FDAC Assessing Social Worker

Sirona Medical are working with a client in the Bedfordshire area who are recruiting for a Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) Assessing Social Worker. The FDAC specialist multidisciplinary team is made up of a Team Manager, Social Workers, a Parental Substance Misuse Specialist, a Domestic Abuse Expert, Primary Mental Health Worker and Business Support Officer.

The service includes adult psychiatric and child and adolescent psychological consultation.

The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) is an alternative, and research shows, more successful form of care proceedings, where parental substance misuse is a concern.

It uses a bespoke, problem-solving, trauma informed approach to target individual families’ complex difficulties.

Research shows that this model is successful in supporting parents to engage with and stay in substance misuse services leading to more children being able to return home.

Where parents do not engage and children cannot return home, quicker decisions are made about permanent placements for them.

The Pan Bedfordshire FDAC works across the three Bedfordshire Local Authorities - Luton, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford.

The lead and recruiting Local Authority is Central Bedfordshire Council.

The successful applicant will work across Bedfordshire.

Duties:The FDAC Social Worker is separate to the Child’s Social Worker.

As an Assessing Social Worker in the FDAC team you would work with the court, providing an accessible community-based FDAC initial assessment and intervention plan for high needs families with a history of substance misuse.

You will work as part of a team to provide a safe space for parents to address their difficulties, achieve abstinence and become able to focus on their child and address the concerns about their parenting.

You would support parents to start on their recovery journey, encouraging them at initial assessment to invest in recovery with open engagement to enable an effective individual intervention plan to be put in place.

As an experienced Social Worker, you would be critical to the success of the FDAC team.

You will be the first point of contact for parents embarking on their FDAC journey.

You will undertake initial gateway screens where you share about the service with parents to help them make informed decisions about whether they wish to chose FDAC care proceedings or continue with standard care proceedings.

You will be part of a specialist team making important and key recommendations for parents and children.

Yours and your colleagues’ practice will be enriched through collaborative support of each other and learning from each other’s specialisms.

You will work directly with families, provide effective and first-class intervention.

Your role will be to contribute to every child being able to grow up safely and reach their full potential.

In this important role, your day-to-day work would include undertaking gateway screens of parents, timely FDAC initial assessment of complex cases (parenting and substance misuse assessment) and participating in collaborative formulation and intervention planning.

You will write, in a trauma informed way, complex assessment reports for the court arena, to be submitted within directed timescales.

You would be trained to undertake substance misuse assessment and drug and alcohol screening of parents.

As primarily an assessing social worker you will hold a minimum case load, enabling you to experience aspects of FDAC work beyond the initial assessment and intervention process.

This includes undertaking healthy relationship work with parents; contributing to updating review progress reports.

At times you will attend FDAC lawyer and non-lawyer hearings and verbally update and advise the FDAC judges.

You will build and maintain strong collaborative relationships with partner agencies, sharing information to provide unified intervention and support.

You will liaise directly with solicitors and FDAC judges to facilitate FDAC assessments and relevant court direction.

The successful candidate will be qualified and Social Work England registered.

Relevant Social Work qualification (BA/MA Social Work/DipSW or equivalent)Social Work England RegisteredEligible to work within the UKYou’ll have experience of frontline social work and will have worked within care proceedings, Child Protection and Child in Need, upholding the Code of Ethics.You will be a good team player and be equally capable of individual practice.UK drivers licence, access to a car during working hours and business insurance.Join the FDAC team and you’ll develop a new level of specialism as you provide a bespoke, problem-solving approach to target individual families’ complex difficulties.

You will have access to specialist courses covering specific areas of interest.

You will be working in a trauma informed team that is alive to the risk of secondary trauma and will receive clinical supervision.