Social Worker Fostering

Beighton; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Sheffield City Council is seeking a Fostering Social Worker for a temporary 12-month role within the Holiday and Support Care Team in Sheffield. You will supervise and support foster carers, conduct home visits (announced and unannounced), facilitate support groups, and deliver training to promote stable, nurturing homes for children and young people.

A focused, flexible, and resilient approach is essential.

Qualifications

• Experienced and motivated social worker with sound knowledge of fostering legislation and practice.

Responsibilities

• Supervise and support foster carers to ensure high-quality care for children and young people.
• Conduct announced and unannounced home visits and facilitate support groups.
• Deliver training and provide guidance to carers and hosts to promote stable, nurturing homes.
• Manage a caseload and contribute to safeguarding checks and compliance.

Skills

Social work experience

Fostering legislation knowledge

Job description

The job requirements are detailed below. Where applicable the skills, qualifications and memberships required for this job have also been included.

Fostering Social Worker – specialist team - Temporary for 12 months

We are looking for an enthusiastic and committed Fostering SupervisingSocial Worker to join our established fostering service. This role sits within the Holiday and Support Care Team.

Support carers provide regular weekend care to offer short breaks for children and their main carers. Children may be in can be in foster care, kinship arrangements or with birth family. Some of the children require a short break because of their disability so an understanding of the needs of children with disabilities and different communication methods would be beneficial. As a specialist role support is tailored to carer’s needs. Many carers work full-time so evening support groups and visits are provided. Annual visits to children are required which may involve some weekend work.

You will hold a manageable case load and play a key role in supervising and supporting foster carers to ensure high quality care and support for children and young people in Sheffield.

We are seeking an experienced and motivated social worker with sound knowledge of fostering legislation and practice. You will provide guidance, support and supervision to carers and hosts to promote stable and nurturing homes where children and young people can reach their full potential.

The role includes announced and unannounced home visits, facilitating support groups delivering training. We are looking for someone resilient, flexible, solution focussed and committed to delivering an excellent service.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on ourSheff news page.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyoneand where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.