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Team Manager - Children's Single Point of Access
| Posting date: | 20 March 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £59,505 to £65,488 per year |
| Additional salary information: | includes £6700 annual market supplement |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 02 April 2025 |
| Location: | Reading, Berkshire |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 3 days per week |
| Company: | Reading Borough Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | BFC0826 |
Summary
Team Manager – Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPoA)
Brighter Futures for Children
About the role
We have an exciting opportunity for you to join our Front Door Access team, which is called Children’s Single Point of access (CSPoA). We are the first recipients of all contacts and referrals to Children’s Social Care, Early Help and our Partnership Hub. This is a co-located and integrated service with key statutory partner agencies who are committed to getting children and families the right help at the right time.
We provide high quality information, advice, and intervention to partner agencies and members of the public as well as determining threshold of need decisions for children where concerns about their care, safety and well-being are shared.
Through the Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPoA), we are committed to delivering a seamless, multi-agency approach that provides the right help at the right time, reducing risk and preventing escalation of need.
Our operational framework is built on children being at the centre of all that we do, a foundation of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. By fostering strong partnerships with schools, health professionals, social care teams, and the voluntary sector, we strive to create a coordinated system of support that is responsive, inclusive, and child centred.
We are committed to a practice model that is child-focused, and trauma informed. We are currently evolving the service to develop a more interventionalist practice model, that alongside our well-established Family Help service and Partnership Outreach team, we can provide help and support to reduce escalation.
Our social work practice with children and families is important, and we make a difference to the families we have contact with. It can be both incredibly challenging and hugely rewarding, especially when are able to intervene from the second you pick up the phone. If this appeals to you, we want to hear from you.
Through group and one-to-one supervision you will drive high quality and child focused practice – with high challenge and high support with the Team Manager role particularly important to nurturing a high quality, high performing work environment where agencies are working together closely.
To be considered for the role, your application will demonstrate that you:
• Have a thorough understanding of current legislation and the West Berkshire Safeguarding Children Procedure and Practice Guidance and be committed to relational practice, with a focus on intervention, not just ‘screening’ and ‘information gathering’. A robust and focused approach on analysis and providing help at the right time.
• Supporting Creative and Dynamic solutions to how we can support families with Early Help Services.
• Strong in decision-making and providing quality and effective training, oversight and supervision to social workers.
• Can work in a multi-disciplinary environment and steer a service that will have competing demands and expectations from other agencies.
• Strong knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations to recognise and build on families’ strengths to create change.
• Skilled in supporting social workers and managers in analysing information and understanding families’ experiences and contexts to ensure they receive the right services within the right framework.
• Experience of Managing Social Workers, Assistant Team Managers, Early Help Practitioners and Business Support Staff.
• Passionate and energised to take on the requirements and vision of the improvement plan.
• Able to cultivate and nurture positive working relationships, and to respectfully challenge. Confident to steer others to ensure the best outcome for the child is always a priority.
• Embracing change with the ability to inspire and take a team through a period of transformation.
• Curious! Creative! Ambitious!
Working Arrangements
Children’s Single Point of Contact is a non-case holding team; however, the service is multi-agency and linked with other partner agencies that attend the office. We offer and promote hybrid working patterns but have an essential requirement that the Team Manager will be present in the office a minimum three days a week, on an agreed basis with the Service Manager.
Our offer
We offer a supportive environment to grow and develop your career with the opportunity to put your ideas across. Innovation and ambition are strongly encouraged, and you’ll get a great feel for that working in our friendly and collaborative environment.
Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.
Asking for AdjustmentsBrighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.
Closing date: 2 April 2025
Interview date: To be confirmed (Interviews will be in person)
Brighter Futures for Children
About the role
We have an exciting opportunity for you to join our Front Door Access team, which is called Children’s Single Point of access (CSPoA). We are the first recipients of all contacts and referrals to Children’s Social Care, Early Help and our Partnership Hub. This is a co-located and integrated service with key statutory partner agencies who are committed to getting children and families the right help at the right time.
We provide high quality information, advice, and intervention to partner agencies and members of the public as well as determining threshold of need decisions for children where concerns about their care, safety and well-being are shared.
Through the Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPoA), we are committed to delivering a seamless, multi-agency approach that provides the right help at the right time, reducing risk and preventing escalation of need.
Our operational framework is built on children being at the centre of all that we do, a foundation of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. By fostering strong partnerships with schools, health professionals, social care teams, and the voluntary sector, we strive to create a coordinated system of support that is responsive, inclusive, and child centred.
We are committed to a practice model that is child-focused, and trauma informed. We are currently evolving the service to develop a more interventionalist practice model, that alongside our well-established Family Help service and Partnership Outreach team, we can provide help and support to reduce escalation.
Our social work practice with children and families is important, and we make a difference to the families we have contact with. It can be both incredibly challenging and hugely rewarding, especially when are able to intervene from the second you pick up the phone. If this appeals to you, we want to hear from you.
Through group and one-to-one supervision you will drive high quality and child focused practice – with high challenge and high support with the Team Manager role particularly important to nurturing a high quality, high performing work environment where agencies are working together closely.
To be considered for the role, your application will demonstrate that you:
• Have a thorough understanding of current legislation and the West Berkshire Safeguarding Children Procedure and Practice Guidance and be committed to relational practice, with a focus on intervention, not just ‘screening’ and ‘information gathering’. A robust and focused approach on analysis and providing help at the right time.
• Supporting Creative and Dynamic solutions to how we can support families with Early Help Services.
• Strong in decision-making and providing quality and effective training, oversight and supervision to social workers.
• Can work in a multi-disciplinary environment and steer a service that will have competing demands and expectations from other agencies.
• Strong knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations to recognise and build on families’ strengths to create change.
• Skilled in supporting social workers and managers in analysing information and understanding families’ experiences and contexts to ensure they receive the right services within the right framework.
• Experience of Managing Social Workers, Assistant Team Managers, Early Help Practitioners and Business Support Staff.
• Passionate and energised to take on the requirements and vision of the improvement plan.
• Able to cultivate and nurture positive working relationships, and to respectfully challenge. Confident to steer others to ensure the best outcome for the child is always a priority.
• Embracing change with the ability to inspire and take a team through a period of transformation.
• Curious! Creative! Ambitious!
Working Arrangements
Children’s Single Point of Contact is a non-case holding team; however, the service is multi-agency and linked with other partner agencies that attend the office. We offer and promote hybrid working patterns but have an essential requirement that the Team Manager will be present in the office a minimum three days a week, on an agreed basis with the Service Manager.
Our offer
We offer a supportive environment to grow and develop your career with the opportunity to put your ideas across. Innovation and ambition are strongly encouraged, and you’ll get a great feel for that working in our friendly and collaborative environment.
Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.
Asking for AdjustmentsBrighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.
Closing date: 2 April 2025
Interview date: To be confirmed (Interviews will be in person)
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.