Investing in you, investing in Newham
At Newham, we celebrate individuality, welcome people with different skillsets and are committed to helping our social workers find the best fit for their professional development.
Your background or the length of your experience are not as important as your willingness to learn, to engage and to contribute – and to champion the rights and needs of children.
Children's Social Care is a rewarding but challenging occupation, never more so than against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and amid the disruption of remote working.
Newham needs social workers and managers who are compassionate; resilient; supportive of their families and their colleagues; creative in how they support families; mindful of how our children and families have responded to the developments of 2020 – and who understand that meeting challenges today is the only way we will build a better tomorrow.
If you can provide the right attitude, we can provide the training, development and accreditations opportunities to help you to develop and grow as a professional. You will enjoy exceptional support from fellow social workers, managers and family therapists – working alongside you to help deliver better outcomes for children.
The variety of opportunity at Newham is huge – a talented social worker could choose to move into management; be part of one of our specialist teams; become a Child Protection Chair or Independent Reviewing Officer; teach at a partner university; become a systemic family therapist, or explore many other opportunities.
At Newham, we believe in “growing our own” where possible – knowing that the improvements we’re committed to will be best achieved by people who have worked in and know and understand our local communities.
Practice Fundamentals
Our Practice Fundamentals programme is our core method for supporting staff to embrace the Newham Together Practice Model.
The three interconnected pillars focus on assessments, direct work and supervision and oversight – together producing social work practice that is planned, purposeful and focused.
Delivery of the programme is through regular, dedicated sessions for all staff, examining core aspects of each pillar in the context of systemic practice.
Weekly lunchtime sessions led by our Family Theraprists offer bite-sized presentations and discussions exploring elements of best practice. Click here to see an example of one of these presentations.
Our Systemic Offer
Our comprehensive systemic offer could enable you to achieve a Masters in Family Therapy over a minimum of four years:
- Year 1 – Certificate in Family Therapy
- Year 2 – Diploma in Family Therapy
- Years 3 & 4 – MSc in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy
In your first year with Newham, you will have access to a one-day Introduction to Systemic Practice workshop and a five-day in-depth course to give you the skills and knowledge to practice systemically.
In your second year, you will have the option of completing a 15-day accredited course leading to a Certificate in Systemic Practice.
Internal Training Opportunities
In addition to the Practice Fundamentals, our internal experts provide significant training for staff, including:
- Training and use of an evidence-based Direct Work Toolbox
- Working With Men who have used violence or abused
- Social Care and Education – understanding each other’s processes and requirements
- Reg 24, Private Fostering and Connected Carers – understanding the procedures and policies behind different reasons children might live away from their birth families
- Child Health – understanding the health needs of children and ensuring children in care get the attention they require
- Many others, including preparing for CP conferences; looked-after reviews; engaging adolescents; discovering family history; reviewing abuse and neglect, and more
Newham Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP)
Our local Safeguarding Partnership provides regular training that is open to all social care staff in the borough. It includes short sessions such as Perinatal Mental Health; Life Story Work, and the Graded Care Profile as well as longer courses such as Trauma Informed Practice; Complex and Contextual Safeguarding, and Prevent.
Identifying and booking on Training
Training is publicised through our monthly internal newsletter, Learning Curve. Each issue looks three months ahead and booking is as simple as asking your manager for approval and clicking on the link.
Careers Fair to get you where you want to be
We are committed to nurturing our own social workers so that our senior and specialist staff have benefited from working with our local community.
Summer 2021 will see our Careers Fair, with senior workers delivering presentations and offering 1:1 conversations about what their roles involve, and info about how frontline workers can work towards a particular position.
Continue on to find out about other Benefits, including:
- Leave Entitlements
- Pay Rates
- Retention Bonus
