Head of Service, Front Door and Assessment

Can you inspire teams and give them the confidence that underpins really high performance?

We’re searching for a Head of Service to manage the Front Door and Assessment Service of our children’s service as we continue our ambitious transformation journey.

This is an exciting and critical senior role, fundamental to the welfare of vulnerable children across Swindon.

Our Front Door – Contact Swindon – provides support and guidance for parents, carers, members of the public, young people and professionals.

We receive up to 1,500 enquiries a month through Contact Swindon (there are around 50,000 children and young people in our borough) and our Head of Service will ensure that we are providing the right response, in a timely way, supported by high quality assessments.

You will oversee all functions of Contact Swindon, including multi-agency safeguarding and our emergency duty service both in and out of hours, shaping and developing these services with colleagues. As well as managing our assessment service, you’ll also play a key role in our safeguarding partnership.

This is a challenging and demanding role – the first point of contact for how our cases are assessed and managed through our wider system.

You will need to be an exceptional team player with a track record of forming good strategic relationships – the success of our Front Door is linked to how we work with our partners across Swindon.

So you’ll be able to lead and influence, winning hearts and minds far beyond our organisational council boundaries.

Our Head of Service Front Door and Assessment will be confident in managing the threshold for child protection and be confident in getting things right, irrespective of the time of day.

You’ll be supported by a fantastic leadership team and dedicated and committed colleagues who you will support to triage referrals accurately, building their confidence as we forge ahead with our ambitious transformation.

In all that you do you’ll champion the voice of the child and their family, ensuring that the decisions we make are informed by their experiences.

This role is critical to the success of our ambitious transformation plan across children’s services.

We’re looking for someone who understands the power of data and who can use their experience to develop frameworks and design key measurement metrics so that we can continuously learn and continuously improve.

We’re offering a rare opportunity to join us and shape our teams, shape our Front Door and shape the future of our children’s services.

Our new offer to you

We know that for our children to thrive, we must create the very best work environment for our teams to thrive. . That is why we have invested to improve our culture, working environment and offer to our colleagues as well as delivering real operational change on the ground in our communities.

That includes focusing on smaller and more manageable caseloads, stable leadership teams, a genuine commitment to supervision and clear career progression to help our people be the best they can be.

We offer competitive salaries, flexible working because balancing life and home is so important, generous holiday allowances, pension packages and free parking on our Swindon site.

We work as a close-knit team who support each other. This is a journey we’re on together.

Here’s what else sets us apart:

• Partnership working: We work closely with our strategic partners across Swindon to ensure our children and families get the right help, from the right teams, as quickly as possible
• Our Family Safeguarding Model: This model demonstrates our commitment to developing high quality systemic and relationship-based social work practice and encompasses our principles, involving:

• using motivational interviewing in our conversations and interactions with families
• working collaboratively and in partnership with our colleagues from other agencies
• providing support and interventions for adults where domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health may feature
• supporting staff to have time to reflect in group supervision sessions
• promoting staff to undertake direct work through the provision of direct work toolkits
• providing comprehensive staff training
• supporting managers to support staff
• providing a supporting performance management and QA framework so that we can hold ourselves to account, learn and continuously improve

• Career development and training: Our Social Work and Leadership Academy develops practitioners and leaders, providing a framework that can support colleagues at any level through their employment, whether a student on placement, a newly qualified worker in their first year, an experienced social worker or manager
• Flexible working
• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria apply)
• Competitive salaries
• Free parking at our central Swindon campus
• A career average revalued earnings (CARE) pension scheme
• 28 days’ holiday (plus bank holidays) rising to 32 days after 10 years’ service
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - access to free and confidential information, support and guidance from a team of highly qualified professionals

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

Your next steps

As an inclusive employer, we welcome applications from a diverse range of communities, and in particular disabled people and people from ethnic minorities. Read our statement of commitment to equality & inclusion

Read the role profile and to apply please send your CV and cover letter to resourcing@swindon.gov.uk  outlining your skills and experience.

For an informal discussion regarding the position, the organisation and the team structure, please contact Gwynne Rayns, Head of Transformation Children’s Services on 0747 2086213 or email GRayns@swindon.gov.uk