Special Guardianship and Connected Carer Assessing Social Worker

at  London Borough of Bexley

ABOUT US

Bexley is an outer London Borough with the best of both worlds, located between the hustle and bustle of London and the Garden of England, Kent. Within the borough we have award winning parks, open spaces and listed heritage sites.
The Council, its staff and partners, were delighted in March 2023, when Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of children’s social care services to be ‘Outstanding’ for the second time running since 2018. We were especially pleased that our investment in frontline practitioners and managers has continued to be recognised. We have been working hard to create an environment where social workers can do the work they came into the profession to do - to support and help families to stay together where this is in children’s best interests and it is safe enough for this to happen.
The Special Guardianship and Assessment Team are responsible undertaking family and friends’ (Kinship) assessments. This includes assessments that are court directed within Care Proceedings and also Private Proceedings. The team are also responsible for creating and reviewing Special Guardianship Support Plans. The team are based within the Fostering and Adoption Service yet work very closely with the Children’s Looked After Service.

In this role you will:
Undertake assessments of Connected Persons and Special Guardians.
Form part of the team’s ‘Duty System’ offering support to Special Guardians (pre and post order)
Present cases to court and to the Fostering Panel for approval.
Be responsible for undertaking relevant checks on prospective Special Guardians and Connected Persons (DBS, Local Authority, References etc)
Create Special Guardianship Support Plans addressing how the prospective carers will meet the needs of the child now and in the future and how they will be supported to do this.
Undertake ad hoc tasks to support the wider team. For example, participating in Special Guardianship Events (Coffee Morning, Easter Egg hunts etc)
Please refer to the Job Description attached for more information.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact Kristina Tucker, Team Manager (Special Guardianship & Assessment) 0203 045 4763 kristina.tucker@bexley.gov.uk
We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the Candidate Information document attached.
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