​Colin and Marie have been fostering with Action for Children for 14 years. In this blog, they take us through a day in their lives as foster carers.

Having run a church youth group for over 20 years, Colin and Marie have always been passionate about supporting young people.

So, when they saw an advert for fostering opportunities in a church magazine, it felt like fate.

Colin tells us: "That was it. We decided to give it a try, and here we are 14 years later."

A day in the life as foster carers
Colin and Marie are currently fostering a 14-year-old and nine-year-old.

For them, an average day starts at 7:30am. Once everyone is up and ready, they have breakfast as a family before the school run.

Making time to talk with the children and young people in their care is important to the couple.

Supporting with school
Helping the children with their schoolwork is a key part of Colin and Marie’s day, particularly as one child needs additional support with their studies.

"When he first came to us, he found school extremely difficult."

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Children of foster carers deserve to be celebrated. Not only do they share their homes, but they also share the love and attention of their caregiver when their family welcomes a young person into their lives.

To find out more about the role of children of foster carers, we spoke to three of our foster families. Meet Ruth, who fosters with her husband Derek, and their children Kirsti, Aimee and Jamie; Karen and Mike, who foster alongside their daughter Abi; and Lydia, who grew up in a fostering family and is now starting the process to become a foster carer herself.

The first conversation
Fostering can impact every family member. It's important to make any children in the home feel part of the decision. Ruth fosters with her husband Derek, and their children Kirsti, Aimee and Jamie. She said: “When Derek and I knew we wanted to foster, we immediately spoke to Aimee, Kirsti and Jamie. We’d made it clear from the start that if they had any issues or reasons why they wouldn’t want us to foster, then we wouldn’t. It had to be us agreeing to this journey as a family.”

Likewise, for Karen and Mike, their teenage daughter, Abi, was instrumental in them exploring fostering. Abi said: “I remember mum reading out an article about a child who needed a home to live in. I was intrigued because I couldn’t imagine what that would be like and I thought we might be able to help.”

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In this permanent role as Team Manager Fostering, you will manage the day to day operational delivery of a high risk, complex, professional and safe fostering service based in Scotland, ensuring the highest standards of service provision, regulatory compliance and support through effective professional management of a team of staff, including qualified social workers, in order to achieve agreed positive outcomes for children against operational targets.

How you'll help to create brighter futures

• Providing effective leadership, management and direction to a team of professional social workers.
• Applying work auditing processes to improve service compliance and contract development.
• Ensuring the service is inspection ready through addressing any areas of improvement identified in previous inspections.
• Leading and creating a culture of continuous learning within the service.
• Ensuring the application of relevant legislation, regulations and Action for Children policies and procedures to achieve best practice and good outcomes for children and young people. 
• Undertaking complex assessments, case management and allocation of work.
• Leading by example with the uploading of management information obtained from case work.
• Deputising for the Fostering Services Manager where appropriate and to be available for out of hours support to staff and service users.

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We are looking for a creative and strategic Head of Media on a permanent contract to lead, plan and deliver media relation strategies and activities to highlight the work of Action for Children and issues related to vulnerable children, young people and families.

How you'll help to create brighter futures

• Lead development and delivery of Action for Children’s media relations.
• Lead, manage and motivate the Media Relations Team and to matrix manage devolved press officers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Plan, manage and deliver a range of proactive and reactive news, and corporate media activities nationally and regionally.
• Support the development and implementation of a cultivation plan to build relationships with journalists, editors, and influencers.
• Lead and co-ordinate innovative and creative approaches to highlight the impact of the work of Action for Children.
• Oversee development and implementation of media events.
• Work collaboratively with Influencing and Public Affairs to develop media strategies.

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Through membership of the Children’s Services Leadership Team (CSLT) the successful candidate will provide strategic leadership to Children’s Services department, with a lead to drive the application of a commercial ethos. 

You will also lead and drive the strategic growth and development of Spring services, through the application of new services and products to deliver on income targets to enable Action for Children to achieve its financial and service objectives to benefit children, young people and families.

How you'll help to create brighter futures  

• As a member of the Children’s Services Leadership Team, you will strategically manage Children’s Services, driving improved performance, balanced with ensuring the delivery of safe and efficient services. 
• Through membership of the Directors Group or other senior organisational management forums, to contribute and lead with the delivery of Action for Children’s strategic objectives. 
• Lead colleagues across all functions to support service development, build competitive advantage and differentiate Action for Children from competitors.
• Ensure effective governance arrangements are in place to deliver services.
• Directly manage staff to deliver services within Spring or allocated services across the four nations (UK).
• Overall management of Spring and leadership of the management team to deliver stated objectives.
• Strategically drive the responsibility for the long term development of the Spring brand and services that is consistent with Children’s Services strategy, including sourcing growth opportunities.

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As a Transition Worker, you will support care experienced young people aged 14-24 with significant transitions, by preparing them to move into independent living or supported accommodation. 

The transition to adulthood may be difficult, but through a range of interlinked interventions designed specifically to reduce their vulnerabilities and equip them with the resilience, skills/tools, you can help them to cope positively with their individual challenges. 

Where young people are moving on to live independently you will assist them to develop the necessary life skills to manage their own tenancy independently, and responsibly and to budget effectively.

