Head of Practice for Learning and Development
This is a {Advertised Permanent / Temporary}, {Advertised Full Time / Part Time} vacancy that will close in {x} days at {xx:xx} BST.
The Vacancy
Our strategic ambition is for every child in family law proceedings to have an exceptional experience, everywhere in the country and every time.
While we are proud that Ofsted judged us to be ‘outstanding’ earlier this year, there is always more to do to serve the best interests of children in public and private law proceedings across England. Our inspection outcome has energised us to keep getting better at what we do for children and families and the feedback from them tells us we are doing just that.
Following recent internal promotion, we are pleased to be recruiting for a Head of Practice for Learning and Development.
As part of our Operational Management Team (OMT) you will draw on your considerable experience to inspire a team to provide a high-quality improvement and support service involving learning and development design and delivery.
Working closely with the Principal Social Worker, you will lead on the Social Work Academy, our unified model of social work, Together for Children and Families, learning, support and development of practice to make a difference for children.
Should you be successful, you will work on a mix of strategic and operational priorities. By ensuring that practice continues to develop and improve, and leading a team with expertise in learning, development, coaching and improvement, you will be contributing to the delivery of positive outcomes for children and young people.
To be successful in this role you will be:
- A highly effective leader, able to motivate and influence colleagues and lead change by providing assurance and inspiring confidence.
- Confident in your practice knowledge across all areas of social work, able to act as an authoritative practice leader able to provide expert guidance on the content of learning and development packages and to respond to serious incidents in the organisation.
- Have excellent report writing skills.
- Be able to analyse large amounts of information and data and make sound judgments and recommendations to senior managers based on this.
- Someone who thrives on developing a service and ensuring the performance and productivity of staff is optimum.
As you would expect, for such a key leadership role we have some specific requirements:
- Significant post qualifying experience in a social work setting of working with children and families.
- Demonstrable experience of achieving positive outcomes for children through working in a family justice environment, including in a training / learning / development role.
- Evidence of professional development to support your progression into a managerial role.
- A collaborative team worker who can build positive relationships and work effectively across boundaries and achieve results through others.
- Proven experience of managing staff, services and budgets at a senior level across a wide range of functions, including supervisory and/or practice management experience.
We are flexible on your location and it is reasonable to assume you will predominantly work remotely. However, as a senior leader you should expect to attend relevant offices for key meetings, which may include some overnight stays in different parts of the country.
If you join us, you will be well-supported through induction, supervision, learning and performance review, whether you are already at this level of leadership or are taking your next career step.
We offer an attractive reward package, flexible working to achieve that important work/life balance, and a comprehensive programme of support to maintain your wellbeing at work that includes 4 ‘wellbeing days’ in addition to a generous annual leave entitlement. You may also be able to bring your ‘continuous service’ with you, bringing further benefits.
We are an organisation valuing, promoting and prioritising equality, diversity and inclusion and we especially welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds. The Chief Executive and Corporate Directors sponsor our objectives in this regard, listening to and encouraging feedback from families, children, our staff, and partners about how well we are doing in terms of understanding and celebrating uniqueness.
Next steps
We have set out a timeline here for the recruitment to this role. However, we understand that given the time of year you may have personal commitments that mean, if shortlisted, you are unable to attend on the dates we have indicated. We will do everything we can to offer an alternative interview date if required.
Closing date for applications: 21st July
Panel interviews: 5 / 6 / 8 / 9 August
We also understand you may want to informally discuss the role with someone. If so, you are welcome to contact Dawn Goodwin (designate Principal Social Worker) via dawn.goodwin@cafcass.gov.uk providing your contact details and advising of the better times to contact you. However, if the closing date for applications is approaching, we encourage you to apply before the deadline and if you subsequently decide not to progress, your application can be withdrawn.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Be Their Voice
We are Cafcass – the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – and we represent children in family court cases in England.
