Practice Development and Transformation Project Lead

Salary: £59,414 to £67,590
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Fixed-term until 31 March 2022

As the Practice Development and Transformation Project Lead in the Company’s Transformation Programme you will be responsible for improving the quality and consistency of social work practice and interventions.

To achieve this you will be managing a small team supporting the improvement of practice across the child’s journey, and will work in partnership with colleagues at all levels in Slough Children First and outside of the organisation to achieve all accountabilities of the role.

The ideal candidate will possess highly developed specialist knowledge of social work practice in Children’s Services and knowledge of fostering and adoption practice,

You will be expected to promote, deliver and embrace Slough Children First’s values – child-focused, honest and respectful, improving constantly, looking ahead and delivering together – to your team and peers to help deliver our vision of making our children safe, secure and successful.

For this role you will need to be Social Work England registered.

Main Accountabilities

Responsibilities

• Embed and achieve a sustainable solution on the delivery of the quality assurance audit framework and related activity, working with the Quality Assurance Service to embed a collaborative style of quality assurance completed alongside practitioners
• Provide highlight reports and recommendations on progress, development needs and ongoing improvement with clear evidence of the impact of actions undertaken
• Support and facilitate a whole team approach to learning and development within frontline practice through bespoke workshops and skills days with Practice Improvement Mentors on the thematic areas identified through the improvement and audit work to enhance continued learning and development.
• Support the development of a sustainable dynamic learning and development programme which responds to the themes emerging from quality assurance activity, working closely with Learning and Development (L&D) to achieve this
• Provide ongoing action learning for staff across the organisation. 
• Ensure resources in the transformation team are allocated to areas of need and provide robust quality assurance for all budgets associated with improvement delivery.

Risk Management

• Be a confident and consistent leader and manager in the management of risk, change and improvement activity, advising others when required (both internal to children’s social care and partner agencies)
• Assisting the Director of Operations and Assistant Director QIPP in maintaining improvement priorities and progress within the company
• Ensure all team members hold safeguarding as a priority and manage improvement activity accordingly.

Leadership and Management

• Provide leadership to the Practice Improvement Mentors to improve the quality and consistency of practice in Slough
• Demonstrate an exceptional ability to manage change effectively
• Lead on practice development initiatives to ensure a confident and professional workforce
• Model the values and principles that underpin high quality social work practice
• Facilitate effective information exchange to improve practice by establishing good communication mechanisms both internally with managers and staff and with external partners.

Service Delivery

• Create, sustain and review systems and frameworks for the quality assurance, prioritisation, and management of practice development work across the organisation
• Operational lead for managing organisational development related to the consistency in the quality of practice and working closely with the Director of Operations and AD QIPP to ensure measures are put in place to monitor progress and impact on children’s lives
• Undertake audits and reviews of children’s journeys as required to support practice improvements and participate in the dissemination of learning in conjunction with partner agencies
• Work with other project leads to assist in the delivery of their projects. To include but not be limited to: working with the commissioning service to provide operational input for their sufficiency project and the embedding of the outcomes framework across the company
• Assist in the embedding of the practice framework.

Strategy and Partnership

• Establish short, medium and long term objectives for improvement activity and practice mentor responsibility through the development of work plans, identification of resources and mobilisation of the staff to meet the objectives
• Assume strategic lead for designated projects and/or work streams which effect practice improvements 
• Actively establish, develop and maintain professional relationships with key partner agencies, e.g. police, schools, health and voluntary organisations to ensure effective partnership working arrangements and promote positive outcomes for children and families.

Performance Management

• Deliver a performance orientated approach and culture ensuring effective performance management through appraisals, supervision and staff development
• Review and develop practice standards as required for areas of social work with expectations and timescales establishing clear lines of accountability, building trust, good morale and teamwork
• Responsibility for delivery on improved performance within the organisation in the area of practice improvement
• Ensuring staff are aware of and deliver on non-discriminatory practice.

Deliverables

• Track performance against the full suite of KPIs 
• Track and support audit compliance against the quality assurance schedule
• Develop and implement Learning and Development for frontline Practitioners, 1-1 and group development activity
• Improve the quality of practice evidenced by the proportion of audits progressing from Requires Improvement to Good
• Develop a sustainable model of practice improvement beyond 31/03/2022
• Building strength and resilience for Team Managers in relation to practice
• The quality of supervision will continue to improve evidenced through an ongoing programme of auditing case file, 1:1 supervision and 1:1 coaching/mentoring
• Support and develop post ASYE practice working with the SW Practice Lead.

Person specification

Education, Training & Experience

• Recognised Social Worker qualification (Essential)
• Social Work England Registration (Essential)
• Higher Degree; Masters degree; Bachelors degree + qualification; NVQ level 5 or equivalent; including all chartered professions and postgraduate qualification (Desirable)
• Evidence of management development in the form of a recognised management qualification (Desirable)
• Proven knowledge and application of childcare legislation, statutory guidance and relevant Social Care and Health policy and practice in relation to the provision of services (Essential)
• Significant previous experience and demonstrated ability to undertake strategic planning, implementation and evaluation (Essential)
• Proven knowledge and understanding of a range of improvement practices and methodologies (Essential)
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of systems and processes (Essential)
• Successful experience of workload management of multiple workstreams (Essential)
• Proven experience of managing staff and developing individual and collective performance to improve outcomes for children (Essential)
• Proven commitment to equality of opportunity for all groups of staff and service users and to challenge discrimination, racism, sexism and other forms of inappropriate behaviour (Essential)
• Proven experience and ability to thrive in a complex environment and demonstrate resilience (Essential)
• Proven coaching, mentoring and training skills (Essential)
• Demonstrable project management experience of delivering successful service change and development projects in line with agreed quality, time and cost targets (Desirable)
• Demonstrable successful partnership working and management of third party service suppliers (Desirable)

General & Specific Knowledge

• Ability to promote and maintain a high standard of evidenced based professional practice through modelling good practice, sharing latest research and learning, and motivating others to perform at their best (Essential)
• Ability to plan, prioritise and oversee the management of staff (Essential)
• Ability to make cost-effective use of available resources (Essential)
• Ability to analyse complex issues and offer sound professional and managerial advice (Essential)
• Ability to encourage and engender collaborative working between individual’s team, services and agencies to promote improved practice (Essential)
• Ability to create accessible ways of working that is effective, engages and involves staff and service users (Essential)
• Strong negotiation skills (Essential)
• Ability to challenge others constructively and make informed decisions (Essential)
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels (Essential)

Apply online

If you would like to apply for this post, please use the application form to submit your CV and apply online. Once submitted we will be in touch shortly to discuss your application. if you have any questions, please email recruitment@sloughchildrenfirst.co.uk. The deadline for submitted applications is 5pm on Monday 31 May.

Good luck!