How you’ll help to create brighter futures
You'll offer support and advice to our young people to overcome barriers that can include housing, homelessness, confidence and self-esteem issues, poor social skills, lack of qualifications and employment opportunities. You will also support young people with emotional wellbeing and provide resilient and nurturing support, even in challenging and difficult situations.

Key responsibilities of your role will be to:

• Manage a case load, whilst engaging and building trust with Young People across South Wales. 
• Link up with agencies so our young people feel safe and secure in their own home.
• Support young people to overcome their barriers to training, education or employment and support in preparation for a placement/job offer, open bank account, planning travel routes etc.
• Attending meetings with other key individuals involved in the care of a service user and completing relevant paperwork and reports.  

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A bit about the role  
You will be a senior leader with considerable experience in leading and managing children’s services either in Local Authorities or the Voluntary Sector. A strong communicator and creative thinker with a flair for innovation who is focused and passionate about changing the lives of children and their families. 

We have a unique opportunity for an Operational Director of Children's Services to provide leadership and management across England predominantly London and Leeds. This is an exciting and rewarding role with the opportunity to make a huge personal impact.  

Reporting to the National Director of England South, you will lead, develop, and manage a dedicated team of managers who develop and deliver a range of children's services across a specified area. You will work will commissioners and be responsive to legislation and policy change to identify areas for service development. You will be skilled in working across service areas to meet identified needs and develop new, sustainable services. 

England has ambitious plans to grow residential and criminal exploitation services whilst ensuring our existing service footprint remains strong and sustainable. The development and delivery of these services will be a key element of this role.

You will have responsibility for oversight of specific regulated services including holding responsibility for the quality and culture of the service. You will need a strong understanding and significant experience of both children’s homes regulations and criminal exploitation as part of this role.

This is an exciting opportunity for an inspirational leader who wants to make a difference to the lives of children and young people as part of an enthusiastic and ambitious England team. 

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At Action for Children, we focus on creating a feeling of family. Our fostering social workers are at the very heart of that. As a fostering agency with small caseloads, our fostering social workers have the capacity to provide a truly personalised level of support, guidance, and reassurance, to our fostering families. We get to know our foster carers as individuals, which allows us to offer a high standard in matching them with the right children and young people. The result is that we often see excellent outcomes achieved and a high level of stability offered to the young people in their care.

​As a fostering social worker, you will be responsible for providing vital training, conducting assessments on potential foster carers, reviews of approved foster carers, as well as being part of the on-call rota. 

You can be based from home but you must be prepared to travel across Northern Ireland to support the fostering families you care for. At Action for Children, you will be part of a team of experienced social workers, receive regular supervision, and access to further training. Apply now if you would you like to work with us and be part of our family. 

How you'll help to create brighter futures

As a Fostering Social Worker, you’ll be:

• Providing professional supervision and developmental support, including advice and guidance to fostering families and colleagues from other agencies where appropriate, including being part of an Out of Hours Service (through participation in rota) providing support 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. 
• Completing complex assessments of foster carers, making appropriate recommendations.
• Supporting fostering families to look after children and young people who have experienced trauma and abuse.
• Accountable for ensuring statutory compliance in respect of notifications, etc and meet regulatory body requirements at all times.
• Coaching, mentoring, and teaching less experienced staff.
• Maintaining and develop effective working relationships with internal colleagues in the wider organisation and external agencies.
• Attending a range of regular meetings including, home visits for assessment and family support (including outside of office hours).
• Keeping abreast of changes in social work practice.

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This Christmas marks seven years of our charity Christmas appeal, Secret Santa.

The magic of Christmas begins in childhood. Carefully hanging stockings. Peeking at presents under the tree. But for many, Christmas is anything but magical.

For seven years, we've been asking people like you to support our charity Christmas appeal by becoming a Secret Santa and making a donation.

Every year, our supporters remind us of their incredible generosity. Thanks to you, we can continue to be there for vulnerable children and families across the UK.

To celebrate, we reflect on the Secret Santa milestones we've achieved over the years.

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Are you a Clinical Psychologist with a passion for working with children and young people in care, care leavers or those who have experienced trauma or attachment insecurity?  

Are you looking for an opportunity to join an enthusiastic, creative and innovative team, to shape service delivery, pursue specialist interests and influence system change.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our highly skilled team of Psychologists, Therapists, and Therapeutic Social Workers, commissioned by Derby City Council and Derby and Derbyshire ICB.    In this role you will join our clinical team, reporting to the Lead Psychologist, and contribute to the development and delivery of a specialist trauma and attachment service for Children in Care and Care Leavers through specialist assessment, formulation and intervention, clinical leadership and supervision. 
 
In addition, the role will involve supporting the development of therapeutic input to Action for Children residential homes, working alongside our Therapeutic Practitioners to provide assessment, formulation, training, whole team reflective practice and consultation to embed an approach to therapeutic care based on principles of PACE and trauma informed care. 

We are also developing our links with Adoption East Midlands, and there may be an opportunity to contribute to their multi-disciplinary team reflection group which brings together MDT colleagues together with Virtual School, and Educational Psychology services to discuss complex cases through a systemic lens, as well as the potential to offer consultations alongside their Occupational Therapist and/or Speech and Language Therapist and Therapeutic Social Workers. 

You will receive regular clinical supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and separate line management supervision from the clinical lead. You will have access to external training in models such as Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Theraplay® and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and will be expected to keep abreast of the latest developments in the profession.

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