Social Worker

Staffordshire County Council; Hereford; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is seeking a dedicated Resilience Supervising Social Worker to join our countywide Fostering Service based at Staffordshire Place One. You will supervise carers, contribute to reviews, chair meetings, and collaborate with children's social workers, education and health colleagues to ensure stable, trauma-informed care for children stepping down from residential settings.

This permanent, full-time role offers variety, professional development and the chance to improve

Qualifications

• Qualified Social Worker
• Registered with Social Work England
• Current UK driving licence and vehicle
• Commitment to continuous professional development

Responsibilities

• Provide regular supervision and support visits to foster carers, including resilience carers
• Offer professional challenge to carers delivering trauma-informed care
• Chair monthly Resilience Meetings to monitor placement stability
• Organise Resilience Support Groups and peer learning sessions
• Complete foster carer annual reviews and present necessary reports
• Undertake fostering assessments and changes of approval as required
• Maintain strong multi-agency collaboration with children’s social workers, education and health teams
• Support placement planning, stability and crisis intervention to promote sustainability

Skills

Supervision skills

Trauma-informed approach

Communication with carers

Collaboration

Driving licence

Education

Bachelor's degree in Social Work

Registration with Social Work England

Job description

Are you passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of children and young people? Staffordshire County Council is seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Resilience Supervising Social Worker to join our countywide Fostering Service. This is a permanent, full-time position based at Staffordshire Place One, with responsibility for supporting foster carers across Staffordshire. This is a rewarding opportunity to work with foster carers who form part of our Resilience Scheme, supporting children and young people as they step down from residential settings into stable family-based fostering arrangements. These children often have experienced significant adversity and require highly skilled, therapeutic and trauma-informed care. As a Resilience Supervising Social Worker, you will play a key role in supporting carers to provide nurturing, stable homes that promote positive outcomes and long-term permanence for children. Working within an experienced and supportive team, you will provide supervision, guidance and support to foster carers, contribute to annual reviews, attend and lead multi-agency meetings, and work collaboratively with children's social workers, education professionals and health colleagues to ensure children receive the support they need to thrive. While the primary focus of the role is supporting carers within the Resilience Scheme, the team also provides supervision and support to a range of other fostering households, offering variety and opportunities to develop broader fostering knowledge and experience. If you are an enthusiastic and motivated Social Worker looking to further develop your fostering expertise and make a lasting difference to the lives of children and young people, we would love to hear from you. For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team's ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

Main Responsibilities

• Undertaking regular supervision, support visits and unannounced visits to approved foster carers, with a particular focus on Resilience carers, whilst also providing supervision and support to a range of mainstream foster carers and, where required, Family and Friends Foster Carers.
• Providing advice, guidance and professional challenge to foster carers caring for children with complex needs, supporting them to deliver therapeutic, trauma-informed care.
• Coordinating, attending and, where required, chairing monthly Resilience Meetings to monitor placement stability, review progress and identify support required for children and carers.
• Organising and contributing to Resilience Support Groups, working alongside colleagues to facilitate group discussions, learning opportunities and peer support for carers.
• Completing foster carer annual reviews and presenting reports where required, ensuring carers continue to meet fostering standards and receive appropriate support and development opportunities.
• Undertaking fostering assessments, including changes of approval, long-term matching assessments and other fostering-related assessments in line with service requirements.
• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with children's social workers, education professionals, health colleagues and other agencies to ensure coordinated support and positive outcomes for children and young people.
• Supporting placement planning, stability planning and crisis intervention work to promote placement sustainability and minimise disruption for children.
• Contributing to the recruitment, retention and development of foster carers through ongoing support, training and reflective supervision.
• Ensuring high-quality recording, report writing and case management in line with fostering regulations, National Minimum Standards and Staffordshire County Council policies and procedures.
• Promoting the voice of the child in all areas of practice and ensuring children remain at the centre of planning and decision-making.
  The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:
• Qualified Social Worker
• Registered with Social Work England.
• Have a current UK driving licence and vehicle.
• Demonstrate a commitment to continuous professional development

Desirable

• Experience of working in a fostering role

Above all, you'll bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it's safe to do so.

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively. Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy: We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future. We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire