Head of Service, Early Intervention, Youth and Communities

Do you have a proven track record when it comes to building and growing partnerships across the health and social care system?

About the role

We are searching for a Head of Service, Early Intervention, Youth and Communities to join us as we continue to transform our children’s services.

OFSTED has recognised our ‘steady and positive’ progress and we know things are changing for the better.

The improvements we are making are being driven by our dedicated and committed colleagues and new senior leaders. We have cross-party political commitment and additional investment to work with, which we are using to recruit new people to our teams and fund innovative new practice methods – all so we can support our most vulnerable children to achieve their potential.

We’ve successfully embedded new models of practice and launched a new Front Door service. We passionately believe in putting relationship-based practice at the centre of everything we do to improve outcomes for our children.

Our Head of Service for Early Intervention, Youth and Communities will be responsible for ensuring we are working to provide help to vulnerable children and their families at the earliest opportunity rather than reactively providing interventions.

You will also manage our integrated adolescent service and youth justice services, working with children and young people who are at risk of exploitation and or on remand.

Crucial to this role is effective partnership working, ensuring that our work in children’s services is aligned with all our partners, particularly across health, education and our police colleagues.

We’re proud of the work we are doing with our partners. An example includes developing a new youth centre in the town which will support more than a hundred children a week.

Due to open in March 2025, the inclusive facility will provide open access youth services for all children in Swindon and offer interventions designed to deter young people from potential trouble.

There will also be activities for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and opportunities for young people to engage with local training and employment opportunities in the borough.

It’s just one example of our commitment to Early Help. We also have an exciting new Early Help Strategy which sets our vision for the next few years which you will be responsible for implementing with partners.

If you’re looking for a challenge and have the skills to work effectively with all our partners – from social care to education – to ensure we are taking a multi-agency approach to keeping our children safe from harm this could be the perfect role for you.

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 worked hard 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 is 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
• 31 days’ holiday (plus bank holidays) for 5 years or less 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