Team Manager, Child Exploitation (OPAL)

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 the Role

Swindon’s Exploitation Team is non-case holding approach to some of our most vulnerable children and families. An investment has been made to provide a multi-agency approach to the work we are undertaking to identify and proactively disrupt exploitation as well as provide a robust programme of support for children and young people who are in need our services.

Being involved at this stage will mean you are part of the team that will shape this service further to enable children and young people to have the right help and support at the right time for them. The risks are that we could see an escalation of Child Exploitation within Swindon.

This role will work to reduce the number of children being exploited and at serious risk of harm. The role also included Missing from Home and Care and Harmful Sexual Behavior.  The Team Manager is a critical role that will oversee the team of professionals that are working together to deliver our exploitation, Missing from Home and Care and Harmful Sexual Behavior services including, social workers, youth engagement, family workers. You role will also be to continue to develop the range of service on offer by identifying gaps and key themes that are affecting children and families in exploitation.

Staff supervision will be a significant part of this role as the children the team are working with are the most vulnerable who require a good level of understanding of their individual needs: child exploitation, missing from home and care and harmful sexual behavior. Staff will need to have confidence that the Team Manager can provide advice and support on processes, plans and ways to remove barriers for children and young people. The Team Manager will need to attend Service Manager led child exploitation meetings and chair individual child level exploitation mapping meetings.

About you

The right person for the Exploitation Team Manager role would have experience in child exploitation and an interest in supporting and empowering young people, to access services to support and protect them.

You will have experience of managing staff and will be able to motivate your team to be successful by developing them through a range of learning opportunities that make use of evidence and effective strategies in working with exploitation, and that enhances their professional practice, within service aims and objectives. This includes the implementation of appraisals, as well as through both individual supervision and team reflection and learning, to ensure learning is translated into practice and service development.

Audit and accountability will be key to this role and you will be able to evidence that you are making a difference to the lives of children and young people. Also, that you are impacting on reducing the number of children remaining in statutory provisions by providing support with a holistic family approach.

Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children’s Services as we are. As a local authority, we continuously drive forward improvements in our services. We want our Social Workers to 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.

If you believe you have the skills, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to deliver in this exciting role and want to help shape the future our service for children that is already striving to be the best, we want to hear from you.

Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.

Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act – for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).

Our commitment to your development

We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.

We have an established Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy aims to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we support, develop and value the professional disciplines in Social Work and Social Care through a targeted framework of career development and learning opportunities. 

Your next package

• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria applies)
• Competitive salaries
• Free car parking at our central Swindon campus and easy commuter links to many locations

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance.

For Swindon to thrive in the future, we need to lay the foundations now. It’s why our regeneration and transformation programmes are already underway. So, you’ll be joining us at an exciting time on our journey. We’ll look to you to share your knowledge, influence decisions and drive real, positive change. With your contributions, we’ll achieve our vision of a prosperous, re-vitalised Swindon together. And you’ll be proud to say it was made better with you.

Please see our Vision and Values page for more details

Please see our new Swindon Plan

Your next steps

To be eligible for this role, you must be a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England registration.

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 select the Apply button where you will be redirected to the Swindon Borough Council website to complete our online application process. Clicking the ‘Apply’ button on this job website is not an application, you must register on the Swindon Borough Council website in order to be considered for the role.

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