 Circa: £37,000 Department/Division: Scotland Location: Glasgow Contract Type: Permanent Full Time Closing Date: 23 January 2020 Senior Practitioner (Fostering)
Do you have the values we need? Do you want to be part of a Service that helps young people feel valued and important? … helps them grow and feel stronger? … inspire and help them feel safe? How we work: Action for Children does what's right, does what's needed and does what works for children in the UK. Every year our services change the lives of 390,000 children, young people and families. CAPS Fostering Service is a specialist fostering service that offers attachment- based therapeutic care to children and young people who cannot be looked after at home. We offer the highest standard of care providing carers with excellent training, supervision and support to achieve the best outcomes for the young people we look after. We have excellent Fostering Inspections and provide good quality of care to young people, always ensuring we listen to our young people every step of the way. Our Service is growing, and as a Senior Practitioner you will be working in our (Fostering Scotland) team based in our Glasgow office. We are recruiting 1x full/ time senior practitioner and 1 x part/ time senior practitioner. How you will make a difference: By bringing you: your experience values and enthusiasm, and being part of a team (social workers, children's workers and therapists) to support fostering families to provide stable and loving experiences for young people. You will work with others to inspire, support and keep children and young people safe, to create memories and support connections with young people's families, their brothers and sisters; and you will feel confident and skilled in your role. You will promote the highest standards of care and wellbeing for our young people and guide and deliver training to foster carers and team members with opportunity to really get to know young people and support them on their journey. By thinking therapeutically and creatively (with and for) young people and ensuring best practice, you will make a real and lasting difference. You will be part of a team that values relational- based practice where this is the heart of all that we do! What you'll need:
How we reward you:
Plus, there's a lot more besides. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference and to build a fulfilling and meaningful career with a leading UK children's charity. If you want to be part of a dynamic progressive Service that places the young person at the centre of our success- please indicate your interest/ and make an application! Action for Children is committed to safer recruitment practices, designed to protect the welfare of the children and young people using our services. If you meet all the criteria and would like to proceed with your application, you will be redirected to an application form on our website which should only take around 20 minutes to complete. Please have your CV handy to upload. As this job involves working around young people there are some specific questions we need to ask you as part of your application process. Thanks for taking the time to apply and we wish you the best of luck! Full details and application documents here If you have any other questions, please contact Anne Marie Wilson on 07741627578 We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users, therefore all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice. Action for Children is passionate about promoting equality, valuing diversity and working inclusively. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons particularly people with Disabilities and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants, as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce. Member Job Opportunity: Action for Children - Fostering Supervising Social Worker North East10/1/2020
 Circa: £34,000 plus on call allowance Department/Division: England North Area: Middlesbrough Contract Type: Permanent Full Time Up to 7 weeks annual leave Closing Date: 26 January 2020 Fostering Supervisor Social Worker
The role We are looking for a Fostering Supervising Social Worker to join our team working 37 hours a week. This will be mainly Monday to Friday during the day but there will be some flexibility required to meet the needs of the service which will include some evening and weekend working. We are a small, developing fostering service, located in Middlesbrough but covering the North East area and North Yorkshire. You will be responsible for providing professional supervision and developmental support to foster carers, including advice and guidance to fostering families. Experience of undertaking Form F Assessments and knowledge of fostering regulations is essential for this position. You will be part of a small team and will have had exposure to managing multi agency partnerships. This position also requires a strong understanding of the therapeutic model including PACE. You will be required to provide telephone on call support for our foster carers which is currently up to a maximum of 2 nights per month for our England wide on call service. Our team including foster carers are trained to a high standard; understanding attachment and trauma work along with specific interventions. The difference What is the role? By 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, maximum of 2 nights per month) providing support 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. The successful applicant will be part of an aspirational fostering team of social workers. You will be expected to uphold the core values and beliefs of the organisation, ensuring that children, young people and foster carers receive a high-quality service and that commissioners' expectations and contractual requirements are met. This will be instilled through effective day to day delivery of a high quality fostering service. You will also be delivering training to foster carers and their support network. What will you need?
