Experienced Social Worker (Short Breaks)

The Service & Team:

Are you an experienced Social Worker with a passion for supporting disabled children and their families? Do you value relationship‑based practice and understand the vital difference that high‑quality short breaks can make to children’s welfare and family resilience? If so, we would welcome your application.

This part‑time role sits within our Family Based Short Breaks Team and involves working across the county to support and oversee Family Based Short Break carers. You will bring a sound understanding of the needs of disabled children and young people, alongside an appreciation of how short break provision supports both safeguarding and family stability. Working collaboratively with carers, you will provide guidance, challenge and support to enable them to offer safe, nurturing and high‑quality care.

You will have strong communication skills and a confident, relationship‑focused approach, with the ability to identify risk within caring environments, recognise signs of abuse or neglect, and respond appropriately to safeguarding and child protection concerns. The role includes undertaking statutory visits to carers and completing carer reviews in line with National Minimum Standards and relevant legislation, under the direction of the Team Manager.

A good working knowledge of the National Minimum Standards together with the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, is essential. You will be comfortable working autonomously across a wide geographical area, while remaining a valued member of a supportive and experienced team.

There will also be opportunities to deputise for the Team Manager on occasion, including providing supervision and professional oversight to Family Workers within the team, making this an ideal role for someone seeking variety, responsibility and professional development within a specialist service.

If you are committed to high‑quality practice, value reflective working and want to make a meaningful difference to the lives of disabled children and their families, we would be pleased to hear from you.
 

This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies.        

This position will be subject to a criminal record disclosure check.

Working Pattern:

This is a part time post of 18.5 hours across the working week.  Hybrid working and flexible working pattern available. 

What you’ll need to succeed:

Qualified Social Worker with experience of 5+ years

Please read the role profile for the full details of this role attached below in this advert

What you’ll get in return:

Cornwall Council’s ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance. Whilst still ensuring that service needs are met.

Our core employee rewards and benefits include:

·         a competitive salary.

·         a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions

·         a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.

·         A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme

·         Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

Additional Information:

Cornwall Council is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfer existing sponsorship for this role.

The full role profile is attached here

We recommend saving a copy of this to refer to if you are invited to an interview.

For more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Tracey Strudwick at tracey.strudwick@cornwall.gov.uk

Application Process

Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you can upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as ‘Application’ on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process.

Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact careers@cornwall.gov.uk if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.

Existing employees must apply using their Cornwall Council email address through the Opportunity Marketplace on Oracle.

Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Working here - Cornwall Council

We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options.

Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender reassignment status, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.