Experienced Social Workers - Fostering Service

We want to have practitioners and managers who are confident and brave in their practice and are supported by strong leaders at all levels. As a relatively small local authority, we pride ourselves on our friendly teams, manageable caseloads, creative approach and colleagues who support each other. We were pleased to see this recognised in the Ofsted report that followed our ILACS inspection in late 2022, which highlighted that "social workers in Trafford are overwhelmingly positive about both the local authority and the support they receive." In Trafford our approach is strengths-based, using relational and restorative practice. Our recent Ofsted report referred to our "relational model of social work practice, which is well regarded by the wider workforce, has been successfully implemented." We believe that a culture and environment in which our managers and social workers can thrive is an essential element of improving outcomes for children and families. Our 2023 Ofsted report recognised this, noting a "cultural shift (that) has been underpinned by a strong training offer to support social workers to develop the skills they need to provide a better service to children". Provider Services This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Fostering Service that sits within Provider Services, ensuring that our cared for children have loving, stable and high-quality homes to thrive in all aspects of their lives. There are 3 distinctive teams within the Fostering Service: Recruitment and Assessment Team, Mainstream Supervising Social Worker Team and Connected Carers/SGO Support Team. There is a full time Head of Service who is responsible for the 3 FTE Practice Managers across the three teams. We have developed a fostering modernisation plan which includes activity across all the 3 teams . This plan has been coproduced with the service and foster carers with an overall aim to modernise the service and bring back the service to growth whilst retaining our foster carer community. This is an exciting time to be joining the fostering service in Trafford. We are collaborating with all 9 other Greater Manchester Local Authorities in delivering a Fostering Recruitment Hub, a single point of contact for all new fostering enquires. We are one of a number of pathfinders across England to be developing this new initiative and approach to recruiting new foster carers across the region. In Trafford we are developing our first Mockingbird Consultation to go live in early 2025, providing support to our foster carers and children in way that is evidenced to provide placement stability for children. We recently established a Foster Carer Association (FCA), giving our foster carers a voice in improving outcomes for our children whilst supporting the fostering service to be the best it can be. We are currently recruiting Experienced Social Workers (in line with PCF), with at least 2 years post qualifying experience to our Fostering Service and would love to hear from you. We vacancies in our Recruitment and Assessment Team and Connected Persons and SGO Support team. Recruitment and Assessment Team:

• The Recruitment and Assessment Team assesses perspective Mainstream Foster Carers and Connected Person Foster Carers.
• Recruited Foster carers who are approved for child(ren) which are unknown to them. These carers may also work full time/ part time or have both foster carers available to undertake the fostering task. The foster carer can be a single person or a couple. These carers provide short break, short- and long-term placements for children aged between 0-18 years.
• Connected Persons Foster Carers have a connection to a child either as a family member or a friend. These placements can be made in an emergency as an immediate placement situation under Regulation 24 (Regulation 24 is detailed in the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010) prior to be fully assessed with the child(ren) in placement or are assessed and approved prior to placement.
• The team undertake initial home visits, initial viability assessments, full mainstream and connected person's assessments and including consideration for Special Guardianship.
• The team support with foster carer recruitment activity.
Connected Persons and SGO Support Team:
• The team support approved connected persons foster carers.
• The team supervise, support and advocate for approved connected persons foster carers. They undertake foster carers' supervision, prepare and present fostering annual reviews, and support foster carers in caring for the children in their home.
• The function of the team is to provide an SGO Support Hub. Referrals are received from existing Special Guardians who require short term support and advice. The aim is to undertake short pieces of focused and direct work.
Our commitment to you We know that when you come to work in Trafford, we have a responsibility to provide you with the right tools and support to flourish in your new role. Induction We have recently updated our induction programme for new colleagues joining us at all levels. During your first two weeks you will have protected time to get to know your team, our systems and other parts of the service. Workload We are absolutely committed to ensuring that your workload is manageable. This isn't necessarily a specific caseload number, as we all know that numbers don't necessarily reflect the complexity of the children and families you are working with. But we believe that manageable workloads are critical, and managers will support you and confirm priorities through discussion and supervision. We have performance management reporting of caseloads and therefore at all levels we are responsible for monitoring workloads across the service. There will be times where there is a level of flexibility required to meet the needs of the service or for individual children you work with, particularly in times of crisis. We will ensure that you are able to take additional hours back quickly to give you balance between your work and home life. Supervision One of our practice-led improvements has been to refresh our supervision framework, which has been a really exciting piece of work. We commit to offering monthly formal supervision that is both reflective and supportive and provides you with clear advice, guidance and direction. We also offer peer supervision as part of our refreshed framework, with practitioners involved in deciding the topics of discussion.