York is a city continuing to make history. With world-renowned heritage, vibrant culture, a strong economy, and a past shaped by pioneering social reform and care, it’s widely recognised as one of the safest and best cities to live in the UK.
But it’s our communities that are at the heart of York’s unique character. And it’s our precious and ambitious workforce that makes City of York Council.
Look beyond the York that visitors see, and you’ll find some of the most in-need communities in the country. We know we have some real challenges here, together with opportunities to make a real difference. That’s why we want the best. That’s why we want you.
You’re passionate, skilled, innovative and people-centred. You want and are driven to make the difference to individuals and families, to our team, and for yourself.
We understand social work is challenging and we are committed to creating a healthy culture where colleagues feel that they can share their views about the organisation and the environment in which they work.
We strive to achieve the very best practice and to continually learn by sharing accountability and developing new ways of working. This has enabled a culture to be developed in York where social workers and managers feel confident, safe, and supported to manage risk appropriately.
Michael Melvin, Director of Adult Safeguarding, on career opportunities in the Adult Social Care and Integration Directorate:
In York we recognise that that our workforce is our biggest asset. Our valued staff are critical to making a difference and achieving our ambitious plans for improving outcomes for adults, children and their families in York.
"We would like qualified social workers to join us to help make that difference. With you, we want to create a shared understanding of ‘what good looks like’. We know that this can only be achieved with confident, competent and skilled staff, who understand their responsibilities and work together to deliver responsive, high performing and high-quality services for adults, children, young people and their families.
"We want to recruit, retain, train, support, develop and offer positive challenge to our workforce and equip them to make a difference to the lives of families, keep them safe and enable them to fulfil their potential. Critical to this, is knowing that our leaders and employees are part of a learning organisation; learning from families and from our partners, encouraging creativity and innovation to improve the quality and positive impact of our social work practice.
"We would very much welcome a conversation with you about how you can progress your social work career in York."
We're recruiting a number of significant roles for social workers at different points in their career.
We're keen to understand what works best for our social workers and can offer flexible working for both full and part time roles. A recent staff survey completed within children’s social care described working for City of York Council as “supportive”.
If you are passionate about social work, want to make a difference and work in an innovative Local Authority, we'd love to hear from you.
Working in York
York is a thriving city which is ranked within the top 10 places to live in the UK and is a special place to live and work: The best places to live and work in the UK (OneFamily).
If you're considering relocating to York we can offer financial assistance to cover selling and purchasing properties, removals, temporary accommodation and disbursements (subject to you meeting the criteria of the policy). Further details can be provided on request.
See further information about working and living in York.
The benefits of working for us
We can offer you a range of employee benefits, including a competitive salary, generous leave entitlement, a government pension scheme and access to our staff benefits package, which includes a variety of retail discounts.
You'll be fully enabled with mobile kit to work in an agile way at home and at locations across York.
We can offer you a comprehensive benefits package including:
- a competitive salary (Grade 9, Level 1 to 4)
- Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution
- up to 30 days annual leave entitlement
- 5 days additional annual leave for foster carers
- family friendly policies; assistance with travel to work expenses including discounted Park & Ride annual travel pass and 0% loans for train travel
- a comprehensive staff benefits package
- manageable, monitored caseloads
- a supported working environment
- regular reflective supervision.
- training and development opportunities, including coaching
- progression opportunities
- staff car parking permits
- relocation expenses
Our Senior Social Worker career grade in children's social care (Grade 10) means that any Social Worker meeting the progression criteria (three years post qualifying experience and endorsement from their line manager) can be recruited as a Senior Social Worker.
The opportunity to progress to a Senior Social Worker is available to all children's social workers across the service once they are able to meet the progression criteria.
See further information about the benefits of working for the council.
Application guidance
You should ensure that you carefully read the job description provided in the job advert. This will assist you in completing the supporting statement for your application which is a very important section and will play a key role in shortlisting.
Please refer to our application guidance before starting an application to work in social care.
If you need help from us to complete your application, please email: recruitment@york.gov.uk.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Also see
Recruitment Team
Human Resources (HR) Business Centre