About Southwark:
We are the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark’s residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues and social enterprises and we have a young, diverse and growing population.
At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities. Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals and attend our universities. Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark’s communities and the council’s staff to tackle racism, injustice and inequality) underpins all that we do.
The Role:
Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and young people with disabilities? We have an exciting opportunity for a motivated and skilled individual to join our team at Southwark Council as a Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO) for a 12-month maternity cover.
In this pivotal role, you will strategically lead and shape the social care components of the SEND strategy across the local authority. You'll ensure compliance with the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and directly influence the direction of SEND services through insight and intelligence.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading the weekly SEN panel, assessing EHCP requests for young people aged 0-25 in the borough.
- Screening new EHCP requests, updating social care advice for completed assessments, and attending the weekly SEN multi-agency panel.
- Establishing and leading a network of social care SEND 'champions' and link workers to implement the SEND agenda.
- Expertise in identifying areas where social care needs strengthening and implementing strategies to address these.
Your leadership will extend to facilitating communication between social care and education, health, and other agencies, ensuring comprehensive support for young people and their families.
About You:
We are seeking a self-motivated individual with a deep understanding of social care operations and the SEND reforms agenda. You should have:
- A strong commitment to improving the quality of social care input to EHCPs, including annual reviews.
- The ability to develop and provide training around SEND within the borough.
- Expertise in identifying areas where social care needs strengthening and implementing strategies to address these.
- Excellent communication skills to work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders.
Additional details
This is a 12 months fixed term contract
This post requires a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) DBS check at (ENTER LEVEL HERE) level.
Benefits and more information:
In your role, we want you to feel supported, challenged and rewarded. You will benefit from our family-friendly policies including flexible working, home working, and a local government pension scheme, plus many other staff benefits. You will join a motivated, driven and supportive team that strives for excellence and values its members. You will also be part of a successful and high-achieving development team that is making a real difference to the lives of residents in the borough. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Staff Benefits page.
Recruitment timetable
For an informal discussion about the posts please contact Tendai Murowe by email tendai.murowe@southwark.gov.uk
Advert close: 23rd September 2024
Interview Date: 1st October 2024
Guaranteed Interview Scheme:
As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:
• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition
We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.
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