One teacher and her mates trying to make sure kids in the UK have a bed. That’s how Zarach describe their mission online, a group of exceptional people working tirelessly to ensure children across yorkshire have a bed to sleep on. As an organisation comprised of devoted social workers, who see firsthand the struggles families are facing, it was a no-brainer for our West Yorshire team to get involved and do something practical to assist in these trying times. Anne-Marie, Registered Manager for our Yorkshire region said: "As Social Worker’s we are all too aware of the extreme poverty that families experience day to day, however at Christmas and in the colder months the challenges for families become even greater. The opportunity to spend the morning with the wonderful charity Zarach really emphasised the reality of what many families across the Yorkshire region are facing and highlighted how much they rely on the generosity of members of the public and charitable organisations such as this to meet theirs and their Childrens basic needs." With every referral to Zarach, there is a young person in desperate need of basic requirements that so many of us take for granted. The impact on self-esteem, education, friendships and their health could have lasting effects as they traverse adulthood.
To make a difference is to improve the prospects of young people not just their present situations. Senior supervising social worker Becci said: I wanted to get involved in supporting Zarach as they do so much for the local community not only in Leeds but the surrounding areas such as Kirklees and Wakefield where we are based. I was a LASW for years within these communities and it was really sad when we went to homes where children had hardly anything and parents were in difficult situations. The reason I became a social worker was to help people and keep children and families together. We all know the problems people are facing this winter where they’re having to choose between feeding their children or heating their homes, we wanted to try and help where we could. On Tuesday the team put toghether Winter warmer packages, food/hygiene parcels and had the pleasure of choosing Christmas presents for children who, if it wasn’t for Zarach, would probably go without this christmas. Becci continued: It was an absolute privilege to be involved and a huge responsibility deciding what a child was going to open on Christmas Day. Despite the freezing cold warehouse we all had lots of fun spending time together as a team. We hope to continue supporting Zarach throughout the year and will most definitely be back next Christmas (with thermals on!) If you’d like more information about Zarach, and how you could make a difference for a family this christmas, check out their website and get in touch! Source: thecft.org.uk And we’re starting off this year’s festivities with Melton’s Annual Christmas Tree Festival! Showcasing our young people’s talents is the best part of Christmas time at The CFT. Throughout December, our regional offices host a tonne of events for all our birth and foster children where they get crafty and creative building decorations and designig christmas cards to get into the spirit of the time of year! Given how popular our submission to the Melton Christmas Tree festival was last year, we gave our children another go at decorating our christmas tree for the 2022 festival. Running a competition to design a decoration and our annual christmas card. We received some incredible decorations this year and our tree is looking fabulous! If you get a chance, head over to St Mary’s Church and enjoy the incredible tree’s altogether. Melton Christmas Tree Festival 2022 – St. Mary’s Church Not forgetting our carers! The time of year gives us an extra opportunity to treat our carers, who do so much every year they foster. Christmas can be a tough time of year with extra pressures regarding the cost of living and how to manage time and money. It’s a priority for us to spend time together, away from the children at our regional foster carers christmas meal’s to relax, have a good laugh and take a breath to enjoy eachother’s company. We’ve acknowledged throughout the year the extras needed to provide for children in the care of local authorities, the exceptional lengths our carers go to cannot be sustained without the provision of extra financial and emotional support and at Christmas, that really comes to the fore. Get in the Christmas groove! We’ll be announcing the winners of both our Christmas ornament and card competitions soon, so watch this space! And if you’re in and around Melton, enjoy the festival and be sure to tag us on social media if you see our tree. From everyone at The Children’s Family Trust, no matter if you celebrate the season or not – We wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous festive period. To our employees, carers, birth and foster children. Thank you for making our Trust a special place to work. 2022 may have presented challenges that many wouldn’t have predicted, however every