Social Worker Assistant

Location: Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Salary: £25,000
Posted: 2 Nov 2021
Closes: 16 Nov 2021
Job Type: Permanent & Full-time
Business Unit: UK Central Government Services
Region / Division: UK & Ireland
Reference: 10711

Role Responsibility:

Social Worker Assistant

G4S Care and Rehabilitation Services

Oakhill Secure Training Centre, Milton Keynes, MK5 6AJ

Salary £25,000 per annum

Permanent, Full Time (40 hours per week)

Benefits: Company Pension, free on-site parking, uniform, on-site canteen, access to High Street Shop discounts, local Gym discounts and ongoing training and development

At Oakhill Secure Training Centre we look after young people aged 12 to 18 years old who have been remanded or sentenced to periods of detention. The vulnerable young people in our care can be challenging with a wide range of social and emotional complex needs. This is an environment that calls for high standards of social care and service delivery to provide a secure and stable environment for young people to develop their life skills and address the behaviours that have led them into custody.

Oakhill Secure Training Centre works closely with the Youth Custody Services to ensure that its regimes and designs reflect best practice in residential care to prevent offending.

The aim of the role is to positively contribute to the safeguarding and welfare of children, ensuring the action we take to promote the welfare of children, protects them from harm, being accountable for supporting decisions and actions to enable all children to have the best possible outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Promote the safeguarding of young people in supporting the Safeguarding lead for the centre and ensuring that a stable and secure environment is provided for all young people. Support the external links with local safeguarding teams, bringing community expertise into the strategy of the centre.
To support the Safeguarding lead in ensuring that all staff understands the expectation that everyone is responsible for contributing to keeping children safe, supporting the prevention of harm and promoting well-being.
To support the effectiveness of the conduct of robust investigations of all child protection concerns raised by young people, their families, colleagues and/or external parties/professionals to best legislative and best practice requirements.
Support processes and procedures in listening and capturing children's views about what they need to be kept safe. These views will be used to inform decisions, policy and procedures.
Support information sharing in a timely and appropriate decision making in line with legislation and guidance, which is based on individual need and prevents harm and supporting wellbeing.
Able to support the completion of numerous documents and reports
To complete and maintain spreadsheets and extract data with commentary as required for a number of different audiences
To encourage the open door policy of listening to both staff and young people regarding concerns and thereafter managing them appropriately to their outcomes
Maintain effective working relationships with external stakeholders including MASH and the LADO with the internal responsibility of managing allegations with the social work manager including the appropriate pathways.
To encourage and support collaboration between departments working towards the reduction of 'young peoples' risk and to ensure adherence to operational policies relevant to the safety and security of young people, staff and visitors.
Support the delivery of Safeguarding training with the Head of Safeguarding and Safeguarding social worker and in partnership with Milton Keynes Safeguarding Board (MK Together) to ensure training is delivered in line with national guidance and research.
To attend a number of safeguarding meeting which could include on occasion the completion of minutes
Provide a full administrative service so that the needs of the functional/departmental team are met.
Maintain effective work systems, ensuring that all correspondence and documentation is dealt with in a professional manner that meets audit requirements.
Organise and co-ordinate meetings, diaries, events and travel arrangements ensuring individual and functional/departmental objectives are met.
Maintain comprehensive stocks of all forms and documentation required by the function/department so that it is available when required.
Collate, produce and distribute regular and ad-hoc statistics and reports so that individuals and departments receive accurate up to date information.
Deal with all routine queries so that an appropriate response is provided.
Complete the administration of the complaints, bullying and allegations processes ensuring that they are dealt with in accordance with the Centre's policies and procedures.
Undertake some sessions with young people and collate information gathered to enable continuous improvement of service delivery and youth participation.
Liaise with the external agency's when required to support the work of the safeguarding team
All staff employed by G4S has the responsibility for their own Health & Safety and to their colleagues in order to assist G4S in its obligation to achieve British Safety Council Requirements at all times.
Please note that the above responsibilities are not exhaustive and we reserve the right to add relevant duties in line with the service needs.

The Ideal Candidate:

Essential Skills

Working towards a relevant degree
Understanding of current legislation around safeguarding in particular around young people
experience within the Safeguarding Arena
Understanding the investigation process and judicial system.
Able to complete spreadsheets and extract data with commentary
Able to support the completion of numerous documents and reports

Desirable Skills

Experience delivering training
Experience of working in a custodial environment with young people and understanding the complexity of their needs etc.
Experience of the LADO process

At G4S, we invest heavily in our people. If you join us you will have a job specific induction programme to equip you with the skills and knowledge for the job. As well as ongoing support and development opportunities we offer generous holiday entitlement, company pension, an onsite gym, free onsite parking and the chance to do an extraordinary job - every day.

Equality and Diversity is an important part of G4S Care and Rehabilitation Services. We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and are a fully inclusive employer who aims to support all employees to be their true selves. We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments for either the role or during the recruitment process

Safeguarding children and young people is our primary focus and the welfare of the child is paramount. Therefore we have a corporate responsibility to ensure that the safeguarding and our G4S values are at the centre of all we do.

To apply for this role, you must be eligible to work in the UK and must have been resident in the UK for a minimum of 3 years. You will also be required to undergo DBS enhanced level security clearance and will need to provide full details of your work and educational history covering the last 10 years as part of the screening process.