Any children's social workers able to help me with an interview please?

[chocolatespiders]

Going for an interview for childrens social care support worker. Been with the NHS for a long time and ready for a change.

Looking for some advise.
When you are lone working what kind of risk assessment do you do when visiting a home?

Do you have any particular tried and tested methods when trying to engage with a family that are difficult to engage with? Any tips greatly appreciated to maximise my chances of getting the job.

I used to be a children's social worker so I can probably help.

-They'll probably want to know you understand safeguarding law, so talk about the children's act s17 and s47 which deal with children in need and safeguarding. Know a definition of significant harm and the assessment triangle. Stress you understand the importance of safeguarding and the needs of the child. Also working together with all professionals to share information and address risks

-assessment of risk to staff is fairly minimal, hopefully your team will have a checking in system and buddy system but I wouldn't bank on it. Take responsibility for yourself, make sure you've got a charged phone, update your outlook calendar to where you are and arrange to check in with someone

• lots of parents are difficult to engage. You can encourage them by being friendly/approachable/reliable (but not ignoring safeguarding issues)

Also read up on partnership working, which basically you and the parent work together to address the problem rather than fighting each other. Also look into systemic practice which is about understanding the parents' motivations and behaviour.

-they'll likely ask you about managing your time, talk about having a diary, planning ahead, prioritising, getting write ups done on time by having blocked out time for admin

-they'll probably ask you a question about equal ops, have something prepared

• I've noticed interviewer tend to have a form in front of them with the questions written in and boxes to fill in answers. Keep talking until the box is filled. If you need a second to think say "that's a really interesting question, let me think about that for a second".

I appear to have written an essay :) hope it all goes

Thankyou so.much that's all really useful.

If you were with a family and it got out of hand with a child involved would you be expected to stay as a duty of care to the child or get yourself out safe and raise the alarm?

If the shit seriously hits the fan you call 999 and get uniform/ambulance to help you. I've done this a few times and they've been really helpful. Police are the only people who can actually remove the child without a court order so you'll need them anyway, and an ambulance can deal with any adult mental health. You can always excuse yourself and call a manager for advice too, and I would do that fairly regularly. It's rare to be actually physically threatened, more likely you'll get a lot of f-ing and blinding. You shouldn't be allocated these cases as an unqualified worker but sometimes things change unexpectedly.

If you think it's going to be hairy try and bring another worker, either a SW or health visitor or something; let people know where you are; visit in daylight; keep a clear route to the door and make sure you aren't wearing anything that would impede a swift exit. Also make sure you've read the file before going and spoken to other professionals so you get a good idea of any risk. Also see if they can come to the office to meet you.

If you are working with someone known for violence don't them see you are nervous, challenge them the same as anyone else. They'll probably want to prove to you they've changed so make sure you see some evidence.