Associate Family Court Adviser (Self Employed Social Worker)

Location: Various Locations

Closing Date: Tuesday 09 April 2019

Associate Family Court Advisers (FCA) are an important part of the Cafcass working community, complimenting the challenging and rewarding work done across England by our employed teams.

There are many reasons why people choose to engage with Cafcass in this way. The unique nature of the work, the flexibility and independence to manage income and work/life balance, and the opportunity to do other work alongside are just some.

We welcome interest at this time from individuals that are able to support service delivery working on a mixed caseload of Public and Private Law, with the ability to travel at least an hour away from your home at times.

We are looking for Associate FCA’s from a variety of specific locations, that can be seen on the document attached to the vacancy, detailing the area’s we are specifically advertising for. Principally the;

• Carlisle to Lancaster
• Leeds, Hull and Sheffield
• Newcastle to Carlisle
• Brighton to Folkestone
• Bristol to Gloucester
• Reading, Bristol to Slough
• Nottingham, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent

Please do review the attached document with maps and details of the locations surrounding these offices we are advertising for.

If you are interested in applying to become an Associate, please note you must:

1. Be social work qualified
2. Have 3+ years post qualifying experience
3. Be HCPC registered to work in England

We also think for you to succeed and truly make a difference you should be someone who:

• is an expert in safeguarding, child engagement, inter-agency working, case analysis, planning and recording
• can work independently
• is committed to their continuous professional development (CPD)
• has experience working with highly vulnerable children and families
• is resilient and organised
• can work proportionately
• has strong, intuitive IT skills
• is an effective verbal and written communicator.

If you haven’t already, we suggest taking a few minutes to go onto the Associate Family Court Adviser section of our website on the below web-site link:

https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/careers/our-roles/associate-family-court-adviser/ 

This will help you gain a better understanding of what becoming an Associate FCA entails, what you can expect in terms of remuneration and the support you will receive.

We hope you are still interested and if so, hope you will take a few minutes to apply. As well as submitting a current CV, you’ll be able to submit a supporting statement if you wish, in which you might want to let us know why you are interested in becoming an Associate FCA.

If having reviewed your details we feel you meet our criteria, we’ll be in touch to confirm the next steps which initially will be an online assessment. However, we’d like to use this opportunity to let you know where and when we’ll be holding panel interviews - which is the last stage of the recruitment process – over the next few months:

Panel Interviews: 17/04/2019 and 18/04/2019 in Leeds, 23/04/2019 and 24/04/2019 in Bloomsbury.

We can advise you will be able to claim reasonable travel expenses to attend an interview but if you have a preferred date / location above, then we would endeavour to try and see you on that date.

Please be advised that recruitment for Associate FCAs is a continuous process for us with regular reviews of new applications.

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. We are also a Disability Confident Employer which further underlines our commitment to employ, train, retain and develop the careers of colleagues with disabilities.
 
Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information on what the assessment covers can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS policy.