Newly Qualified Social Worker (ASYE)

Job Introduction

Newly Qualified Social Worker (ASYE)
 
Our next ASYE cohort starts on 8th September 2025. Start your social work career with BCP Council Children’s Social Care!

BCP Council is looking for dedicated and compassionate newly qualified Social Workers to join our ASYE programme in children’s services. We are proud to have achieved a GOOD rating from Ofsted, recognising our commitment to providing excellent care and support for children and families.

At BCP, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to continuing building a diverse and inclusive workforce. Your unique experiences and perspectives will help us continue delivering outstanding care to children in our community.

If you are reflective, pro-active and resilient, have the desire to make a real difference and ensure children and their voices are at the heart of everything you do, Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council could be the place for you. We are seeking graduates with experience of working with children, young people and families, ideally in a final statutory placement, who want to extend their knowledge and skills to meet the Practice Standards for Child and Family Social Workers. It is a really exciting time here in BCP Children’s Services and you have the opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of our most vulnerable children and young people. 

We are now looking to recruit our next cohort of newly qualified social workers to join our well regarded ASYE programme in September 2025. We currently have vacancies in teams across children’s social care and welcome applications from final year social work students about to qualify, or those who have qualified within the last 2 years who have not yet completed their assessed year of employment (ASYE). Your salary at the point of recruitment will be £35,004 p.a. (includes £690 contractual supplement) with the option to receive an additional retention payment based upon you remaining with BCP council for 2 years. Your salary on completion of your ASYE will be £41,869 p.a. (includes £4,234 contractual supplement) Please note all BCP Council posts are pending Pay and Reward outcome.

Our BCP Academy ASYE programme provides a year of support and learning designed to enable you to build the very best foundations for your future career in front line social work with vulnerable children, young people and families in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. In their recent inspection, Ofsted recognised that ‘The workforce development service trains cohorts of newly qualified staff effectively…’ As part of the programme each newly qualified social worker can expect: 

• A comprehensive two-week training induction prior to joining the team
• Mentoring from an allocated Consultant Social Worker who will provide hands-on, wrap around support
• A capped caseload (limited to a maximum of 10 children/carers for the first three months)
• 12 protected study days over the course of the year 
• Monthly group learning and development days 
• Monthly reflective supervision (fortnightly for the first 6 weeks) in addition to management supervision 
• Co-allocations with experience practitioners and Shadowing opportunities  

What our newly qualified social workers tell us:

“The ASYE team contains knowledgeable people who offer the support and vision to get us fresh out of university to confidently handling work independently. The ASYE programme has showed me that you never stop learning. I am encouraged to apply my learning practically in a safe and supported environment”

“I believed that the ASYE programme at BCP has helped to build my confidence as a practitioner and given me a strong start in social work. Doing your ASYE with BCP, you will not be short of learning opportunities to develop a variety of skills…’

For more information on our NQSW ASYE offer, please see our BCP Partnership Academy website: Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE)

For an informal discussion please contact: Hannah White, Consultant Social Worker at hannah.white2@bcpcouncil.gov.uk or Bryony House, Consultant Social Worker at bryony.house@bcpcouncil.gov.uk. 

Dates for Interviews: 29th and 30th April 2025

Please note we are currently looking for candidates who have full permission to work in the UK as we are unable to provide sponsorship visas. 

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people.  Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline.  We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services.  By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package for further details see here

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We have been in a process of collective bargaining since 2019 and have positively worked forward to reach an agreed position with the unions for the new contractual offer. This has taken longer than we hoped and therefore we are having to consider all alternative avenues available to enable us to remove inequality in the organisation as a result of bringing together 3 councils. 

We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation, and all colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. We want to reassure everyone that whichever route is taken to reach the new terms and conditions, we can honour continuous service and there will not be any job reduction as a result of the implementation of Pay and Reward.  If you have any questions at all about this process, please feel free to raise this with the hiring manager.

DBS

BCP Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the community and expects all staff and volunteers to share the same commitment. Applicants to this post will be required to complete the appropriate level of Disclosure & Barring Service Check. Please refer to the Job Description or Role Profile for more details.