Social Worker - Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children’s Team (UASC)

This is an exciting time to be joining Dorset Council, we are investing and strengthening our service to meet the needs of all unaccompanied children in and beyond our care. A new, dedicated team of Social Workers and Personal Advisers is being created. This opportunity is now available for social workers who are interested and passionate about offering the best service to unaccompanied children.

Social workers will support children to receive a warm Dorset welcome, as they come into our care. Settling into homes where they can be offered the stability, care, and safety they need to adjust to living in the UK, develop their skills and transition into adulthood. 

You will deliver the full range of statutory responsibilities for Children in Care, under the Children Act 1989, as well as working within the Leaving Care Act 2000 and alongside Personal Advisors, when a child reaches 16.

You will be working collaboratively with multi agency partners to identify and assess each child’s needs and reflect these and their individual strengths and aspirations within all aspects of care planning. There will be a particular focus on their health, education, and social needs, which will include supporting cultural links within communities and advocating for them to receive the best care and support.

You will be aiming to achieve permanence for our children ensuring triple planning is started early and clear to our children and those supporting them. In this role you will work closely with our legal service and the Home Office to progress our children’s asylum applications promptly.

About you:

• You will have a Social Work qualification, be registered with Social Work England and be able to fulfil the travel requirements of the post. This post has a significant travel requirement, both locally and nationally, and you are contractually required to have a vehicle (or transport deemed to be suitable by the council) available for use as required.
• You will need experience of working to meet competing demands and be able to adapt to changing situations and respond appropriately. 
• You will need to be an effective communicator, be creative in your work and use reflective thinking to inform your practice.
• Experience in working with unaccompanied young people is desirable but not essential.
• Due to the current need, applications can only be accepted from candidates who already have the right to work in the UK.

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits 
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.