Safeguarding
Devon County Council has a dedicated Safeguarding Service which employs highly skilled and qualified social workers to work with some of our most vulnerable children and young people. As part of the caseload weighting system, each social worker is expected to manage a caseload of child protection cases, which are allocated and monitored to ensure that the volume and complexity of cases is manageable for individual social workers. Clearly, in this difficult and sometimes distressing area of work, our social workers are closely managed and supported by experienced Practice Managers, who provide one-to-one sessions in the form of supervision. We know how important it is to create time for social workers to discuss their queries and concerns, and work hard to ensure the right level of support is available.
By creating a specialist service, we have developed considerable expertise in the areas of child protection and safeguarding, and pride ourselves on the interagency links we have developed. We understand that working together and sharing information is the key to ensuring that our most vulnerable children do not fall through the gaps between services. Through our efforts, we hope that all children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan are protected from risk of harm. To reinforce our commitment to children, we’ve ensured that every child who is subject to a plan has been allocated a dedicated social worker to work with them, so that there are no unallocated child protection cases in the county.
We do have a small number of newly qualified social workers in the Safeguarding Service, who work on Child In Need cases. To begin with, the newly qualified worker would be working closely with experienced staff, to observe and learn through observation and practical experience. As they become more experienced, these staff will co-work on cases where children are subject to a Child Protection Plan, and this must be completed before they are able to manage their own caseload of child protection cases. Devon County Council is keen to develop its social worker workforce, both by encouraging existing staff to develop and grow, and by introducing talented staff into the organisation, who often bring a range of experiences with them.
The Safeguarding Service is based in four main office sites in the county – Exeter, Totnes, Tiverton and Barnstaple. Devon is a large county, and you will be required to travel widely between offices to meet the needs of the children you’re working with. The Safeguarding Service has developed a strong sense of team identity, and a supportive culture over the past few years, and we know that good communication is at the heart of this. Team development days and group training sessions have proved successful in helping colleagues to understand one another’s work and perspective and have contributed towards creating a stronger team environment. Team days also include the Child Protection Officers who chair the conferences. We support ongoing professional development and development of areas of expertise such as sexual abuse and domestic violence.
This is a challenging, but rewarding area to work in. You will be stretched professionally and encouraged to think constructively about how to safeguard children in Devon. We want you to come and work with us and help us continue to make Devon Safeguarding a service to be proud of.