Social Worker - Fostering

North-Yorkshire-Council-1; Harrogate; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

North Yorkshire Council is seeking an experienced Fostering Social Worker to assess prospective Kinship Foster Carers and provide supervision to ensure safe, stable, and nurturing care. You will work with a range of services to support fostering families and children’s wellbeing.

The role requires a qualified Social Worker with experience in fostering and a strong understanding of trauma. You will engage with statutory responsibilities and be part of a rota that includes out-of-hours work.

Qualifications

• Qualified Social Worker with registration and practice in children’s services.
• Experience in fostering and kinship care assessments preferred.
• Understanding of childhood adverse trauma and its effects on outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Assess prospective Kinship Foster Carers.
• Supervise and support approved Foster Carers across varying levels of need.
• Collaborate with teams and partner services to support fostering families and ensure safeguarding.

Skills

Qualified Social Worker

Fostering experience

Trauma-informed care

Education

Degree in Social Work

Tools

DBS Disclosure (Enhanced)

Job description

Grade: JK Contract Type: Fixed Term 12mths

We have an excellent opportunity to join our experienced team of Fostering Social Workers, who are responsible for assessing, supervising, and supporting North Yorkshire's foster carers.

About the service

North Yorkshire Council have a national reputation for excellence, and we are extremely proud of the work our Children’s Services do.

The team works with both prospective foster carers throughout the assessment process and approved foster carers across the county, ensuring children receive safe, stable, and nurturing care that meets their individual needs.

About the role

The post of Fostering Social Worker involves a range of professional skills; however, this post will primarily focus on the assessment of prospective Kinship Foster Carers. The role will involve the supervision and support of approved Foster Carers ranging from newly approved Foster Carers to those who care for the most complex children and young people in care.

You will be a qualified Social Worker, ideally experienced in fostering and have a good understanding of the impact of childhood adverse trauma. You will need to be committed to developing excellent outcomes for children through creating productive working relationships with a wide range of services to support our fostering families.

Applicants would benefit from an understanding of the whole fostering process, but specifically the requirements to support and supervise Foster Carers. In addition, you should be familiar with the statutory responsibilities throughout their on-going approval.

The post involves a degree of working outside normal office hours for home visits and group work. North Yorkshire Fostering offer an Out of Hours phone line between 6-10pm weekday and 2pm-6pm weekends, it is an expectation of the post that you are part of this rota which equates to 2 slots per month (Full time).

It is an exciting time in Children and Young Peoples Services in North Yorkshire as we plan our approach in respect of the Families First Partnership Programme and how we will be responding to the social care reforms. Work is underway to plan our approach and implementations for 2027. As a result of this, some realignment may happen with job roles in the future, we want to be transparent about this in respect of this role.

Enhanced Level DBS Disclosure isrequiredfor appointment to this post.

We are committed to the inclusion, safeguarding, and promoting the welfare ofchildren andadults at risk.

North Yorkshire Councils’ purpose is to deliver services and facilities to the diverse residents and visitors of North Yorkshire. To ensure we deliver inclusive services we strive to have a diverse workforce where everybody can be themselves by respecting differences and embedding equality ofopportunity. We celebrate diversity and recognise each other’s contributions; we therefore welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds.