Fostering Social Worker

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.
 

• Job Title:                            Fostering Social Worker
• Job Location:                     Shire Hall, Gloucester covering Stroud & Cotswolds 
• Salary:                               £37,938 - £45,718 per annum 
• Hours per Week:               37.00 
• Contract Type:                   Permanent 
• Closing Date:                     29/12/2024 
• Job Requisition Number:   10396 
• This post is open to job share

We are currently recruiting for a Supervising Social Worker to join our Fostering Support Team covering Stroud & Cotswold.

About Us

For all your hard work. You will receive the following.

• £37,938 - £45,718 per annum subject to experience
• annual retention payment of £2,000*
• welcome payment of £4,000*
• up to £8,000 relocation package**
• flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
• an option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.
• an in-house Occupational Health service
• employee discount scheme
• cycle to Work scheme
• gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car Scheme (T&Cs apply)
• links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
• career development and qualification opportunities
• access to our Social Work Academy

Right child, right support, right time, every time

We are working together to support families and communities to give every child the best chance of a happy and rewarding life, especially those who need more help. 

Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.

Gloucestershire Children’s Services are improving. Our latest Ofsted inspection (February 2022) identified that:

‘Significant progress has been made in many areas of Gloucestershire’s children’s services… significant financial investment and the backing of political leaders, has led to improved services that are now more effective in meeting the needs of children and families’.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to join an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

About The Team

We are looking for a self-motivated, organised and flexible Social Worker to join one of our Fostering Support Teams responsible for supporting Gloucestershire’s fostering households and enabling them to provide therapeutic and nurturing care to children in care. Join our friendly Fostering Service where we you will receive regular reflective supervision, evidence-based training and support to develop and progress. 

About You

You will be familiar with the relevant legislative processes relating to Fostering, have a positive attitude, good problem-solving skills and excellent written and verbal communication skills. We are looking for well informed and dynamic individuals who are familiar with the fostering support role, the support, supervision and checks of fostering households, completion of annual reviews and support to children in care and their Care Plans.

There are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

• Social Work England/ Wales registration
• a recognised qualification in Social Work
• to have passed your Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) (if you qualified after 2012)
• a full driving licence and willingness to drive

How to apply

For an informal chat about this role, please contact Daniel.Williams2@gloucestershire.gov.uk or alternatively apply within.

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable amount of applications.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees. We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior). To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

*Retention payments and welcome payments are subject to normal tax and national insurance deductions

**Terms and conditions apply

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Supervising Social Worker job profile

This position is subject to a DBS check. 

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities.  Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.