Friends and Family Social Worker (12 month maternity cover)

We are seeking to appoint a Supervising Social Worker within the Fostering Team as 12 month maternity cover. Your main role will be support and assessments of prospective foster carers on our Friends and Family Team, averaging up to 6 assessments at any one time. The role will require excellent assessment and analytical skills whilst representing the authority in undertaking timely assessments of friends and family. Once assessed and approved at panel the newly approved carer will transfer from you for support in completing their training standards.

We are looking for Social Workers with experience of undertaking assessments within set times scales. Social workers with positive approaches, solution focused and able to display and promote positive practice whilst demonstrating enthusiasm and passion for protecting children and young people across the city.

The friends and family team has a manager and two ASWs who undertake viability assessments, reg 24 assessments and support to family and friend carers, a busy team who work to support the placement needs for children to be this Immediate or preplanned.

In terms of support there are six support workers across the service, two in friends and family, two in focus and two in mainstream, who work to provide streamlined support. There are two therapeutic social workers that sit within the STARLAC team.

All staff on the team have training in therapeutic care giving which is to be rolled out to all our carers enhancing training for all those supporting children in Salford foster families. As we transition to the mockingbird model this will further support stable placements and builds resilient networks.
In Salford, we are interested in you as a person and the practitioner you are or who you aspire to be.

Please be aware that this post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. If you have lived or worked abroad for 3 months or more in the last 5 years or 12 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years whilst aged 18 or over, please refer to the link below for details for how to obtain your Certificates of Good Character. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council's primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr .

Want to know more about Salford?
As an authority we are dedicated to improving the lives of our residents, and as an employer we are passionate about helping individuals to thrive in their work. We are committed to developing a diverse and inclusive culture and are proud of our professional accreditations which champion this.

Find out about our city as a place to live, work & grow, and learn more about the amazing work we are doing. You'll also find out about the wealth of benefits we have to offer you here!

Continuous Service commitment
New employees can keep their service related benefits when moving between a whole host of public sector organisations within Greater Manchester, which include: Councils, NHS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Transport for Greater Manchester, as well as many others under this scheme. Find out if this applies to you here.

• Building trusted relationships while making sure peoples wishes, feelings and beliefs are central to decision making.


• Having conversations with people based on what matters most to them.


• Connecting people to wider networks of opportunity and support.


• Increasing peoples creative potential and self-esteem.


• Responding quickly to crisis and sticking with children and families until things are better.


• Keeping in touch with children, young people and families and taking a genuine interest in how they are and if anything needs to change.


• Being ambitious, curious with a desire to learn and reflect.


Our offer to you:

• Up to 34 days holiday a year (plus bank holidays).


• Competitive salary following pay and grading review in 2023.


• Free parking


• Hybrid working giving flexibility for you to manage your diary and offer a better work/life balance.


• Training in the Family Partnership Model which Salford is adopting across the Local Authority.


• Recently refurbished office space with free parking on site. The majority of our teams are sat together in Swinton at Unity House.


• Rich in resources to help you with any child or family you work with.


• Robust training offer and mentoring scheme to support you with your career and aspirations.


• A comprehensive Wellbeing Offer


• Regular, quality, reflective supervision from a consistent management and leadership team.


If you are interested in knowing more about the make-up of our teams, how we work, our offer to you please visit: Be a social worker in SalfordSalford City Council

Our friendly teams could talk your socks off when it comes to all things Social Work. We appreciate you may want to have a look around our offices, meet some staff or your future potential teams and shadow we're happy to arrange this.