Supervising Designated Safeguarding Lead - Merton, United Kingdom - Merton Council

Merton Council

Verified Company

Merton, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Grade / Salary ME14 - £45,834 - £48,867 per annum

Advert Text:

Supervising Designated Safeguarding Leads in Merton Schools Project

We are delighted to announce that the DfE have extended our Social Work in Schools (SWIS) project and our DSL Supervision Project.

The success of our project was especially noted in a recent visit by the then Secretary of State Nadhim Zahawi as well as the Chief Social worker, Isabelle Trowler.

What is the project about?

Following the positive progress of the What Works Centre Social Workers in Schools (SWIS) project, Merton successfully bid for the Supervising Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL's) in Primary Schools project in 2021, alongside 20 other Local Authorities in the country.

The DSL Supervision Project is an upscale of a pilot being run in great Manchester secondary schools (click here for more information from the What Works Centre website).

In Merton, we have offered supervision to DSL's across both Primary and Secondary schools, with the aim to support DSLs feel more confident in their role and decrease the number of inappropriate referrals to children's social care.

Due to our current DSL Supervising Social worker moving onto a new opportunity, we have an opening in our team.

Merton was judged as being 'Outstanding' by Ofsted.

You will be joining a service where social workers feel valued, supported and where we have many opportunities for creative and relational practice.

Our schools where this project is based truly value our input and have excellent relationships with the social work team.

You will have the opportunity to practice autonomously in addition to receiving excellent peer support and reflective supervision from our Team Lead for the project.

What are we looking for?

We're looking for a senior social worker who:

has completed their systemic social work and/or signs of safety training

- has experience of supervising others
- takes a 'change agent' position in their interventions with families
- is skilled in using our practice model and explaining it to others
- can build strong professional relationships
- is committed to Merton
- can navigate periods of challenge and uncertainty
- has confidence in sharing their knowledge and skills with others
- understands the DSL role and the structure of DSL teams in schools
- is committed to developing themselves and new ways of practicing

The position will be based in the Safeguarding and Care Planning service and managed by the SWIS team manager.

This is a non-case holding role and the successful social worker will be in post from January to August 2023.

What will the social worker do?

The social worker will provide supervision to DSLs across primary and secondary schools in the borough, to offer a reflective space to think through safeguarding scenarios, and to prevent escalation to statutory services and inappropriate referrals to Children's Social Care.

The offer so far has also provided a space for DSL's to think through the impact of their role, and to consider their own wellbeing, whilst managing safeguarding concerns for children and young people within their schools.

At present, the offer has been taken up by 22 schools, 3 of which are secondary provisions.

How will the social worker move into the role?
The social worker will join the project via a secondment.

We want to support the social worker to transfer their caseload to colleagues before moving over to the project and we'll help you make time to get your work up to date and ready to transfer.

Once the project ends, you'll still have your permanent post to go back to.

For external recruits, this role will be a fixed term contract until August 2023.

If you have any questions, please contact the SWIS Team Manager Dhivya Yogarajah for further information on

Role Duration:

Start date 30th January until the end of August 2023

Interviews:
will take place week commencing 23rd January 2023