Senior Practitioner

Manage a complex caseload of disabled children and young people aged 0-25 to assess, plan, monitor and review the support/personal assistance needs of service users, working in a person-centred way to ensure that resources are utilised effectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of disabled children and young people.

Provide a consultative/supervisory service to a staff team operating within a multi-agency environment to provide professional expertise, skills and advice to enable a safe, effective and high quality service to disabled children and young people that meets agreed existing and new policies and practices.

The post holder should be working in line with the Social Care Capability Framework.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Manage a complex and diverse reduced caseload of children or young people and their families, undertaking assessments to determine the needs and capabilities of clients and carers, and drawing up plans of support, using agreed eligibility criteria and in accordance with statutory requirements, Directorate and Corporate Policy and National Legislation. Ensure resources are utilised effectively within a multi-agency environment and in accordance with service users' wishes, directorate budget limits and the requirements of strategic frameworks.

Provide a high quality resource of professional case management knowledge and expertise to Social Workers and Young People's workers in the team to include casework supervision and assessments, group meetings, assisted fieldwork, attendance in court, case audits and reviews etc. to assist the team in ensuring that it carries out its core tasks to a high standard.

Maintain and keep accurate electronic records using the Social Care electronic system. Write and verbally present reports for formal meetings including reviews, case conferences and court proceedings.

Participate and take a lead in investigating and supporting Child Protection and Adult Safeguarding cases, liaising with other agencies, to ensure that service users are safeguarded; monitoring and reviewing cases and maintaining Child and Adult Protection awareness amongst staff.

Undertake staff supervision as directed by the Team Manager according to the needs of the team. Act as Practice Assessor to support student placements.

Liaise regularly with peer colleagues throughout the Directorate to ensure staff deliver existing and new practices consistently and to a high standard. Contribute to the development of new initiatives through attendance on Working Groups, multi-agency fora, training courses etc to develop current and new ways of working that meet service requirements

Develop good working relationships with Education and Health staff and other agencies: District Councils, voluntary agencies, the commercial and private sectors to ensure that positive outcomes for children and young people are achieved.

Maintain an awareness of changes in legislation, theories, corporate and directorate policies, local and agency practices relating to disabilities in order to disseminate knowledge throughout the team and contribute to the delivery of a high standard of service.

Connect2Staff/Connect2Kent, part of Commercial Services Trading/Kent Ltd, is an equal opportunities Employment Agency & Business and positively encourages applications from all suitably qualified and eligible candidates