Fostering and Kinship Social Worker - Permanent and Fixed Term, Windsor

Social network you want to login/join with:

Fostering and Kinship Social Worker - Permanent and Fixed Term, Windsor

Client: Achieving for Children

Location: Windsor, United Kingdom

Job Category: Other

EU work permit required: Yes

Job Reference: 15007d9f85ed

Job Views: 73

Posted: 18.02.2025

Expiry Date: 04.04.2025

Job Description:

Job Information

Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company that has a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate enabling us to do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), we offer the freedoms of a social enterprise with the employment benefits of local government.

Fostering and Kinship Social Worker - Permanent and Fixed Term

We are currently recruiting permanent and fixed term roles within our Independent Fostering Agency.

The Fostering service is a dynamic and friendly team who support foster carers and promote permanency for children in care. We support and supervise mainstream and connected carers as well as assess special guardianship. We pride ourselves in prioritising the voice of the child within fostering and wider network, and offer a wide range of training and support to carers to maintain stability. The team have a collaborative approach of working and utilise peer supervision as well as team catch ups, creating a real sense of community.

Operational area: Windsor and Maidenhead

Primary place of work: Maidenhead Town Hall, SL6 1LF

Appointment type: Permanent

Business area: Children's Social Care

Full time/Part time: Full-time

Salary from: £42,271 (CP06)

Salary to: £49,352 (CP11)

Hours: 37

Estimated Interview date/s: TBC

Closing Date: 06/09/2024

About the role

As a Social Worker your role will be to work with colleagues to provide the full range of fostering services, including recruitment, assessment, training and supervision/support, duty services, as well as form C assessments and special guardianship assessment. You will undertake a range of work to safely place children and work to achieve permanency plans for children.

Achieving for Children work within the framework of signs of safety and we place a strong emphasis on signs of success, as well as peer group supervision sessions. There will be opportunities to be involved in the development of foster carer training and support groups.

About you

To be a Social Worker for AfC, you will be passionate about making a positive difference to the lives of children and young people. We are looking for someone who can work flexibly, has excellent communication skills and can work collaboratively to achieve shared outcomes. To be successful in the role you will need to demonstrate:

1. Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and working with a range of professionals, especially foster carers
2. Knowledge of statutory legislation (for example Children’s Act) and national policy drivers that will affect children’s services and your role
3. Strong analytical and planning skills for assessing and reviewing children and young people’s needs, and planning packages of care across a range of cases, able to explain professional reasoning judgements, and decision making (ideally experience using Form F assessments)
4. Good understanding of the challenges faced by foster carers, and the complexities of fostering assessments including private fostering
5. Experience in presenting to fostering panels, and completing annual review reports

In addition we expect all of our social workers to have:

1. A full and valid driving licence and access to own transport
2. A professional social work qualification, CQSW or Diploma in Social Work (DipSW), or other relevant qualification recognised by Social Work England
3. An active Social Work England registration

About Our Benefits

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to work remotely. Working in AfC you will also have access to:

1. 29 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after four years of Continuous Service
2. Managers who recognise complexity of cases and load, value hard work, provide reassurance, build confidence and facilitate career development and progression opportunities
3. Free parking at your main place of work
4. Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
5. Travel assistance package for business use, including car mileage reimbursement, an annual season ticket loan or access to the cycle to work scheme
6. Laptop, phone and systems so you can work remotely - enabling hybrid working
7. Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
8. A minimum of 12 protected Development Days each year for all staff
9. A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
10. A range of staff discounts with national retailers and well-known brands
11. A huge range of additional professional development opportunities as part of our regional Social Work Teaching Partnership

Important Information

Start dates: Achieving for Children have meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.

Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the for right to work guidance.

Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

For more information about AfC: Drop in and meet Regina on the first Wednesday of every month at Civic Centre, Twickenham.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.