Return to Practice Programme

Return To Practice Programme

We now have an established Social Work Academy which offers experienced social workers a comprehensive learning and professional development pathway. This also includes a range of new initiatives, including our Aspiring Social Work Scheme and a new Apprenticeship Scheme that have broadened our recruitment and retention strategy to support local experienced children and family workers to progress into a Social Work career. At the heart of the academy is support for our Children's Services Practitioners who have access to the best learning and professional development that is underpinned by professional curiosity and research and evidence.

Thank you for your interest in our Return to Practice Programme. Coventry is rated good by OFSTED and is committed to attracting quality practitioners to our workforce. We have an award-winning Social Work Academy which offers an intensive supportive learning environment to newly qualified social workers stepping into professional practice. The Academy supports a range of initiatives, for example Frontline, Step-Up and a new Apprenticeship Model that have broadened to support local experienced children and families’ workers to progress their social work career. The Return to Practice Programme will complement this portfolio reaching out to those who have qualified as a social worker that have been out of practice for some time and are now looking to reignite your passion for social work as a career.

If you are unregistered and have been out of practice for more than two years, the 12 weeks Return to Practice Programme will enable you to update your knowledge and skills so that you can meet the requirements for registration with Social Work England. As a paid, full-time employee, we will provide you with an opportunity to complete a period of ‘supervised practice’. Linking you with a social work team manager based in one of our busy front-line teams for a minimum of 3 days per week, you will undertake a period of shadowing, observing and learning about current practice to update your understanding of social work with children and their families. This, together with 2 study days per week, will form your updating period to refresh your knowledge and skills, you will then be able to meet the requirements for your professional registration.

You will be supported with coaching and mentoring from a Professional Practice Educator based in the Social Work Academy alongside an internal package of bespoke learning and development which will enable practitioners to meet the knowledge requirements for the Post Qualifying Standards (PQS) and the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF).

If you are looking to return to practice we want to hear from you. It is a great time to join our diverse workforce within Children’s Services, with great opportunities to develop your learning, ongoing training to improve practice, a clear way to progress through our progression pathway, and an engaging team that recognises success and values staff.  There are opportunities to join our help and protection teams; looked after children teams; fostering teams, children with disabilities and through care services.

To learn more about the Return To Practice Programme, please see the Return to Practice Handbook.

For further information regarding Return to Practice or to have an informal conversation about this opportunity please get in touch

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