What are the rewards?
How does Action for Children work? Action for Children does what's right, does what's needed and does what works for children across the UK. Every year, our team changes the lives of 301,000 children, young people and their families – but for every child who needs help to get help, there's plenty more to do. That's where you come in. If you really want to make a difference and be a part of an amazing team, don't hesitate, apply now! For any questions about this role or a confidential chat, please call Collette Fraser on 07741 736 739. Full details and application documents here  Assistant Director (Yorkshire and East Midlands) Closing Date - 10th February 2020 Full Time 37.5 hours per week Salary Banding - £52,633.30 – 58,413.97 per annum Please note we do not operate a performance related reward system or automatic incremental payments Team Fostering is an ethical not for profit fostering agency with a strong reputation and track record for providing high quality, value for money fostering placements for looked after children. We pride ourselves on our values and we expect our staff to commit to and demonstrate these values in their everyday work.
We are looking for an ‘outstanding and committed’ individual with substantial experience of providing services to looked after children to lead the provision and development of our fostering service in the Yorkshire and East Midlands region. You must have an understanding of the commercial drivers in today’s marketplace, the role of independent fostering providers and their working relationship with local authorities and be capable of successfully delivering new opportunities to enhance our agency. The post holder will act as the Registered Manager and be responsible for the day to day management of all aspects of the service provided by the regional office. Working as an integral member of the senior leadership team, you will have a sound knowledge of current legislation, including regulations, guidance and standards, and will work to promote our ethical not for profit status. As the ideal candidate you will have demonstrable experience of formulating and delivering business development strategies within an independent fostering agency and have the communication and engagement skills to challenge ideas and positively manage change. You will have a flair for influencing and negotiating in high pressure situations whilst building strong and lasting relationships with the ability to constructively lead, drive and influence internal and external stakeholders. You will be a person with the ability to provide insightful debate and recommendations to the Board through professional experience. Above all, you will have excellent leadership, strategic vision, communication and interpersonal skills and be hardworking, positive, and motivated to improve outcomes for looked after children. The post is based in Sheffield however you will be required to work flexibly across the Yorkshire and East Midlands region. There will also be a requirement to travel to our offices in the North East. For an informal chat about the post please contact Jane Butler, CEO on 0114 2617762. To apply, complete an Application Form and Equal Opportunities Form (accessible via the link below) and return by email to hr@teamfostering.co.uk no later than 9am on 10th February 2020. All posts require an Enhanced DBS Disclosure. Closing date: 9am on 10th February 2020 Interviews will be held on 28th February and 2nd March 2020 Please note if you are shortlisted for interview we will contact you via the email you have provided. Please ensure you check your emails regularly. Thank you for your interest in Team Fostering and taking the time to apply for this position. Full details and application details here  Location: South Coast Salary: £33 Per Hour Plus Travel Expenses Closing Date: 13/01/2020 Interview Date: 22/01/2020 Hours: Variable TACT are currently seeking an IFRO to support the work of the TACT South Coast region which covers the Dorset and Hampshire areas.
TACT is the UK’s largest specialist charity provider of fostering and adoption services. Our core work involves providing high quality and well supported fostering or adoptive families for children and young people in the care of local authorities. Working in partnership with local authorities from our offices across England, Wales and Scotland, we are dedicated to providing creative, effective and outcome-focused services. We also campaign on behalf of children and young people in care, carers and adoptive families and are a leading voice in the sector. Our vision is to provide better lives for our children and young people. Core Tasks
Rates of Pay TACT will pay £33.00 per hour plus travel time at £15 per hour (outside of London) or £16.50 per hour (London only) and mileage at 45p per mile. Please see the Job Information Pack for a full breakdown of the role and rates. You will need to be DipSW, CSS or CQSW qualified and registered with Social Work England. A standard disclosure is also required and will be carried out by TACT on your behalf. Closing: Monday 13th January 2020 Interviews: Wednesday 22nd January 2020 at Eastleigh (SO50 9LH) 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  In 2020 St Christopher’s Fellowship is celebrating 150 years of creating brighter futures for children and young people. We are inviting people to become part of our legacy by supporting our work over the coming year.
