Assessed & Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) - Childrens Social Work

When do we recruit?

There are intakes in January and October. The next planned intake is for October 2019. The close date for applications will be 13th January 2019 and the interviews will take place at the end of January 2019.

Opportunities may be available in the following social work teams; Children and Families, Initial Response, Permanence and Transition and Children with Disabilities with social work teams based at the following localities; Exeter, North Devon, South Devon and Mid and East Devon. If you have a team and location preference please state this on your application form.

Background

Devon is a great place to live and work.

We are an ambitious authority and are improving our children’s services to get to good.

We offer newly qualified social workers the opportunity to join our outstanding Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme offering dedicated, consistent and effective support in your first year of practice, enabling you to approach your career in social work with confidence. The 12 month programme offers a positive introduction to both children’s social work in Devon and the profession in general. It’s a really great time to join us.

About us

In Devon we have been creating the context in which practitioners can work effectively with children and families across the county to protect children and young people and improve their life chances and outcomes. We’re taking a strengths based, whole system approach. Our MASH and early help offer is focusing on helping families to find solutions to difficulties when they first emerge and increasing their resilience through our local, community based services. Our social work service steps in to keep children safer when it’s needed. We are putting in place strengths and outcome based approaches to assessment and planning, together with confident risk assessment and skilled direct work with children and families. When it’s needed, we are committed to securing timely approaches to permanence outside of the family, and to supporting all of our young people to make a successful transition to adulthood.

We are listening hard to both staff and the children and young people we are working with as we improve our services. We have already come a long way. Caseloads which enable practitioners to do meaningful work with families, a sharp focus on the quality of practice and improved learning, supervision and support are key pillars of our improvements to date which has led to an increasingly permanent and stable workforce. Our social workers have access to better tools and technology – from mobile phones and laptops, to risk assessment training and care planning resources.

About the role

As an ASYE Social Worker you’ll be given your own varied and evolving caseload to manage which will be monitored, reviewed and supported by a supervisor or mentor. This is an opportunity to apply what you’ve learnt to real situations while developing your skills and knowledge. It’ll be down to you to assess and respond to the needs of children and their families, to plan and deliver focused intervention and ultimately, to safeguard and protect children and promote positive outcomes in all that you do. Providing a high quality and effective social work service, your varied role will include everything from arranging reviews and undertaking interviews to working with integrated professionals to manage, negotiate and resolve conflicts. Most of your time will be carrying out practical social work but this is also a perfect opportunity to train, learn and ask questions. You’ll keep a learning log, have regular reviews, shadow others and complete ongoing assessments to help you obtain skills that you can apply throughout your career.

About you

Like us, you’ll be passionate about improving children’s life chances. As a fully qualified social worker, to degree level, with an up-to-the-minute understanding of policies and processes and some experience of working within a social care environment. Passionate, person-centred and eager to learn, you’ll be ready to make that all-important step from education into your chosen profession. Wholeheartedly committed to, and passionate about proactively improving children's life chances and outcomes, you’ll feel confident managing conflicts, solving problems and dealing with challenging situations. Proactive and assertive in your approach, you’re confident in making best judgements but you won’t be afraid to ask questions, building effective working relationships with your professional network. It almost goes without saying that your communication and organisation skills are second to none – you’ll feel comfortable interacting clearly and effectively with people of all ages and from all backgrounds. 

Personal and professional rewards

In return, we will recognise and reward the vital contribution you make and just as importantly, we will support you to grow and develop with us. Right now, we have the widest range of career opportunities we’ve ever had, allowing you to map your own journey by staying on the frontline or moving into management using our career progression scheme. Through individual and team supervision to support reflective practice, and effective locally-based administrative support, we aim to enable you to be the best leader, manager, mentor and role model you can be. We are also committed to your professional development and, as part of this, expect you to complete post-qualification training as well as other forms of continuous professional development. As a place to live and work, Devon is hard to beat. We firmly believe in a healthy work life balance and offer 21 days’ annual leave (plus 2 statutory days over the Christmas Period, and Bank Holidays) rising incrementally to 29 days, after 20 years service. We support flexible working and offer a generous pension too. Relocation support will be available to you, if you’re moving to Devon to take up the role.

Your starting salary will be £26,470 (per annum pro rata) with potential to increase to £28,221 at six months (if meeting standard required in the post), rising to £31,401 following satisfactory completion of the ASYE programme

Apply

To be eligible for the ASYE programme you need to have qualified within the last 2 years. Please state in the Education, Training and Development section of the application form the date of your Social Work qualification or when you are due to qualify. Previous applicants need not re-apply for this intake. Please limit your supporting statement to a maximum of 1000 words.

You may be eligible for relocation support of up to £4,101 if you are moving to Devon to take up the role.

For more information on working with us here in Devon please visit our dedicated website devon.cc/childrenandfamilies

You will need to have completed your social work qualification and have your HCPC registration.