single person affiliated with The CFT has pulled together to ensure we not only survive but continue to thrive, together. We are here throughout the festive period if you need support of any kind, at any time. Get in touch, we are here for you. Source: thecft.org.uk/ What an incredible achievement. In any OFSTED-regulated school, nursery, IFA, charity, or government body inspections are there to ensure the establishment is acting consistently for the benefit of those who rely on their services, across multiple facets of how that service is delivered. It can be daunting and it can be challenging. However, every inspection aims to provide confidence and reassurance in well-oiled practices, highlight areas that can be improved and safeguarding those that are working with establishments that may be failing to meet the expectations set when registered. It’s all about ensuring we are providing to the best of our abilities. Our West Midlands office caters for our largest proportion of carers and therefore, lots of families rely on our services to excel in their fostering careers. To receive the acknowledgement that after such turbulent times (and the tough times to come), we are not only maintaining our standards of care but exceeding them. "The registered manager and staff team are committed to developing and supporting the foster carers to provide outstanding care that improves the lives of the children. The ethos of providing support to a child up to, and throughout, their adult life is at the heart of this agency." Ofsted inspector To RM, Joe and everyone in his team who puts in effort after effort, week after week. Congratulations! Read the report here Source: thecft.org.uk Location: Bromsgrove Salary: £38 per hour plus 45p per mile travel expenses Contract: Zero Hours Hours: Part Time - Approximately 25 hours per year Closing: 6 December 2022 The Children's Family Trust is a well-established Registered Charity and an Independent Fostering Agency. We provide a wide and varied range of foster placements but specialise in long term ‘Family for Life’ placements. We firmly believe our Foster Carers are our most valuable resource deserving the highest levels of support and remuneration we can offer. We work in partnership with Local Authority Social Workers committed to keeping our children safe and secure in stable and loving families.
Panel Member We are currently seeking self-employed, independent fostering Panel Members to join our Central List for our Regions based in West Midlands, East Midlands, North East, West Yorkshire and South Central. The Successful Candidates Previous panel experience isn’t essential. We look at recruiting panel members from a wide variety of backgrounds including professionals with a background in health, education and care experienced. You must have had experience either professionally or personally or both, of the placement of children in foster care. Applicants must be able to contribute to all fostering panel functions including; making recommendations on the assessment and approval of foster carer applicants, foster carer reviews and terminations of approval and be able to demonstrate a thorough and robust approach to assessing written information. Package £38 per hour plus a travel allowance of 45p per mile. You would be required to attend panel meetings for up to 25 hours per year. How to Apply The Children’s Family Trust is an equal opportunities employer and committed to promoting the welfare and safeguarding of children, ensuring that they are kept safe. As you will be in an environment which involves child protection and working with Looked After Children, you will need to be covered by DBS clearance and satisfactory references. Full details and application documents here Birth children enter the world of foster care through the passion and ambition of their parents. They are heavily consulted throughout the assessment process but theory and practice are at either end of the foster care spectrum. Until you start your journey with a young person in care, you never really know how the cogs will work in motion. Plans in action When push does come to shove, and your foster child approaches your front doorstep, a whole world of change commences. Every single person in the home begins to put their training and plans into action. For birth children, ‘resilience’ in the face of change can be tricky as everything begins to settle into place. For Aurora, an expert foster carer and birth child, welcoming young people into her home is a real joy and a challenge rolled into one. Here’s what mum and CFT foster carer Alisha had to say about Aurora’s exemplary attitude – “Our birth daughter is only 6 and words can’t describe how proud of her I am. She’ll proudly tell people she’s the best foster carer ever. Aurora is at an age where sharing her home and parents with other children can be tricky. She has shown such resilience even when things have been hard. She’s the first one to show a big smile when a child walks through the door and she is the best at putting children at