Children's social care in Bexley
Working in social care in Bexley is endlessly rewarding. As well as helping some of the most vulnerable people in our borough, we invest in looking after you and your career.
Part of that is offering excellent benefits, from competitive salaries and generous leave to flexible working and a wealth of health and wellness programmes.
Working with children
As of February 2023, our Children’s Services have been judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted inspectors for the second time in a row. They found that the service had a ‘clear strategic direction, strong partnerships and good political and corporate support’ allowing it to make a significant difference to children’s lives. Inspectors found that the service has a well-trained workforce that is improving the lives of children and families and that frontline workers feel safe and supported because of the quality of management oversight and decision-making.
Our practice is relationship-based, using the Signs of Safety framework.
See Ofsted activity, reports and ratings
Our approach to children’s social care
We believe:
- children should stay with their families whenever it’s in their best interest and safe
- where it’s not, we must act quickly through the courts to help children find a safe space
- success depends on positive, respectful relationships with families and with each other
- working with families is unpredictable, so we have to create a supportive environment for our teams
- the most effective practice is based on ‘showing your working out’ – so that even when things don’t go to plan, the thinking behind decisions is clear and defensible
Signs of Safety
At Bexley we use the ‘Signs of Safety’ model, which has been adopted as our practice framework and is in line with our ‘Bexley Values’. As with all practice frameworks, we also work within the framework of the Children Act (1989). The model is used across all of our services within Children’s Social Care and is being developed with our partner agencies. The Signs of Safety framework is a way of working that puts children and families at the centre of practice with our underpinning ethos statement being ‘Nothing about us, without us’.
The Signs of Safety approach emphasises the need to foster open, honest and respectful relationships with families in a compassionate and respectful way. We facilitate ‘Family Network Meetings’ to support families with finding their own strengths within their networks that support the safety and wellbeing of their children. The Signs of Safety incorporates a system whereby we obtain feedback from families to inform us about our practice and help us look at how we can continuously make improvements to our service.