development and ensuring the fulfilment of statutory duties and responsibilities. (100%)

Role measures

• Maintain satisfactory performance as measured through probation, performance review and government endorsed professional standards.
• Evidenced by casework scrutiny, KPI’s, audit work and supervision.
• Timely feedback on casework and staffing issues.
• Development and support to the team they are line managing.
• Actions required are completed to timescale.
• Service users regularly contribute to feedback on the service received from the team members. Evidence that Children and young people state that they are ‘safe’.
• Culture of reflection and challenge where appropriate evident through authorisations, supervision audits, staff feedback.
• Evidence of Supervisions, people management processes, appraisals etc actively undertaken.

Key activities

• Manage and prioritise work flow, ensuring work is allocated and supervised according to the competence, experience and capacity of staff and the complexity of the work within statutory requirements, quality standards and policies and as required, ensure that the current relevant legislation and Statutory Guidance including: Working Together, Children Act 1989, Children and Families Act 2014, Adoption and Fostering National Minimum Standards are adhered to. (20%)
• Responsible for the risk management of work within the team. (10%)
• Responsible for the Case Management of work ensuring high quality assessment, planning and reviewing to ensure timely, effective and sustained outcomes. To support work that ‘effects change for children and families and where required case management to support reunification, or Permanency for children and young people. (10%)
• Support delivery of key performance indicators; ensuring staff performance is monitored and performance and development plans are in place as appropriate and are monitored and maintained. (20%)
• Responsible for corporate and departmental Health and Safety requirements with regards to the team and the working environment. (5%)
• Recruitment of staff. (5%)
• Provide regular supervision and auditing as part of quality assurance framework (25%)
• Manage and monitor budgets within Departmental Scheme of Delegation and Plymouth City Council Financial Regulations (5%)

Essential qualifications/knowledge

Degree or higher qualification in social work that has resulted in registration with relevant professional regulatory body for the profession and relevant child care post qualifying awards.

Desirable qualifications/knowledge

• Leadership and Management Qualification
• Knowledge of Health and Safety procedures and legislation

Essential experience

• Experience of professional post qualifying practice in a statutory child care setting.
• Experience of Court work
• Experience of legislation, working guidance, policy and procedures
• Experience of statutory children’s social work including assessment, risk management, care planning, policy and standards.

Desirable experience

Experience of managing budgets in line with financial regulations.

Essential skills

• Effective communication skills (written, verbal and use of technology)
• Ability to forward plan for up to one year to enable quality service delivery and meeting of performance indicators and statutory requirements.
• Ability to build effective relationships in contexts including management of change.
• Excellent time management skills and ability to prioritise competing demands for themselves and to support their team members to develop this skill
• To support and develop NQSWs.
• Ability to use strategies that promote professional resilience and management of self in circumstances that may at times be challenging.
• For example:
• Involvement on a daily basis with service users who are experiencing or who have experienced all forms of child abuse. The subject material is often distressing and this is this an integral feature of the role
• Significant verbal abuse, aggression and other anti-social behaviour from service users and/or members of the public are unavoidable and a regular feature of this role and can be lengthy in nature.

Corporate standards

• In accordance with Council policies and guidance on information management and security, it is your personal responsibility for data protection, client confidentiality and information governance.
• Act at all times in accordance with appropriate legislation and regulations, codes of practice, the provisions of the Council’s constitution and its policies and procedures.
• Work within the requirements of the Council’s Health and Safety policy, performance standards, safe systems of work and procedures.
• Undertake all duties with due regard to the corporate equalities policy and relevant legislation.