Our charity started out as Homes for Working Boys in 1870, set up by three school friends to aid boys and young men who moved to London for work but struggled to support themselves. We merged with the Fellowship of St Christopher’s in 1967 with a renewed focus on providing safe homes for young people who could not live with their own families or were homeless. Today, St Christopher’s is a provider of services and homes for children and young people in care. We offer children’s homes, supported housing, foster homes and specialist outreach services for young people who are often overlooked by statutory help. Our approach to working with young people focuses on bringing out their “inner diamond”. By helping young people to recognise their own talents, value and potential, we can build their self-confidence and support them to lead happy, successful lives, regardless of what has happened to them in the past. Chief Executive Jonathan Whalley said: “Over the last 150 years St Christopher’s has changed thousands of lives. We want to continue this vital work, but we need support from the community to do it. Anything that the public can offer to support our mission is gratefully received.” To support St Christopher’s or find out more about our work, click here Source: www.stchris.org.uk  Home Office accused of still ignoring offers to house children from camps in the UK
Pressure is building on the Home Office to fulfil its promise to give sanctuary to child refugees as it emerged that foster agencies across the UK have offered dozens of places that remain unused. Estimates suggest there are hundreds of places available for vulnerable unaccompanied minors in addition to the 1,400 offers from local councils that the Home Office is accused of ignoring. Britain’s largest fostering and adoption charity, Tact Care, said that fostering agencies had told the Home Office they had significant capacity to house child refugees. Tact Care alone had 25 spaces that could be used immediately. Andy Elvin, chief executive of Tact Care, said: “The Home Office could easily accommodate its obligations to offer sanctuary to vulnerable minors. Its response has nothing to do with capacity, it’s essentially an ideological decision they are making. It’s not one based on child welfare or our ability to do it as a country, it’s that they don’t want to do it. We’ve told the Home Office but they are not interested.” Pressure is also mounting on cabinet ministers who backed a scheme to welcome unaccompanied minors to take a “moral stance” after some protections for children were dropped from the Brexit bill. Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, was one of the Tories to rebel in support of a plan drawn up by the Labour peer Lord Dubs in 2016, which committed the UK to accept almost 500 unaccompanied child refugees. Lord Dubs was one of 10,000 children rescued from the Nazis by the Kindertransport in 1939. A separate commitment to allow child refugees stranded in Europe to reunite with families in Britain after Brexit was dropped by Boris Johnson. Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, called on ministers and Tory MPs to reverse the “moral disgrace” of removing the protection for children. “At the election, Johnson promised to maintain the UK’s reputation as a ‘beacon of freedom and human rights’.” he said. “However, at the first hurdle, he showed his true colours: tearing up protection for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.” Charities are stepping in after growing frustrated with the Home Office’s slowness in transferring child refugees to the UK. The Dubs amendment of May 2016 followed a public outcry about the plight of children stranded in Europe. Campaigners had hoped that as many as 3,000 children would benefit, but ministers set a limit of 480. The Home Office refuses to specify how many of these children have since been transferred to Britain. Now a project, funded by a Jewish philanthropist, will find family-based placements for children who arrive under the Dubs scheme and ensure that councils have money upfront to provide a home. The project, launched in Bristol, Wiltshire and the London borough of Lewisham, and run by a Christian charity called Home for Good, is seeking an initial 20 homes. The charity said the situation was so poor that it had identified children processed by the UN refugee agency in European camps who were still waiting for places to become available. Emily Christou, head of advocacy at Home for Good, said: “We heard that the 480 still seems to be way off. We knew there was public goodwill out there and we knew that local authorities are saying they’ll take more.” The scheme’s first meeting between a family and a social worker took place last week. The next step will be winning approval from a local authority panel and receiving an allowance to cover the costs of opening their home. Jennifer Nadel, co-director of the campaign group Compassion in Politics, said: “It is scandalous and heartbreaking that the UK isn’t honouring its moral and legal obligation to these refugee children. We are the fifth largest economy in the world; we have families and local authorities willing to welcome these children with open arms. The problem is the lack of political will.” The Home Office says it is committed to the Dubs scheme and that safeguarding vulnerable children will remain a priority after Brexit. Source: www.theguardian.com  Transition Worker - Cambridgeshire Location: Cottenham and locations across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Salary: £20,500 - £21,525 p/a depending on experience and qualifications (maximum job rate potential is £22,550 which is performance related). Contract Type: Permanent / Full Time Closing Date: Sunday 12 January 2020 Be a part of something amazing. Join the Break team.
