Cassie was supported by our Aftercare service on the Isle of Man from the age of 16. Initially she was in an unhealthy relationship and had fallen into a lifestyle of drug and alcohol misuse. Her life was moving along a trajectory where she felt unhappy and had little hope for her future. She then started working with Support Into Employment, our specialist team that help care leavers learn workplace skills and find the right job for them. Cassie was interested in a career in banking but her only experience was in waitressing. She wanted to make changes to her life but struggled to see how to get to where she wanted to be. The team supported her to complete a trial at a local restaurant to build up her confidence, which led to full-time work as a waitress. Meanwhile, Cassie started an online banking course to develop her skillset for the career she dreamed of. However, within a few weeks the negative influences in Cassie’s life put her under pressure, impacting on her performance and attendance at work. Part of Support Into Employment’s remit is to work closely with the employer to help them understand reasons behind a young person’s behaviours. Although the workplace offered many chances to Cassie they could no longer sustain her employment, but the support of our team helped the role to come to a positive end. Cassie took some time out to reflect and access emotional support. Support Into Employment then found a contact at a bank, who was willing to offer a contracted period of employment. Cassie felt motivated and seized this opportunity with both hands. Since then Cassie has quickly adapted to working at the bank and found a new peer group. She is on a permanent contract and has been working from home as a banking associate during the coronavirus outbreak. Her life is far from what she imagined it could be even just one year ago, thanks to Support Into Employment giving her the tools and self-belief to achieve her goals. We want to help more young people like Cassie. Can you support us by making a donation to St Christopher’s today? Source: www.stchris.org.uk A student who lived in 40 different foster homes before starting her degree at the University of Bristol says more needs to be done to support student care leavers. Nadia Sajir went into care at 13 years old. She says too often foster children are forgotten about when they move to university which can be one of the most challenging times for care leavers. In 2018-2019, only 6% of care leavers were known to be in higher education. Nadia says, "Care leavers aren't encouraged to pursue higher education, nearly half drop out, and it's such a shame because they could be lawyers, doctors, if they were just encouraged to pursue higher education which they're not." She now says she wants to raise awareness about the lack of support for care leavers at university. She's launching a new network to offer support and advice to care leavers and is calling on local authorities and universities to offer more consistent support. There's a video Nadia created with her team to help spread the word in this article Nadia says it is now more important than ever during the coronavirus pandemic to provide the right support for care leavers. She says, "Bristol's empty right now because all the students have returned home and everyone's being encouraged to return home and be with their loved ones but that's really really tough for any care leaver to hear. I can't return home because I don't have a home." Maria Tottle is a Mature Students' & Peer Support Adviser at the University of Bristol. She says there needs to be consistent support for care leavers and estranged students at university and says it's the years after that can often be the hardest. Source: www.itv.com/news One of the undeniable things about caring for children during lockdown has been the need to keep them occupied and active, often alongside many other household commitments. When schools closed completely at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, this meant that many parents and carers encountered a whole new set of challenges, having to provide routine, teaching, play and more to young people who were used to the structure of a school day. To ensure that that this went smoothly and that our Team Fostering carers had the support they needed during this time, our brilliant Education and Support Service worked hard to move the work they do online, as Steve Elliff, Education and Support Service Manager (Yorkshire and East Midlands) explains; “We deliver most of our support face to face, so lockdown has been a bit of a challenge! In the early stages of lockdown, we tried to support our carers as they adjusted to home schooling, with a host of links, suggestions and ideas for how to keep children busy. For some of our children, engaging in schoolwork at home has gone really well, but for others this has been particularly tricky.