Proud of my Profession – join Northamptonshire County Council’s social work team

Northamptonshire County Council is at an exciting stage in its improvement programme – and we are looking for high-calibre, committed social workers to join us on our journey.

Having shown significant improvement across the service in our Ofsted inspection earlier this year, Northamptonshire County Council has launched a ‘getting to good’ project plan as the next phase in our drive to improve services for children and families.

With a focused, proactive senior leadership team and clear political support, we’re in a good place to do that – and we’re looking for social workers who are proud of their profession to join us.

‘Making a difference’

Our new director of children’s services Lesley Hagger, who returned to Northamptonshire in July having previously completed her youth work training here in the 1980s, says there has never been a better time to join our team.

Lesley said: “I’ve been working in children’s services for 30 years and I’m very passionate about what I do, as I know the majority of social workers are. It’s not an easy profession, we face challenges and difficulties on a daily basis, but the rewards far outweigh these challenges, knowing we can make a difference to children’s lives.

Lesley Hagger

“Northamptonshire County Council has shown tremendous dedication in transforming the service, taking it from inadequate back in 2013 to requires improvement earlier this year. The next stage is getting to good – and for us to achieve that, we need experienced, self-motivated, innovative and creative social work professionals.”

Develop your career

In return for joining our improvement programme, our social workers will benefit from opportunities to develop their their career through excellent professional development.

All of our practitioners and managers are undertaking the ‘Strengthening Families’ supervision training and ‘Strengthening Practice’ programme to enhance and support supervision and assessment skills.

Furthermore, our highly-regarded Social Work Academy, which has just accepted its fourth cohort of newly-qualified social workers and was described as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted inspectors, has just completed its first eight-week leadership and management programme to develop social workers to the practice manager role. Open to social workers with at least three years’ post-qualified experience, we’re currently evaluating the programme and looking to run a second course in the near future.

Trust model

Another key aspect of our improvement journey is the transition of Northamptonshire children’s services into a new trust – an arm’s length company commissioned by the council to deliver services for children and families across Northamptonshire. This will give us the opportunity to be more flexible and innovative in the way that we plan and deliver services.

Our biggest priority now is to establish a more stable, permanent workforce, resulting in greater continuity of care for children and families and reducing the reliance on agency staff. This is why we are now launching a major campaign

“My commitment is unwaveringly about ensuring that children and young people’s lives are the best they can possibly be,” says Lesley. “I’m sure that this is why you also work in this sector.

For most families, this is achievable without the need for our involvement, but for others we are the champion, the advocate, the change agent, and sometimes the lifeline.

Our services need to be modern, flexible, and innovative and at the same time be efficient, cost-effective and effective.

“If you think you have what it takes to join our team, we want to hear from you. The slogan ‘Proud of my Profession’ is something that I feel strongly and I look forward to encouraging you to join us so that you can also feel proud of the work that you do and properly rewarded for it.”

Join our team

In Northamptonshire, you’ll benefit from an effective workload management system with manageable caseloads for all our social workers.

If you’d like to be part of Northamptonshire County Council’s exciting improvement programme, you can find out more about social work jobs by visiting www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/socialcarejobs.