Pay and support for you as a social worker

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What is it like to work with children and families? transcript (PDF, 156 KB)

You can benefit from (subject to terms and conditions):

• A competitive salary (salary on appointment will be agreed based on relevant experience)
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• 27 days annual leave entitlement (rising to 32 after five years), plus the opportunity to buy extra leave
• A wide range of employee benefits and discounts, including discounted gym membership, a cycle to work scheme and a discounted travel scheme
• A Practice Educator allowance - £10 per placement day, normally £700 - £1000 per placement (70 or 100 days in length) 
• Support to develop your career - find out more about career development opportunities at Developing your career in social work

Hybrid and flexible working

• Hybrid working where you will have an office base and a team but are also supported so that you can work from home 
• Flexi-time, allowing staff to take up to 13 flexi days per year
• Flexible working, allows you to job share or work condensed hours 

A senior leadership team that listens

• Opportunities for meaningful communication including regular briefings, and practice weeks where senior managers spend time with you in your workplace
• A culture of high expectations, high challenge, and high support

A consistent and well-established practice framework

Signs of Safety is our practice framework supporting consistent practice across Children's Social Care and all of our partners, which is designed to help you slow down your thinking so that robust evidence-based assessment and analysis guides your practice.

Support for your work and practice every day 

• A team manager who will provide you with regular supervision, including reflective case supervision, and support with the most important decisions
• A social work consultant who will offer you day-to-day advice on your cases, support you with difficult meetings and help you stay on track
• The enhanced practitioner role rooted in practice, where you support newly qualified colleagues and students on placement 
• Family workers and social work assistants who can work with families to meet their needs
• A team co-ordinator who will support you with the important administrative tasks 
• A dedicated family time team
• A locality based voluntary and community sector worker who can help you find the support you need for families
• A Supporting Solutions Service which supports young people on the 'edge of care' and their parents or carers
• Our early help services which offer programmes to support parents with issues like domestic abuse, parenting and self-esteem, supporting families at the earliest opportunity or those who are stepping down from social work
• A social work academy for our newly qualified social workers offering a two year programme including lots of learning and reflective space to blossom 
• An electronic case recording system. We use Liquidlogic in Durham to support our work. Liquidlogic's social care software is flexible, intuitive and secure, and makes case management and record-keeping simple

Celebrating social work

We make sure you get positive feedback about the things you do well.

Support for your wellbeing

• Physiotherapy support
• A wellbeing portal with confidential telephone counselling
• Occupational health service
• Opportunity to join a trade union