Be a children’s social worker•Salford City Council

We could talk about our recent ‘Good’ Ofsted rating, our values, our mission to provide outstanding support and care to children and families across Salford, or our commitment to staff wellbeing with manageable workloads, Free massages, one to one coaching sessions, Art Therapy and so on.

“We want you to know that when you join Salford, regardless of role, grade or responsibility - we’re all in this together, through the good, bad and silly!”

Join the best Children’s Services in the Northwest

In Salford, we are proud of our journey and the support that we give to our children, young people, families, carers and our practitioners. We want our children, young people and families to live happy and safe lives and reach their full potential.

We are looking for social workers that want to spend their time building relationships with families and have a desire to develop their careers. We have a strong culture of giving staff the time, freedom and support to explore new and better ways of working so we’re looking for individuals keen to use their creativity to deliver high quality outcomes.

We are recruiting to social work roles across our teams from newly qualified social workers to team managers – and if this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, we want to hear from you!

We also welcome applicants who are looking to relocate to the area.

Apply now

Still not convinced? Read on to learn about our offer and what we are about!

Why Salford?

Our offer at a glance:

Up to 34 days holiday a year (plus bank holidays).
Competitive salary following pay and grading review in 2023.
Hybrid working - flexibility to manage your diary leading to a better work/life balance.
Newly refurbished offices with free parking on site. The majority of our teams sit together.
Abundant resources to support you with any child or family you work with.
A comprehensive Wellbeing offer.
Regular, quality, reflective supervision from a consistent management and leadership team.
Robust training offer and mentoring scheme.
You will be supported to develop in your role and grow as a professional with plans tailored to meet your aspirations.
We focus on teams having manageable workloads.
Our senior managers and leaders are visible and take the time to listen and engage with frontline employees.

Click the boxes below to read about the offer in detail:

Wellbeing

Our staff’s wellbeing is of utmost importance. Over the years we’ve developed our offer to meet the changing needs of our practitioners. Some highlights from last year are:

Free massages
Free one to one coaching sessions
Free Art Therapy
Training on trauma and wellbeing
Cakes, fruits and brews!

Over the coming year, this offer will further evolve with a different theme each month, ranging from a celebration month with parties and food, to a yoga and peace month.

Training and Development

Our recent Ofsted report in January 2024, reflected that “training for workers is described by practitioners as a ‘massive strength’”. We offer a wide and varied range of training across all levels of our social work practice.

Each year we have a training calendar that involves a range of training courses relevant to all social workers. In addition to this there is training relevant to each level of experience to develop your skills. There are also regular learning lunches on useful topics and briefings about new services and processes. We also have Good Practice Month which is focused practical training workshops to help you think, reflect and improve practice.

We also have various opportunities if you would like to become a Practice Educator and offer support, training and a regular supply of keen students or apprentices which will earn you up to £1000 each placement!

In Salford we are committed to training and developing our practitioners in a range of ways, from apprenticeships, corporate training and more specific courses. However, we are also piloting a Mentoring Scheme and looking to develop a coaching offer for our social workers and there are always various development opportunities throughout the service.

The Workforce Learning and Development team are always there to help, offer mentoring and learning opportunities.

Progression

The majority of our advanced social workers and managers in Salford have progressed from earlier stages in their career in Salford with us. We want you to grow and develop alongside us. We provide a clear and supportive pathway for career progression, allowing social workers to advance quickly with holistic support, guidance, and effective management.

Our structured progression takes social workers from the ASYE level starting at £33,945 moving into Level 2 where you could earn up to £39,186, into Level 3 up to £43,421 and up to £50, 512 for Advanced Social Workers.

The Family Partnership model

Our practice is rooted in the Family Partnership model, where we work alongside families who develop their own meaningful plans alongside our practitioners and multi-agency partners.

Learning culture

Our social workers tell us there is strong learning culture; we invest in training which is varied and responsive to practice challenges and there is a progression pathway that offers a range of opportunities which recognises that not everyone wants to progress into management. We are currently developing a mentorship programme for all those who want to progress in their careers and we are invested in what social workers need to keep learning.

Best in the Northwest – latest Ofsted report

Our recent Ofsted inspection in January 2024 recognised our journey with an overall grading as ‘Good’ with Outstanding features in our After Care service and Leadership. We’re proud that our offer to our children, families and our practitioners is strong across all areas which included our training, support, use of tools and resources and most importantly the impact we have with those we work with.

View the Ofsted report

Your future teams

In Salford we offer opportunities to develop your careers in our different teams. We recognise that during your time with us, you may want more experiences or different challenges working with different types of children, families, or carers – that’s why we encourage colleagues to gain expertise in all our areas.

Learn more about the different teams that make up Salford’s Children’s Social Care.

Fancy a chat?

Our friendly teams could talk your socks off when it comes to all things Social Work. We appreciate you may want to have a look around our offices, meet some staff and your potential teams and shadow our work– we’re happy to arrange this. We'd love to hear from you and find out more about what you're looking for so if you'd like to talk to us please just drop a quick message to myrecruitment@salford.gov.uk and we'll get a call arranged. We look forward to hearing from you!