Children's Services

We are 12 months into a two-year transformation journey to turn around our children’s services and we’re proud of what we are achieving.

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.

And we know that for our children to thrive, our teams must be able to work at their best. That is why we have invested in creating the very best work environment for our people to thrive. 

This includes smaller, more manageable caseloads, stable leadership teams, a genuine commitment to supervision and clear training and development opportunities.

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

We’re searching for brilliant people to join us to help us write a new story for Swindon.

Supporting documentation:

• Welcome Letter - Lisa Arthey Corporate Director of Childrens Services

• Childrens Workforce Strategy

• Organisational Structure Chart

• Swindon monitoring visit letter - May 2024

• Ofsted Improvement Plan

• Early Intervention Youth and Community Strategy

• Early Intervention support for children and families in Swindon September 2024

Lisa Arthey is our Corporate Director of Children's Services. She explains: “I’m so proud of what we’re achieving in Swindon. The key to our success is our colleagues. Their passion, determination and commitment to improving the way we do things for our children and families means we’re writing a new story for our communities. It is an incredibly exciting time to join us.”

We are just a handful of authorities in the country using the Family Safeguarding Model, which has transformed the way our teams are working with partners, children and families to improve outcomes. As we said, we’re a small authority with big ambitions.

We launched a new Front Door in January, providing both a single point of contact and integrated locality teams and local panels, which sees us continue to work in innovative new ways with our strategic partners to get the right help to children at the right time.

OFSTED has highlighted the progress we’re making.

In their latest report they said: “The Family Safeguarding Model has become more embedded, and adult services workers have been recruited and trained in the model. This enables a joint approach, working alongside children’s social workers and practitioners to address safeguarding risks in child-in-need and child protection planning.”

Our new Heads of Service will shape the future of our children’s services, providing leadership across their respective specialist areas and developing and implementing strategies that are focused on improving outcomes for children and young people and their families now and for years to come. 

Our staff have engaged enthusiastically with our innovative practice model and we are all prioritising the development of a culture which promotes high support, high challenge strengths-based working, with partners, families and ourselves.

If you feel that you would like to join us on our journey – if you are keen on supporting and driving practice change to ensure that children and families receive a high quality service then we’d like to hear from you.

We’re making a real difference to the lives of the children and families we work with in Swindon. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what some of the young people and parents we work with had to say;

We recognise that getting the best outcomes for our Children means getting the best from you and we have listened to what our Social Workers most value.

As a result, we are delighted to launch our revised offer, to include:

• Flexible working offer
• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria)
• Competitive salaries
• Free car 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

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.