Social Worker - Family Placement Team

We know that social work, whilst rewarding, is not always easy. To support high quality consistent social work, we have a comprehensive learning and development offer, driven by our passionate Principal Social Worker. We have resilience groups, well-being days and events, group supervision as well as peer support. Each team has dedicated admin support.

The Family Placement Team is a small but very supportive team. The work we do can be challenging and we understand the importance of peer support and advice.

We work closely together and alongside the children's social workers to ensure that we are providing the best support to our vulnerable children.

Our social workers have the time to get to know everyone they work with, excellent support from managers and colleagues across the department and expert guidance whenever they need it.

Our main priority is to provide our workers with a secure physical and psychological base from which to work safely and effectively.

Our workforce tells us:

There is a supportive and approachable leadership and management team.
All teams offer each other good peer support; there is a strong focus on shared problem solving.

They feel appreciated and their development is prioritised.

Supervision is of high quality, reflective and routinely provided.

Key responsibilities...

To recruit, train and assess new and substitute Foster Carers and Special Guardian applicants, for children and young people.

To support the recruitment and assessment process of Foster Carers to enable more of our vulnerable children to be placed in local placements, near to their family and friends.

To support foster carers to take proper account of the wishes and feelings of children and young people.

The role will enable you to continually develop your skills and knowledge, as well as contribute to the ongoing improvement of the services and support we deliver.

We are looking for an experienced practitioner who is talented, passionate and reliable. You will hold current registration with Social Work England and possess a strong background in navigating the legal frameworks relevant to our work. You should have excellent assessment and analytical skills, with experience in completing Form F, Special Guardianship, and Connected Person Assessments.

You will possess a strong understanding of relevant child care legislation, along with excellent report writing and oral communication skills. Additionally, you will be adept at working within court and Fostering Panel timescales.

The children and young people we work with have told us they want social workers to:

Be friendly, fun and energetic
Listen respectfully, take action and stick to deadlines
Keep promises, be accessible and on time

As a team we would like practitioners who share our commitment to better outcomes for children, people who are organised and skilled in effective engagement of families.

If you have the skills, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm we are looking for, and if you want to work for a local authority that values and invests in staff, we would love to hear from you., Candidates should be able to demonstrate experience of working within the current Social Care System and Framework.

Social Work England registration fees can be claimed back from the Council., Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Generous annual leave of 28 days increasing to 33 days after 3 years' service (pro rata for part time).

Annual leave purchase policy.

Opportunities for flexible and agile working, to support our employees' work-life balance.

An inclusive and social working environment with a variety of staff networks including sports and social clubs.

Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and fostering leave.

Career development through internal and external training opportunities.

Local government pension scheme.

Life insurance cover (linked to the pension scheme).

A great office location next to travel links and the regenerated town centre.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support employees' health and wellbeing.

Staff dental and health plans.

Discounted leisure centre and gym membership.

Supermarket discount.

Interview date

Interviews date is to be confirmed.

Interviews will be conducted in person, providing candidates with the chance to personally meet the team and experience our work environment.

We will be reviewing applications regularly and reserve the right to close the advert early if suitable candidates are identified. To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible.

Please note AI is prohibited during the interview, any candidate using AI will be withdrawn from consideration.