Social Workers, Family Safeguarding Team

At Swindon Borough Council, we want our town to be the best it can be. Our ambitious vision in the new Swindon Plan is supported by realistic transformation programmes, with the people of Swindon at their heart. Because that’s who we’re doing it for – the communities and businesses that make our town great. As part of the Council, you’ll support a friendly local authority making decisions with real impact. It’s all for better public services. Better processes. And a better quality of life, for everyone. Join us, and Swindon will be better with you.

Here in Swindon we have a clear vision and plans to reduce the need for Children to come into our care with our new adolescent offer and edge of care work and we are continually working as a partnership to ensure or children are safe.

We’re making a real difference to the lives of the children and families we work with in Swindon.

Join us and be part of that difference.

About us

Our social workers are supported, challenged and rewarded.

Is it time you joined them?

We’re looking for passionate people who are committed to doing the very best for our children and vulnerable families. 

Our excellent teams are small, work with manageable caseloads and have regular supervision. We’re proud to be one of only a handful of councils in the UK using the Family Safeguarding model – one of the great success stories of social work in the UK.

To find out more about the Family Safeguarding Model, please click here

Its delivering real results and improving the professional day-to-day working experience of our social workers, who get to work more closely with all partners, ensuring better support for some of our most vulnerable families.

Underpinning all our practice is motivational interviewing  (MI) - a strengths-based conversational approach to counselling that encourages families to improve their children’s welfare by enhancing their motivation to change.

We’ve also got a growing Social Work Leadership Academy to develop practitioners and leaders across our service and clear career pathways for progression.

See our Vision and Values page for more details.

Please see our new Swindon Plan.

If that’s not enough, here are five more reasons to join us:

• We offer flexible working and home working
• We offer great benefits, including a local government pension scheme
• You can park for free at our Swindon site
• Our salaries are competitive
• We offer a relocation package of up to £8,000

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

We’re delivering an ambitious transformation plan across our children’s service. We’re changing for the better. Come and be a part of it.

About the role

We’re looking for new Social Worker’s for our Family Safeguarding Team. You will be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.

The service provides support via a new Family Safeguarding model that is a strength-based approach involving the use of motivational interviewing. Teams are also multi-disciplinary and include social workers, family support practitioners, and adult specialist workers.  The adult specialist workers have a specific focus on supporting parents/carers experiencing complex issues of domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse. 

The teams within the service have monthly group supervision and undertake their recording in a workbook.  Interventions are focused around a Family Programme which has seven modules – this enables us to work in a purposeful and transparent manner.

You’ll lead, support and develop incredible people who are working exceptionally hard to ensure that all our children can achieve their potential.

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 profiles and select the Apply button.

For further information about the role please contact Debbie Owen, Service Manager at dowen@swindon.gov.uk

We will be interviewing successful candidates throughout the campaign and reserve the right to close early, therefore early applications are encouraged. 

If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your application please email resourcing@swindon.gov.uk