Fostering Assessment Social Worker

Leicestershire County Council; East Midlands, Leicester; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dedicated social worker to join their Fostering and Adoption Assessment Team. This role involves conducting thorough assessments for fostering and adoption, ensuring children have safe and loving homes. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in statutory social work, particularly in safeguarding and assessment. The organization values flexibility and offers a supportive environment for professional development. If you are passionate about making a difference in children's lives and want to be part of a collaborative team, this opportunity is perfect for you.

Benefits

Flexible Working Options

Professional Development

Supportive Management

Inclusive Work Environment

Qualifications

• At least 2 years of statutory social work experience required.
• Experience in safeguarding, court, and pre-proceeding work essential.

Responsibilities

• Conduct comprehensive assessments for fostering and adoption.
• Support families through the assessment process with compassion.

Skills

Statutory Social Work Experience

Safeguarding

Communication Skills

Assessment Skills

Flexibility

Education

Social Work Degree

CQSW

DipSW

Tools

Microsoft Office

Database Applications

Job description

Children and families Department

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Field Based Worker

Salary: £31-074-£41.373 per annum (pro-rata for part-time) plus market premium

Working Hours:37-hour per week (would consider two part-time posts)

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 20th May 2025

Interview Date(s): TBC

About the Role

The Fostering and Adoption Assessment Team has a vacancy for a permanent assessing social worker. We would consider recruiting two part time workers. The assessment work includes undertaking mainstream fostering assessments, private fostering assessments, and non-agency adoption assessments. We also need to be available to support capacity in the Kinship Assessment Team, so kinship assessments may also be undertaken by the successful applicant.
As a team, we are committed to achieving the best outcomes for Leicestershire children, and for them to have safe, stable, and loving homes to live in. We undertake comprehensive and analytical carer assessments to achieve this end, whilst also working in a way that endeavours to build relationships with the families with whom we are working, and to support them through the assessment process.
We are recruiting social worker/s who have at least 2 years statutory social work experience, including safeguarding, direct work, and the completion of high-quality assessments. We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and their families. In return we can offer flexible working, a supportive and approachable manager, continued professional development, and a stable and welcoming team who are always on hand to provide advice and support.

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement .

. About You

To apply for this post, you must:

• A Social Work degree or equivalent, e.g. CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children's services), and have extensive recent post-qualification experience of working in a statutory setting including Safeguarding, Court, and Pre-proceeding work.
• Previous experience of working in a regulated service. You will need to comprehensively assess applicant carers - working with them in a way that allows for a thorough assessment (which analyses whether they meet the criteria for the assessment), but which also supports them, in a compassionate way, to learn all that they can about fostering, private fostering, or non-agency adoption, in order that they are better prepared to meet the needs of the children in their care (currently or in the future).
• A proven ability to communicate thoughtfully, confidently, succinctly and with purpose, (both verbally and in writing (using Microsoft Office and database applications relevant to the department)) with children, young people, parents/carers, colleagues and other multi-agencies and professionals.
• An ability to use your initiative, to be able to prioritise, and to offer flexibility in order to manage competing workloads and deadlines, and to ensure effective team working, with an ability - where necessary - to travel to locations throughout the county (and sometimes, across the country) working outside of office hours when required
• An in-depth knowledge and ability to apply relevant policies appropriate legislation government guidance and best practice in all aspects of social work including LSCB procedures - with specific awareness of the fostering regulations and guidance, and how to undertake fostering, private fostering, and non-agency adoption assessments.
• An awareness of the cultural, racial, linguistic and religious background of children, young people, and families, and how to build this knowledge into service delivery.
• Have comprehensive knowledge of the factors and influences which can impact on families and children achieving positive outcomes including child development, attachment and neglect, and parental factors such as substance misuse domestic abuse and mental health.
  

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to,equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion,please contact:

Emily Moss, Team Manager

Telephone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support .

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions .