JOB DETAILS

A new and exciting opportunity has arisen for an experience and enthusiastic practitioner to manage a newly developed Aftercare team within Fife Council’s Children & Families and Justice Directorate.
We are committed to prioritising and achieving best outcomes for care experienced young people in Fife. The new team will be keeping young people at the centre of planning and will be offering an intensive service to our care leaver population. This is an exciting opportunity to offer a flexible, innovative service, that will improve outcomes for young people.
We invite applications from candidates who will share our enthusiasm, have a passion for improving outcomes, and a motivation to develop an innovative team that is able to meet the needs of this population.
This is an exciting time to be part of team which connects to the wider development of our children’s services. We are looking for a confident, experienced and committed person to join us on our journey.

PERSON

We’re seeking a confident and motivated leader who can drive forward the improvement agenda and manage a newly formed team. You will need:

• You will be a qualified Social Worker registered with SSSC.
• You will have significant experience working within Children and Families Social Work.
• You will have experience working with care experienced children/young people and a good understanding of the impact of care.
• You will have a relevant post qualifying award
• You will be able to evidence an ability to managing people, complex casework, assessments/planning/delivery within timescales.
• Excellent presentation and organisational/time management skills are necessary along with excellent written and communication skills.
• You will be able to show an ability to develop team plans.
• An essential skill will be your ability to motivate, support, and champion good practice in your team.
• Be confidently able to work effectively with colleagues and partners.
• Effectively use team performance data to monitor standards and performance and ensure compliance with practice standards and processes.
• You will be able to deliver excellence in terms of contribution towards planning and development of this new team with a focus on embedding relationship based, trauma informed practice.
• You will be able to work effectively with colleagues and partners building on new and enriching established relationships.
• Take on a key role to improve outcomes for young people and ensure they receive the service they require to succeed.
• You will directly manage a team of experienced Social Workers, and Support Workers and be supported in a range of management tasks by Senior Practitioner’s.

You will lead and manage a newly formed After Care team who will offer trauma-informed, person-centred support. You will understand adolescent development and have an understanding around the impact of the care system.
The team will offer an intensive, responsive service to young people at times where they are experiencing difficulties. The work of the team will be centred on relationship-based practice rooted in building trusting, empathetic, and collaborative relationships with young people that promote positive change and resilience.

The core functions of the team manager are described below (not limited to below):

• Ensure all young people leaving care have a pathway assessment and a pathway plan that is robust and able to meet their needs.
• Establishing links across all Fife’s Residential Homes, building relationships with young people prior to them leaving care.
• Managing and maintaining budgets, holding budgetary responsibility for aftercare funding provided by the Scottish Government.
• Co-ordinating and offering an intensive/responsive service to young people experiencing difficulties/vulnerabilities.
• Facilitating family meetings to assist in re-establishing birth family relationships.
• Developing a support offering for care experienced parents. Which will involve building and establishing relationships with the Early Help and Support Teams/Enhanced Teams across the 7 localities in Fife.
• Working with partners to create relationships and work together to explore creative solutions to improve outcomes for young people.
• Undertaking safety planning and chairing risk management meetings.
• Developing group work to respond to themes and patterns of assessed need within the care experienced community.
• Strengthening social and community connections. Building social networks within local communities to improve access to services within localities.
• Providing scrutiny around the team’s ability to engage effectively with young people. Ensuring the team evidence relationship-based practice rooted in building trusting, empathetic, and collaborative relationships with young people that promote positive change and resilience.