“ Lisa Leggatt, Education and Support Service Manager (North East) continues: “The Education and Support Service has continued to provide the support our children and carers expect from us; albeit in a different way.” “Every week we’ve been posting activities to keep our children and young people of all ages entertained and learning. We found that we didn’t need to keep posting curriculum-based learning activities as schools were doing this, we could just concentrate on the fun stuff. Many of our young people and carers have sent in photographs of what they are getting up to in the lockdown period; their creativity and imagination never ceases to amaze me.” A large part of the Education and Support Service’s face to face work includes their monthly Life Skills sessions – they include cooking a meal together followed by a short group session on a topic related to independence. As Steve explains: “We contacted some of our young people who attend these sessions and worked with them to come up with an online version of life skills delivered through Microsoft Teams. Friendship is a key part of the life skills group, so the final format included 15 minutes of socialising at the start, a 30 minute life skill session, followed by a 15 minute game at the end.” Topics included health and wellbeing, budgeting, workplace advice and registering with a GP, and they even managed to include some baking in the virtual sessions too! There’s been the opportunity to have some more targeted support for many of our young people as well. As Lisa recounts, “Some young people need some direct support while being home schooled. We are still ‘meeting’ these young people one to one via video link and thanks to the help from our fabulous IT guru Dave this is going really well. I can share my screen which we can use like a whiteboard you would see in any classroom across the country. So far we have delivered sessions on; science, maths, GCSE poetry, French, RE and history.” With the help of digital tools, a ton of adaptability and a lot of creativity, the Education and Support Service has met the challenges of providing development and support to the children and young people we work with, head on. The service will continue to provide guidance and advice to the foster carers supporting these young people through this complicated time, and we look forward to being able to combine our diverse programme of face to face activities with our new virtual sessions in future. To learn more about becoming a foster carer with us, you can contact us by: Submitting an online enquiry form here Calling us on 0800 292 2003 Emailing info@teamfostering.co.uk Source: www.teamfostering.co.uk Over the course of Foster Care Fortnight this year, we’ve been taking some time to think about what all the different parts of fostering mean to us here at Team Fostering; from our recruitment team who introduce potential foster carers to the agency; our fantastic social workers who support our existing foster carers to provide safe, stable homes for young people; to our extremely valuable foster carers, who help us put children at the centre of the work we do. Through the whole agency, we have a great number of people in many different roles who each play their own important part in the fostering process – and today, we want to throw a spotlight on that. Our goals, as a not-for-profit independent fostering agency, would be impossible to achieve without our staff working together to provide guidance and support to our children, carers and each other. We’ve worked hard to stay connected in many new ways– with group video calls, online training and one to one support taking place on a daily basis. As Team Fostering CEO Jane Butler explains, “All of our amazing staff play a major part in supporting our foster families, it’s a real team effort and together we make a big difference to children’s futures. It’s a privilege to be able to work alongside such a fantastic group of people.” Allison Poyzer, Placements Officer continues: “My colleagues at Team Fostering are the best I have ever worked with. Always there is a friendly smile, an encouraging word, a supportive hug. I arrived at Team Fostering a stranger and 6 years later have friends for life.” Rachael Johnson, Assistant Director (North East) echoes this: “I really value the people I work with at Team Fostering, both staff and carers. I absolutely believe that we are all part of Team Fostering because we want the best for children and young people. There is a real sense of pride in belonging to an agency that can honestly say that putting children’s futures first is at the heart of everything we do.” Don’t just take our word for it though, our foster carers value working with us just as much, as Catherine says: “Working with Team Fostering is great. It’s a caring and supportive organisation, one I really believe has children and foster carers as their top priority. They go above and beyond when you need support in hard times, and they’re fun!” The sense of community at Team Fostering is a driving force behind our work, so wrap up our Foster Care Fortnight, we asked our team to share what Team Fostering means to them – watch our video If you'd like to learn more about becoming a foster carer with Team Fostering, you can contact us in the following ways: send an online enquiry by clicking here call us on 0800 292 2003 email us via info@teamfostering.co.uk Source: www.teamfostering.co.uk Location: Fishponds Salary: Up to £37,290 + £1,500 pa (upon joining OOH rota) Closing Date: 07/06/2020 Interview Date: 15/06/2020 Hours: 35 hours per week Office Based (although working from home during Covid-19 crisis) Fixed-Term (up to one year contract - Maternity Cover) TACT, the UK’s largest fostering and adoption charity now has over 500 dedicated carers, who look after over 600 children and young people across the country. Our reputation and growth rests upon our strength in providing successful placements. As a charity, we do not have shareholders who receive profits and we invest all of our surplus income into service, staff, carers, and children’s development.