We currently have an exciting job opportunity open for a Transition Worker working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough working with young people transitioning from care into independence in their local community. Break provides caring support for vulnerable children for as long as they need it. Whatever a child’s start in life, Break believes that with the right care there is no limit to what they can achieve. They provide homes and support where young people can belong, begin to flourish, and embrace their future with confidence and hope. Being a Transition Worker means you will support our young people leaving care and embarking on their journey of independence. You will work with them on an individualised plan, provide emotional and practical support, and remain a steady figure in their lives as they find their feet in the adult world. You will need to be someone who is enthusiastic and creative, with a professional, caring, and calm approach. You will need to be committed and flexible, motivated and motivational, and be imaginative in your problem-solving. The role will require you to work both independently and as part of a team, so it is essential you can work well in both situations. This is an extremely exciting role that offers you the incredible opportunity of being a significant and positive figure within multiple young people’s lives – you will be incredibly important in helping them feel settled and confident throughout the innately tricky shift to independence, and you will be instrumental in helping us to change young lives. Essential Job Details Hours: 38 hours per week Salary: The salary scale for this position will be £20,500 - £21,525 per annum depending on work experience and qualifications (maximum job rate potential is £22,550 which is performance related). At appointment: The actual salary will be £20,500 per annum depending on work experience and qualifications. Close date: Sunday 12th January 2020 Interview date: Thursday 23rd January 2020 For more information please contact the HR Team in the first instance via the contact details on the Break Charity website Source: https://break-charity.current-vacancies.com/  Voices is our creative writing competition for children in care and care leavers who are 25 or under. The competition is now open! Click here to enter now.
Voices is a celebration of your creativity, talent and imagination. The competition gives you a chance to tell people what you want to say about your experiences. Every year, young people write inspiring stories, poems, raps, and articles, hoping to be shortlisted for our awards ceremony in the Spring. Could you be one of them this year? The theme for Voices 2020 is ‘Dreams‘. You could write about a dream you’ve had in the past, what your hopes and dreams are for the future… or anything you can imagine! We’re excited to see what you’ll come up with! Competition will close on 12 February 2020. The rules can be found in our Voices T&Cs. If you have any questions, please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions and if you can’t find your answer there, you can send your question to voices@coramvoice.org.uk. Previous winners Get inspired by Voices from years gone by. Head over to our previous winners page to watch videos and read the winning and shortlisted entries for Voices 2018 and 2019. Source: https://coramvoice.org.uk  TACT is delighted to be associated with ‘The Arrival’, the story of two siblings separated by adoption by Olivier Award-winning theatre director Bijan Sheibani. The Arrival is currently running at the Bush Theatre until January 18th.
