Head of Service - Specialist Services for Children & Young People

Head of Service; Head of Service – Specialist Services for Children & Young People Salary Up to GBP91,737 plus 5K annual retention payment

Department: Children Young People and Education

Location: Croydon Council (CR0)

Grade / Salary: CSRB, Salary Up to GBP91,737 + GBP5,000 Retention payment

Hours of work: 36 per week

Contract type: Permanent

Croydon is recruiting to a new Head of Service role to provide operational and strategic leadership for Specialist Services for Children & Young People. With responsibility for Youth Justice; Young Croydon (Adolescent Safeguarding & Edge of Care); Children with Disabilities and Fostering this role is dedicated to ensuring innovative provision to enable children to reach their full potential through safe family care and co–parenting through foster care when needed. Supporting children with disabilities and complex needs through a range of care provision including our residential short breaks children's home alongside 0–18 social care support for all childcare pathways. Our Youth Justice and Young Croydon Services work closely together focused on prevention of exploitation, targeted community–based interventions to reduce and disrupt offending supporting whole family responses to extra familial harm. Our Fostering Service is launching a therapeutic hub embedding systemic practice within our fostering households and this role will lead our new Children's Home development.

Croydon is London's largest borough, with 390,000 residents, a vibrant, urban town centre at its heart and a network of district centres each with their own unique identity, stretching from Crystal Palace to Coulsdon. Located on the Southern edge of the capital, the borough benefits from excellent transport links throughout the borough and further afield to the coast, the city and Gatwick airport, making Croydon a place of opportunity for business, earning and learning.

Croydon has one of the fastest growing populations in the UK and is home to 94,000 children, a thriving voluntary sector, close working with our schools, colleges, health, and police partners. We are a borough with big ambition, grit and determination and Children's Social Care was judged Good in our last Ofsted inspection.

Croydon's practice model utilises systemic ideas to underpin family led relationships for children and families. An established multi–disciplinary clinical team supports all services enabling risk to be shared and a strengths–based approach to improving outcomes for children.

Your experience of working in a statutory setting will allow you to operate with confidence and emotional intelligence within a demanding context; using research about what works to support your decision making creating positive change in children and young people's lives.

We are looking for an experienced social work manager to join the senior leader leadership team of Children's Social Care. You will need to have significant experience working in statutory children's services within diverse urban environments and a clear commitment to Croydon's values.

Benefits of Working with Us

• Highly competitive salary of up to GBP91,737 Plus an annual retention payment of GBP5k
• A pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 20%
• 31 days' annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays
• A range of CPD opportunities to support your development.
• Investment into your staff well–being
• Good management support and access to a clinical therapist to support your work.

About you

The suitable candidate will have the following;

• Social Work qualification and SW England Registration
• Substantial experience of social care practice leadership within the remit of this role.
• Experience of working within multicultural communities applying systemic approaches to challenging oppression and discrimination.
• Knowledge and experience of developing social care practice through innovation and partnership with internal and external stakeholders.

For an informal conversation about the role please contact Róisín Madden, Director of Children's Social Care .

Recruitment and Selection Timeline

The closing date for applications is 23:59 on 29 th May 2023

Interviews with Management and our Young People will take place in person on 8th /9 th / 12 th June 2023

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role.

Croydon council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. The Successful candidate will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check.