This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Supervising Social Worker to be part of a national non-profit making organisation at a local level. We are interested in hearing from Senior Supervising Social Workers for whom quality of service is paramount and in those who share our commitment to working in partnership with children and their foster carers in the development of the agency. The overall purpose of the Senior Supervising Social Worker is to recruit, assess, train and support a diverse range of foster carers and placements. As a Senior Supervising Social Worker you will be required to have:
An Enhanced DBS disclosure is also required, and this will be requested for you by TACT. The successful candidate will participate on the out of hours’ rota and will receive an out of hours’ allowance payment of £1,500 per annum once participating in the rota. The Senior Supervising Social Worker will be eligible for TACT's excellent benefits package which includes:
Please see the job information pack for further information. Closing: Sunday, 7th June 2020 Interviews: Monday, 15th June 2020 (via Skype) Safeguarding is everyone’s business and TACT believe that only the people with the right skills and values should work in social work. As part of TACT’s commitment to safeguarding, we properly examine the skills, experience, qualifications and values of potential staff in relation to our work with vulnerable young children. We use rigorous and consistent recruitment approaches to help safeguard TACT’s young people. All our staff are expected to work in line with TACT’s safeguarding policies. TACT does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them. Previous applicants in last 6 months need not apply. TACT reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so we advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment. Full details and application documents here Location: Norwich, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Salary: £17,838 to £18,730 per annum, depending on qualifications (maximum job rate potential is £19,622 per annum which is performance related). Contract Type: Permanent / Part Time Closing Date: Sunday 28 June 2020 We currently have an amazing opportunity available for a Fostering Supervising Social Worker to join our Therapeutic Fostering Service.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated individual with a caring and calm approach to help support and supervise the Foster Carers within our Fostering Team. This is a unique opportunity to join our established not for profit Fostering Service which provides therapeutic placements for young people as well as parent and child placements. All candidates should hold a valid driving licence and have regular access to a vehicle for work purposes. Qualifications The ideal candidate should be a HCPC registered social worker. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and supportive employer and recognise that working in care, although incredibly rewarding, is not without its challenges. Therefore, we want you to feel appreciated for the life changing work you are doing. You will receive comprehensive training, company pension scheme, have excellent career progression opportunities, and be working in a warm and welcoming work environment – amongst many other things. Essential Information Salary: The current full time salary scale for this position is £17,838 to £18,730 per annum, depending on qualifications (maximum job rate potential is £19,622 per annum which is performance related). At appointment: The actual salary based on 22 hours per week will be, £17,838 to £18,730 per annum, depending on qualifications. Hours: 22 hours per week Closing Date: Sunday 28th June 2020 Interviews: The interviews have been scheduled to take place on 14th July 2020. The first interview will be a Safe Care/ Warner style interview, if successful after the first interview, candidates will then be expected to attend a second formal interview. We anticipate that each interview should last a maximum of 60 minutes. Please note: Due to the current Pandemic, all recent interviews have been carried out virtually. Once the shortlisting process has been completed, we will contact all successful candidates to update them on the interview process. To comply with the Immigration Asylum & Nationality Act 2006 and additional amendments, and UK Border Agency (UKBA) requirements, all prospective employees will be asked to supply evidence of eligibility to work in the UK. We will ask to see and take a copy of an appropriate official document as set out in the UKBA guidelines. Do not send anything now, further information will be sent to you should you be invited to interview. We are committed to equality of opportunity. Your current immigration status will not be taken into account when assessing your application against the selection criteria for the post. For more information on this job opportunity, please initially email or call the HR Team via the contact details found on our website. Full details and application documents here Location: Fishponds Salary: Up to £33,000 + £1,500 pa (upon joining OOH rota) Closing Date: 02/06/2020 Interview Date: 12/06/2020 Hours: 35 hours per week Permanent Office Based (although working from home during Covid-19 crisis) TACT, the UK’s largest fostering and adoption charity now has over 500 dedicated carers, who look after over 600 children and young people across the country. Our reputation and growth rests upon our strength in providing successful placements. As a charity, we do not have shareholders who receive profits and we invest all of our surplus income into service, staff, carers, and children’s development.