Derbyshire County Council

Careers in social care

Adult social care roles play a crucial role in supporting individuals who may be vulnerable or in need of assistance due to age, disability, or health issues.

These roles provide essential services that contribute to the overall well-being and quality of life for residents in communities.

Joining us in an adult social care role means becoming part of a team dedicated to making a positive impact on people's lives. We emphasise person-centred care, aiming to empower individuals and promote their independence.

You'll have the opportunity to contribute to a caring and supportive environment, making a meaningful difference in the lives of those who require assistance and fostering a sense of community and inclusivity.

Roles include:

• care worker - residential
• care worker - community (enablement support workers)
• senior care worker
• residential social care worker (in our short breaks and respite centres)
• managerial roles

Our pay rates are:

• care workers in a residential care home - £11.98 to £12.18 per hour, with an enhanced rate (for 7pm to 7am working) £15.97 to £16.24 per hour
• senior care workers in a residential care home - £12.94 to £13.93 per hour, with an enhanced rate (for 7pm to 7am working) £17.25 to £18.57 per hour
• care workers in the community - £11.98 to £12.18 per hour
• deputy unit manager - £17.12 to £18.78 per hour
• unit manager - £21.65 to 23.40 per hour

Social Worker for Adults

We're committed to attracting social workers to engage with and encourage the participation of adults across Derbyshire.

Good social work can transform people's lives through the promotion of individual strengths and protect them from harm and there are lots of good reasons to be a social worker in Derbyshire.

Working within our practice framework having proportionate conversations and interactions with people, you'll be supporting adults to live their lives in our local communities, establishing effective relationships with people, professionals in a range of agencies and settings and being the key connectors in communities.

You'll work with adults and younger people who are preparing for adulthood across a variety of settings.

We actively encourage individual professional leadership within our in our teams, which provides everyone within the team the opportunity to develop and share knowledge and practice within the team.

To help sustain and further develop a working environment where social work practice and social workers can flourish, you'll work within a team, be supported with regular, good quality one-to-one professional supervision, and have access to peer group discussions to support you in your decision-making and support planning.

You'll also receive an individual development plan and annual appraisal, to promote your individual developmental needs and work within a clearly defined social work practice framework.

Children's Social Worker

We're committed to increasing the number of social workers across our services as part of our strategy to reduce caseloads and promote effective working relationships with children and families through our systemic approach to social work intervention.

We support newly qualified social workers to progress in their career and grow the number of experienced social workers within our existing workforce. Through supportive frameworks and excellent progression opportunities we are dedicated to continually improving our staff retention rates.

We are an ambitious and innovative authority with a strong commitment to building upon our successful recruitment and expanding our existing workforce.

We work hard to ensure that our social workers have the time and resources to be their best and deliver good outcomes for children and families. Our vision means working creatively to inspire and empower children, young people, and their families to be the best they can be.

Children's Residential Services

We provide consistent, good quality care through 12 children's homes across the county. We have homes for mainstream and disabled young people.

We look to match the young person to the right home and, where possible, keep them close to their community and the school they attend. Our homes provide an environment where young people feel happy to live.

We have sites at:

• Buxton
• High Peak
• North East Derbyshire
• Chesterfield
• Long Eaton
• Swadlincote

All residential employees benefit from an excellent training and induction programme, where they're trained and equipped to understand how to provide the best care for our children and young people.

It's expected that relevant core and mandatory learning and development for all new children's residential workers to Derbyshire, such as introductions to safeguarding and protection, health and safety and promoting positive behaviour and Pro-Act SCIP will be completed within the first 12 weeks of employment, supported by a 6-month induction to the council and children's residential services. Following this there will be further learning and development opportunities, including the level 3 Diploma in Children and Young People's Workforce with Social Care Pathway.

Our training is under-pinned by having a knowledge and understanding of therapeutically informed approaches in child development and therapeutic parenting. This includes social pedagogic ethos - a practice we were involved in developing within the UK - dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) techniques, developmental trauma and attachment knowledge, playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy (PACE), a person centred and solution planning to inform practice.

We work continuously to improve the quality of our children's homes, ensuring our children and young people have every opportunity to thrive and develop.

Progressing within the children's homes is something we encourage and support, as progression shouldn't just be linear process. At various points there are opportunities to make moves or undertake pieces of work to gain experience, knowledge, and skills to develop professionally.

Supervision and My Plan discussions are used to consider how you want your career to progress and to plan how that can be supported, both in the short and long term.

By supporting employees through succession planning and progression, they're given the opportunities to widen their experiences and gain specialist knowledge, skills, and confidence. Enabling them to respond to any challenges in engaging with and improving outcomes for children, young people, and their families, whilst also continuing to provide good quality care and support for our children and young people within residential care.