ease. The maturity, understanding and kindness Aurora shows at such a young age inspires me to be the best foster carer I can be. If I can be half as good as she is I’ll be happy.” CFT Foster carer – Alisha Becoming a foster carer with The CFT comes with bucketloads of training, meetings and events that aim to prepare families for as many eventualities as possible. Providing toolkits to face any issue with confidence, however, we believe it is the people like Aurora who have personality traits that can’t be taught, that make CFT foster carers the best of the best. Resilience and a smile to match To take on the challenge of sharing your home with others, and to do it with a smile and an attitude to match, is the making of a young person communities should be proud of. AURORA, YOU ROCK! Although Son’s and Daughters Month may be coming to an end, we want to hear from the birth children that make up our foster families all year round. If you have a story to tell, get in touch here Source: https://thecft.org.uk/news/resilience-with-a-capital-r/ Fostering has the unique ability to present carers with many changeable and unexpected scenarios that require careful and sensitive management. Emma’s story is particuarly challenging and heartfelt. Managed with absolute professionalism as she navigates a disability and sibling foster care together with The CFT. Emma’s story – What made you consider becoming a foster carer? Adoption has been a big part of my family; we have an adopted Aunt, so I was aware of fostering and adoption from a young age. My aunt fosters for Barnardo’s and I wanted to give children a loving family and give something back. – What made you pick The CFT? How long was the process? The assessment process was 8 months long when I applied. I moved from another agency which lost its family feel and became very corporate. We liked that The CFT had a large family feeling and wasn’t all about money. The fact they were a charity really appealed to me and I knew another carer who highly recommended them. I’d heard lots of stories of how they had helped previous foster children and that sealed the deal. We had recently re-done our assessment with our previous agency as it had been taken over so it was an easy process for us. The transfer was really simple and I wasn’t nervous about the process at all, we knew several staff already and met Joe the registered manager. – How did you deal with your first foster placement? Did you have to overcome any difficulties? My first foster placement was a little girl and her baby brother with complex needs, we had her first and he was just coming out of the hospital, he was deaf and blind, he used to stop breathing if he got upset and a lot of the hospital staff didn’t want to work with him as they were scared. I visited him in hospital for 2 weeks before I took him home, the first time I met him, I was warming up the wipes to change his nappy and was super nervous. I got a teddy I had slept with for a couple of days and put it in his cot. After 2 weeks of visiting and doing all the feeding training, I came to visit him and he put his arms out to me. We have been fully supported by CFT, we had a tricky referral and felt like social services were pushing us into something we didn’t want – Joe took charge as he knew we were being pushed. Our foster baby with complex needs was in the hospital for 21 days and we wouldn’t leave him, our social worker kept in touch every day and even brought food in on her days off to the hospital. – If you could give 1 piece of advice to people who are considering foster care, what would it be? Over the years I have learnt to be flexible and go with the flow of the kids, it’s more exciting than nerve-racking when having a new placement, they are so scared when they come and it’s about making them feel comfortable and safe. Any nerves you do have you have to push through, once the child is there, you don’t have time for nerves. I don’t think the CFT could do anymore to support us, that’s my experience. We have found them to be highly supportive and got that large family feeling back. They are committed to training and I’m impressed that they don’t just do the usual courses, they go out of their way to find courses that are relevant to the children we have. Disability and sibling foster care Foster care is a rollercoaster of emotions, dedication and professionalism that requires so much more than a list of ‘traits’. Emma demonstrates everything that makes foster carers special. To understand and show such compassion in the face of disability and sibling foster care is amazing. Source: https://thecft.org.uk Salary: up to £60,735 per annum plus car and out of hours allowances Location: Waterlooville Contract: Permanent Hours: Full Time - 35 hours per week - Monday to Thursday 9am - 5pm, Friday 9am -4.30pm, plus Hybrid working Closing: 24 October 2022 An exciting opportunity has arisen within The Children’s Family Trust for a Registered Manager to help drive forward and continue the growth of our South Central region based in Waterlooville.