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a national non-profit making organisation at a local level. We are interested in individuals for whom quality of service is paramount and in those who share our commitment to working in partnership with children and their foster carers in the development of the agency. The overall purpose of this role is to manage caseloads, assess, train and support a diverse range of foster carers, children and young people. You may also be involved in the recruitment of foster carers. You are required to have the following
The candidate will be required to participate on an out of hours’ rota and will be paid an additional allowance of £1,500 per annum for this duty (once participating in the rota). An Enhanced DBS disclosure check is required for the Supervising Social Worker role and will be requested for you by TACT. The Supervising Social Worker will be eligible for TACT's excellent benefits package which includes:
Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for more detailed information. Areas covered: Wiltshire, Somerset, Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
Safeguarding is everyone’s business and TACT believe that only the people with the right skills and values should work in social work. As part of TACT’s commitment to safeguarding, we properly examine the skills, experience, qualifications and values of potential staff in relation to our work with vulnerable young children. We use rigorous and consistent recruitment approaches to help safeguard TACT’s young people. All our staff are expected to work in line with TACT’s safeguarding policies. TACT does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them. Previous applicants in last 6 months need not apply. TACT reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so we advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment Click here for more information, contact details and relevant documentation. Location: Northants Salary: £24,300 per annum Closing Date: 01/06/2020 Interview Date: 09/06/2020 Hours: 35 hours per week Fixed Term Contract until January 2021 TACT, the UK’s largest fostering and adoption charity. Formed in 1993, we now have over 500 dedicated carers, who look after over 600 children and young people across the country. Our reputation and growth rests upon our strength in providing successful placements. As a charity, we do not have shareholders who receive profits and we invest all of our surplus income into service, staff, carers, and children's development.
TACT offer an excellent benefits package including:
Building upon our reputation for delivering excellent outcomes for children. We are now looking for a dynamic, enthusiastic, highly-motivated individual with experience in administration within the social care field to work with us as a Placement Officer in our East Midlands office based in Kettering. The Placement Officer is responsible for receiving placement requests for children who need to be looked after and matching them to our foster carer in cooperation with the Duty Social Worker. The role requires exceptional communication skills and discrection, sensitivity and the capability to deal with conflicting priorities at times. The successful applicant will have the following essential attributes:
A standard DBS clearance is required for this role and will be undertaken by TACT on your behalf. Please see the Placement Officer Job Description and Job Information Pack for full details.
Safeguarding is everyone’s business and TACT believe that only the people with the right skills and values should work in social work. As part of TACT’s commitment to safeguarding, we properly examine the skills, experience, qualifications and values of potential staff in relation to our work with vulnerable young children. We use rigorous and consistent recruitment approaches to help safeguard TACT’s young people. All our staff are expected to work in line with TACT’s safeguarding policies. TACT does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them. TACT reserve the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient numbers of applications are received, you are therefore advised to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment Click here for more information, contact details and relevant documentation. From supplying food parcels, to emergency cash payments to help families pay for essentials children’s charities Barnardo’s Scotland and Action for Children have been supporting the most disadvantaged in communities across Scotland throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and will continue to do so, but while the charity's incomes are being decimated demand for vital services is increasing.
