This is a great time to join Plymouth’s leadership team as a Service Manager in our Children, Young People and Families Service. Our ILACS in January 2024 found some good practice and some key practice strengths. Our MASH is now operating effectively. Child protection work was found to be timely and appropriate, with a clear understanding of risks for children with timely assessment and support to families which is preventing drift and delay for children in proceedings. Many social workers know their children well and build positive relationships with them. For most children, decision-making for them to come into care is appropriate and in their best interests.
Through our new three-year plan, Heading for Excellence, we are building on these strengths with a programme designed to ensure all children and young people benefit from the right help at the right time, experience high quality assessment and planning which improves wider outcomes for them, keeping families together where possible and working closely with partners to keep children and young people safe, improve attendance, educational attainment, health and wellbeing.
We are developing a high performing and well supported workforce delivering our trauma informed, restorative and strengths-based practice approach. We are determined that within the next three years we will deliver good and outstanding outcomes for all of the children and young people we are working with.
Our Children's Social Work Service is responsible for our work with children, young people and families where an assessment has identified that children are ‘in need’ (CIN), including children subject to child protection plans (CPPs), and children newly in care where the permanence plan is being agreed. This includes children and young people subject to the Public Law Outline (PLO) and our Children’s Disability Team.
As Service Manager you will have expert knowledge in these areas and will have responsibility for ensuring effective management oversight and support to teams to ensure improving outcomes for children and young people. You will be joining a service which is trauma informed, restorative and relational in how we work with families. We are looking for a high performing behaviour, confident in what ‘good’ looks like and in the behaviours that will support the service to continue to improve and deliver outstanding outcomes to vulnerable children and families. You will be experienced in working effectively with partners and committed to ensuring the voice of children and young people is at the heart of everything you do. In return we provide access to a high-quality leadership development programme and a 'high expectation, high support, high challenge' culture in a service which is ambitious about improving outcomes for children and young people.