Qualified Social Worker

Our family are usually the people closest to us, those we care most about. Family life is not just about legal ties - it goes far deeper than that. It concerns our most important biological, social and emotional relationships. We hold the value that children and young people are best cared for by their birth families and extended networks, and this underpins our 'family first' ethos. Where this cannot be achieved, we seek to ensure that children and young people's relationships are maintained in line with their best interests. Birth parents and extended networks are included within the decision-making processes and we provide alternative care which is nurturing and which fosters a sense of belonging. There has never been a more exciting time to join our service: alongside making a difference to the lives of individuals and families, we have adopted exciting new strengths-based approaches and are passionate about delivering continuous service improvement. In this role, you will be part of our innovative and forward-thinking Fostering Service. We are an ambitious and aspirational service and we are looking for social workers who share our vision about innovative approaches to the recruitment of foster carers, matching of children to families and providing an outstanding level of support to all our foster carers. Our team is very experienced, highly supportive, friendly and passionate about what we do. We work hard but also find time to celebrate achievements and good practice. The Recruitment and Family Finding Team work closely and cooperatively with colleagues within the wider fostering service, with Social Workers and managers from within Children's Service, and partners within the community. The work is interesting, rewarding but can be challenging however it all supports our aim to have a family available for every child and offering stability and permanence to children. Our brilliant practitioners are at the heart of our ambitious approach to improve outcomes for children and families in Telford and Wrekin: from tailored in-house training to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership, we ensure that our workforce have access to the best development opportunities. Here at Telford and Wrekin Council, we have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement) for the second time! Here's just some of the great things Ofsted had to say when they visited us in April 2024:

• children in care benefit from living in supportive permanent foster care homes which enable them to thrive both at home and at school or college
• where children have a plan of long-term fostering, social workers focus on securing permanence for them through matching with foster carers; children are cared for by foster carers who are appropriately skilled and fully supported to meet their individual needs
• the quality of fostering assessments is strong; foster carers are supported well and there is a comprehensive training offer for foster carers
• there is a strong learning culture within children's services.
• Participation is a real strength and children's and families' involvement is threaded throughout service developments.
• Corporate parenting is a strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• The stability of the experienced workforce creates the perfect environment to benefit children and care leavers. As a result, social workers maintain relationships with children who know them over many years, which contributes to children's feeling of belonging.
• Staff enjoy working in an environment where senior leaders are visible, and they feel valued.
There has never been a more exciting time to join our service after the recent publication of our Ofsted Inspection! If you think you can meet the challenge and would like to find out more about this role, please see our recruitment web pages or contact us by emailing Daniel.Chell@telford.gov.uk Please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification. At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice. Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check. It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups.

Telford & Wrekin Council is an award winning council, and we were recognised as Local Authority of the Year 2022 at the Municipal Journal Awards, and the Association for Public Service Excellence Council of the Year in 2021. At Team Telford we work hard to protect, care and invest to create a better borough and our employees are at the heart of everything we do. Having the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles allows us to deliver the excellent services that residents and businesses on the borough expect from us. Our friendly and passionate teams are trusted by leaders and managers to deliver this ambition. We invest and nurture our workforce and support our employees to develop and thrive. The better we are the bigger difference we make to the people we serve.

In return we also offer a great range of benefits including competitive salaries, flexible working hours and work arrangements, employee discounts, salary sacrifice schemes, a local government pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement. At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice and we know we are stronger and better connected as a result. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and where our data shows that specific groups are under-represented within our workforce, our adverts will actively encourage applications from these groups. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, committed to recruiting and retaining people with disabilities or other health conditions. You can find out more about this and our 'guaranteed interview scheme' here You can also read more about our Recruitment and Selection Policy and Recruitment of Ex-Offenders here and the Transgender & Non-Binary Inclusion Policy commitments here