During the lockdown the children’s charities have supported children, young people and families in local authorities from Dumfries and Galloway in the south to Orkney in the north. The charities moved quickly and effectively responding to over 3,404 new applications for support. The charities were aware that vulnerable families and young people were already struggling and only “just coping” before the pandemic. The current situation has led to significant escalation of need, meaning many were on the cusp of crisis. They have broadened the scope of help and adapted their services to fit the changing landscape – supplying devices to aid virtual communication and schooling; furniture grants for young care leavers who had moved into tenancy just before lockdown, and have maintained ongoing and vital support to young people, particularly around safety and safeguarding. Martin Crewe, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said: "Coronavirus is hitting the most vulnerable in our communities the hardest. We were shocked by the immediate and devastating impact of the pandemic on children, young people and families across Scotland. As the two largest children's charities in Scotland, we brought the resources of Barnardo's Scotland and Action for Children together to respond to the scale of this challenge." Paul Carberry, Action for Children Director for Scotland, said: “Across Scotland, staff from our projects work in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities and have witnessed first-hand the effect of this pandemic. Many of those we work with were already struggling and only ‘just coping’ before Coronavirus. However, since lockdown, there has been a substantial escalation of need with this pandemic having a devastating impact on the most deprived communities. “Working in partnership with Barnardo’s Scotland, our collective reach means that we have been able to distribute immediate support to those who need it most. Together we have supported hundreds of families and young people with essentials ranging from food shopping and fuel through to the payment of bills. It has proved to be a vital lifeline in preventing a great number of families from falling into crisis.” The initial Wellbeing payment issued to the charities from Scottish Government covered a six-week period that has now come to an end, but the need for support is still very much required. To meet this need, Barnardo’s Scotland and Action for Children once again must turn to their own financial reserves to plug the gaps, but they know that this will not be viable for any length of time. Martin continued: “The funding from Scottish Government has been used to provide emergency support to vulnerable families and young people negatively impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Our frontline staff have identified families and young people most in need and we have processed allocation of payments within 24 hours. All administration costs have been absorbed by the charities to ensure that every penny goes to the families and young people who are in dire need of our support.” The investment from the Scottish Government has been a lifeline helping those most affected by the pandemic, and the charities hope that the Scottish Government will be in a position to make an announcement soon on further financial support to enable them to continue their vital work where it is needed most. Source: www.barnardos.org.uk It would be dangerously irresponsible to have an NHS with only A&E departments but no GPs, no cancer screening services and no public health education – yet this kind of short-sightedness is what we’re facing in children’s services. The past decade has been tough for children’s services. Under-investment has meant that local authorities have had to make tough choices about what support they can offer children and their families. But now, as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, we’re concerned there could be a surge in demand for support for vulnerable children, at a time when children’s services were already facing a funding crisis. An ever-growing funding gap To help raise these concerns, the biggest children’s charities supporting vulnerable children in the country have come together to release a joint report on children’s services funding. Our analysis highlights how available funding for children’s services has fallen £2.2bn since 2010/11. We found that as spending on services that can help children’s lives from reaching crisis-point has fallen by nearly half over the last decade, local authorities have had to increase spending on late intervention services by 29%. Coupled with the fact that spending on looked-after children has increased by 40% since 2010, a picture is emerging that suggests vulnerable children are having to wait for their lives to spiral into crisis before getting much-needed support. North-South divide There’s also clearly a North-South divide when it comes to falls in funding. Local authorities in North of England have seen a cut of 27% to their funding compared to 23% in the Midlands and 21% in the South of England. What’s particularly concerning is that deprived areas have seen their funding fall twice as fast as the least deprived areas at a time when demand has increased. Between 2010 and 2019 the most deprived local authorities have seen the number of children in need rise 12,670 (17%) compared to a rise of 2,740 (4%) amongst the least deprived local authorities. Ultimately, our major worry is that during this pandemic, many of the places that can help identify children who might need support – such as children’s centres and schools – are closed due to the lockdown. We think it’s likely that we’ll see a surge in the needs of vulnerable children as we emerge from this crisis – but as our report highlights, children’s services may be ill-prepared to cope with these extra challenges after a decade of reduced investment. As such we’re campaigning for increased investment from government in this year’s spending review – and you can help. We’re asking people like you to contact their MP to raise this issue - so that more politicians have the information they need to take action: https://e-activist.com/page/60873/action/1?ea.tracking.id=blog Source: www.actionforchildren.org.uk |
News & JobsNews stories and job vacancies from our member agencies, the fostering sector and the world of child protection and safeguarding as a whole. Browse Categories
All
|