The successful post holder will build on our well established outstanding provision for our children and young people within a fostering setting. The successful candidate will need to have commitment, enthusiasm and ambition for a service which is determined to continue to provide an outstanding service. The Children’s Family Trust currently works with local authorities, children and young people and their families to ensure that positive outcomes and stability are achieved for each of our lovely children and young people. You will have overall responsibility for the service ensuring outstanding standards are maintained. In addition you will be responsible for ongoing regional development whilst raising the profile of the Trust in your region. If you have a professional social work qualification and a willingness to work toward a qualification in management with, at least three years’ experience relevant to fostering in the last five years, and a minimum of one years’ experience supervising and managing professional staff we would love to hear from you! We are a fantastic charity to work for! You will be extremely well supported by a highly skilled and experienced senior management team. Our organization is often described as one with a real ‘family feel’ which is evident as a result of the outstanding support we provide for each and every member of our highly regarded staff team! What’s in it for you? In addition to a competitive salary, a very generous car allowance, and out of hours allowance, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:
What do you need to be successful?
Full details and application documents here Salary: up to £43,000 per annum including allowances, pro rata Location: Nottingham Contract: Permanent Hours: Part Time - 4 Days per week Closing Date: 3 October 2022 Are you looking for a Supervising Social Worker role with a difference? Are you ready for low caseloads, great benefits, and plenty of opportunities? How about continual training and progression?
This is currently a homeworking role, building and developing the Nottingham, Northamptonshire, Leicester and Derby. areas in partnership with the Practice Team Manager. Whilst this role is homeworking, with occasional visits to other regional offices, we are looking to open an East Midlands office within the next 12 months! Can you see yourself working with a well-established, growing, Nationwide charity, supervising and supporting Foster Carers to look after the children and young people in our care? Where do you fit in? You know how much hard work and dedication it takes to make a difference to the lives of children and young people. With low caseloads, you’ll have the time and resources to truly support our Foster Carers. You’ll promote the safe care and development of our foster children so that they can achieve their full potential. You’ll get involved in the recruitment, assessment, and training of prospective Foster Carers, as well as pursuing suitable placements. You’ll help a diverse range of people - reflective of the communities we work in, and will play a key part in a friendly, supportive charity where you’ll be rewarded for your hard work and results. What’s in it for you? In addition to a competitive salary, a very generous car allowance, and out of hours allowance, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:
What do you need to be successful?
Full details and application documents here Location: West Midlands Salary: £30,595 to £31,207 per annum plus car allowance (£4800) and Out of Hours allowance £1200 and other benefits Contract: Fixed Term Hours: Full Time Closing Date: 23 September 2022 This is an excellent opportunity to develop your social works skills in a well-established, growing, Nationwide charity, supporting Foster Carers to look after the children and young people in our care.
For your first year in practice our friendly team will provide you with opportunities to develop your skills, your professional development will be reviewed regularly, enabling you to receive high quality feedback and coaching as you progress. We can offer you dedicated development time, a reduced caseload and an higher level of supervision - together we will support you to develop your knowledge, skills and confidence - this is a progressive post which will lead to regular salary reviews and enhancements. By investing in you and by "growing our own" we aim to help new social workers to become the best they can be. We want to provide our children and families with consistency and we know how important relationship building is and this is reflected in the stability of our teams. We are looking for applications from:
Where do you fit in?
What’s in it for you? In addition to a competitive salary, a very generous car allowance, and out of hours allowance, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:
Full details and application documents here Reference Number: VAC1000083848 Annual wage: £8,754.20 Grade of Post: Level 3 Hours: 35 (One day a week at college) Closing Date: 21/09/2022 What will the apprentice be doing?
- Children placed with the Trust. - Local Authority files. - Any other files as may be necessary for the effective operation of the West Midlands Registered Office.
What training will the apprentice take and what qualification will the apprentice get at the end? One day a week studying at Kidderminster College in order to achieve the Level 3 Business Administrator apprenticeship qualification. What is the expected career progression after this apprenticeship? There may be Regional Administrator positions upon completion of your apprenticeship. Annual wage – £8,754.20 Full details and application documents here |
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