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.

Our established family engagement group, FL.A.RE (Family Learning, Advocacy & Restorative Engagement), and children in care forums Positive Journeys, Positive Journeys Seniors, and Bexley’s Young Director support us with practice development and delivery. Front line practitioners have the opportunity to learn from our children, young people and families, and be part of this work.

Please refer to the Job Description attached for more information.

The Social Work Assistants undertake a range of support tasks including providing practical support for children, young people and their families. This includes coordinating aspects of care packages, recognising where social work input is required and supporting clients to make informed decisions. You will be involved in contributing to assessments of children with disabilities and their families, providing support and guidance to children and their families who are subject to Child in Need and Child Protection plans and undertaking specific pieces of work with families to support child and family plans.

Our Children with Disability Service safeguards and promotes the welfare of children in line with Children Act 1989 and 2004, Children & Families Act 2014 and Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance 2015.

We work with the SEN education department to implement the biggest education reforms in a generation for children and young people with special educational needs which became law in September 2014. In line with the Children and Families Act (SEND Reforms).

We work with Children in Need, Looked After Children & Children subject to Child Protection Plans. We also work to the Public Law outline and initiate care proceedings. 

We keep children and young people at the heart of our work. We listen to children, respect their views and champion their rights ensuring that each child’s voice informs the work that we do.

We have a permanent management team, and you will receive monthly reflective supervision, training, and professional development as part of the role.  There are regular team meetings and development opportunities as well as opportunities for career progression.

Ideal candidates will possess highly developed knowledge in children’s social work practice and ideally will have experience of working with children with disabilities.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Titi Omisade, Team Manager on 02030453817, titi.omisade@bexley.gov.uk; or Sade Sofowora, Team Manager on 02030453852,  sade.sofowora@bexley.gov.uk.

The successful candidate will need to be resourceful and able to use practical problem solving skills and be able to encourage, support and motivate children and their families. You will need to be able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing, and be able to listen and observe to identify problems. A relevant child care qualification and an understanding of the principles of the 1989 Children’s Act would be an advantage.

For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description attached.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.    

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Please note that the system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised and have your CV and/or Supporting statement ready to upload.

If any mandatory fields are missing, a pop-up box will appear at the top of the page advising which sections require completion. Please check your Junk email for any correspondence.

Additional Information

As a disability confident employer Bexley welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on  recruitment@bexley.gov.uk

This role may be available as a development opportunity through secondment for the Council’s existing employees.  The Council’s Secondment Scheme can be found here. If this option is of interest, please contact the recruiting manager.