The play explores the real need to keep siblings together when fostering or adoption is taking place, and the life-long detrimental effects that can happen when siblings are kept apart. The play has received very positive reviews, including from TACT members of staff and young people. A TACT social worker described it as “beautiful and incredibly moving” while a TACT care-experienced person said “it does a fantastic job capturing the difficult emotions experienced by many in the care system”. TACT is fully aware of the damage that can be caused when siblings are separated. TACT CEO, Andy Elvin said: ‘TACT knows the importance of siblings remaining together when they go into care, because that is what they tell us they want. However, there may be occasions when siblings cannot be all placed together due to concerns of behaviour or risk, or simply because of the lack of available foster families. Fostering sibling groups can sometimes be challenging and demanding, but it is also extremely rewarding. TACT is constantly looking for more foster carers who want to give brothers and sisters a stable family home, particularly those who can care for the larger sibling groups.’ Research shows that maintaining sibling relationships for those in care is associated with more stable placements, stronger developmental outcomes and better mental health and wellbeing. Conversely, separation often results in life-long issues around identity and attachment. Despite this, sibling separation remains the norm. In 2009, 81% of children in care were separated from their siblings, 73% were separated in 2011 and 71% in 2014. The Victoria Derbyshire Show reported in 2018 that more than half of siblings were separated in 30 out of 50 councils. There are no official government figures about the number of separated siblings in the care system. This lack of recorded figures on the matter illustrates how this is an under-explored issue that needs more attention. The primary problem is that there simply are not enough foster carers and adopters for sibling groups. The need for children to be placed in a foster family is often urgent, and there are limited number of homes with the available space to accommodate siblings. The Arrival explores these long-term issues, starting with the joyful reunion between biological brothers Tom (Scott Karim) and Samad (Irfan Shamji). Despite Tom’s adoption and all the years spent apart, the two brothers are joined by an undeniable biological bond. But as they become closer and their lives entangle, the psychological effects of being separated begin to cast a dark shadow over their new-found bond. A taut family drama about obsession, betrayal and the human need to belong, The Arrival is a world premiere written and directed by Olivier Award-winning theatre director Bijan Sheibani (Barber Shop Chronicles, The Brothers Size). Written and Directed by Bijan Sheibani Design – Samal Black Lighting Design – Oliver Fenwick Sound Design – Gareth Fry Movement Director – Aline David Cast – Scott Karim and Irfan Shamji Source: www.tactcare.org.uk  At Team Fostering our mission statement is simple; Putting Children's Futures First. This embodies our not-for-profit status that drives all decision-making with children at heart, and is embedded throughout the agency.
As an agency with ethical aims we continually seek ways to improve our service, whether that's through innovative support packages for carers, unique training opportunities or child-centred initiatives. In turn this supports foster carers to meet the needs of children and young people in their care. To this end, in 2018 we partnered with John Sands, a clinical psychologist to form our own Psychological Support Service, a new service that offers foster carers further specialised support. John's work is underpinned by attachment and resilience theories that align with the therapeutic framework used by Team Fostering, The Secure Base Model. The service initially launched as a 1-year pilot to run from 2018 to 2019 but, following an extremely positive response from foster carers, it was extended to continue into Summer 2020. The aim of the service is to provide support and information to carers and staff that will strengthen their ability to tailor care for individual children, providing them with an opportunity to recover from early traumatic experiences. John continues to be available across four of Team Fostering's offices; North Tyneside, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and South Normanton; for one day each month. There are two elements to the service; workshops that are open to all carers and staff in the morning, followed by individual consultations over the afternoon. By adopting this model we hope to be able to support as many carers as possible, both to enhance their understanding of the impact of trauma on children and how to help them recover from their experiences, but also to have the opportunity to talk in detail about particular issues. Team Fostering is an independent, not-for-profit fostering agency covering the North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands. If you're interested in becoming a foster carer, contact us to learn more about the role, support, training and salary by: calling us on 0800 292 2003 emailing info@teamfostering.co.uk submitting an online enquiry by clicking here Source: www.teamfostering.co.uk |
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