Independently advising the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests, we speak up for over 140,0000 children every year when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures, ensuring their needs, wishes and feelings are heard.
Watch our video to find out we don’t just listen to children’s voices but we can be their voice.
If our purpose resonates with you, and you share our ambitions for children - exceptional experiences, for every child, everywhere and every time - then if you join us, you will work alongside like-minded people in a diverse, inclusive and supportive organisation.
You will be trusted to work flexibly and independently using outstanding technology (e.g. touchscreen laptops, iPhone, all with first class support, including IT Trainers) with access to substantial resources (e.g. Cafcass Library has over 27,000 resources on social work, child protection and related topics). You will also have opportunities to develop, whatever team you join, wherever you are in the country and at whatever stage you are at in your career.
Whether you join us in one of our social work roles that work directly with children and families or our corporate and business services teams who provide technology, support and expertise, you will have the chance to make a difference for children and families. You can also find out more at www.cafcass.gov.uk/careers.
Wellbeing
The wellbeing of our colleagues is something we are truly passionate about, as demonstrated by everyone having four dedicated, additional days per year when they are encouraged to spend time focusing on their health and wellbeing.
Colleagues can also have a health and wellbeing cash plan, for which Cafcass pays the basic premium (you can upgrade to include family members), which allows them to claim back some costs of routine health expenses, including dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy sessions and more.
Overall, we foster a holistic approach to supporting our colleagues, benefitting physical, mental and financial health. This is led by a dedicated in-house team, the benefits of which include meaning support is targeted and specific to what colleagues need. Our team can also offer support and guidance when it comes to specific health conditions, such as neuro-diverse conditions, cancer and the menopause.
Our wellbeing offer is further strengthened by an external Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) which provides a free confidential support service 24 hours a day. This means access to clinical and professional expertise which gives you a chance to talk about all kinds of work and personal issues.
If this wasn’t enough, we are especially proud that over 125 colleagues have completed training and receive ongoing support to act as Health and Wellbeing Champions. Furthermore, we have nearly 100 people that have trained to be Mental Health Allies.
Diversity
We represent children and families from diverse backgrounds and having a diverse workforce helps us to fulfil this responsibility authentically.
It also helps us to grow, evolve and innovate, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.
We are also a Disability Confident Leader, which further underlines our commitment to employ, train, retain and develop the careers of colleagues with disabilities.
Our Diversity Networks provide a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience – supported by allies across the organisation. The networks help ensure we provide an inclusive working environment and a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds.
For more information watch our video here.
Our current networks include:
Kaleidoscope Network
Colleagues from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
Mental Health Network
Colleagues who experience, or have an interest in, Mental Health issues.
Pride
Network
Colleagues who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans – LGBT+.
Neurodiversity Network
Colleagues who are neurodivergent, or support someone who is
Together
‘Together with Children and Families’ (which we just call ‘Together’) is the name of our relationship-based practice framework. It applies to the work of every individual in Cafcass, from Social Workers to Leaders and includes our Corporate and Business Support teams.
It is at the heart of what we do and is made up of our values, how these values work in practice, the tools to use to incorporate these values in our work and the impact this will have on the children and families we serve.
This framework encourages us to be pro-active and to look for the strengths in ourselves and others. It also enables us to build positive relationships with our colleagues, our partners and most importantly, with the children and families with whom we work.
We look forward to telling helping you learn more about Together should you join us.
Benefits
We know if you join us you want to be rewarded in a variety of ways, including time away from work to spend time with those important to you, manage your financial present and future, whilst also be trusted to manage your work/life balance.
Therefore, in addition to our unique, holistic approach to supporting your health and wellbeing we also provide:
Generous holidays
28 days holiday (including three for Christmas) rising to 33 days with five years continuous service, which could include your current employment. You can also sell any you do not need.
This list is just a selection of main benefits and we have a range of policies and processes that allow us to support our colleagues - and their families – and we look forward to providing you with further information about these in due course.
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