Location: Homebased with travel required around East Midlands regions (Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire & Peterborough)

This role will report directly to the Operational Director of Children’s Services and is non-case holding role, however, there may be the need to occasionally cover casework due to staff sickness or leave.

In this role you will be responsible for the smooth running of a staff team of Deputy Area Managers, Social Workers, Family Finders, Recruitment Managers & Officers, Consultants, Panel Members, Administration Team and Children’s and Young People’s Resource Workers. 

The main role requirements for the Fostering Registered Area Manager role includes:

• A Level 5 Management Qualification (or a willingness to enrol on such a course within 6 months of appointment and to complete within 3 years)
• A minimum of 3 – 5 years post qualifying experience in fostering or in other childcare settings
• A proven track record in working with and on behalf of children, respecting and maintaining their individuality and promoting their positive development
• Experience of managing a diverse and experienced team, ideally remotely
• Experience of group work and/or delivery of training
• Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation including the Fostering National Minimum Standards and Fostering regulations
• Ability to prioritise, plan and self-organise efficiently
• Excellent communication skills and ability to use IT effectively, including participating in virtual meetings and webinars.
• Ensuring regulatory compliance including service monitoring
• Responsible for the safeguarding of children and young people
• Taking part in the out-of-hours rota.
• Delivery of the Service Operational Plan which will include the management of budget and contracts
• Being a Panel Advisor

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The highly trauma informed team in TACT Southwest seek an enthusiastic part time, fostering experienced SSSW for a fixed term of 6 months, to work closely with the existing team, addressing the growing needs of our children and young people and their carers throughout the region.  This is an opportunity for an SSSW to experience new methods and practices in a dedicated and supportive team, having direct impact on outcomes for children.

If you want to be valued as a professional, be appreciated at work and contribute to better outcomes for the children and young people connected with TACT, apply now.  

Overall Duties of the Senior Supervising Social Worker will include:

• Post qualifying experience in family placement work or post qualifying experience in other childcare settings.
• A proven track record in working with and on behalf of children, respecting and maintaining their individuality and promoting their positive development.
• Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation including the Fostering National Minimum Standards and Fostering regulations.
• Experience of working with/supporting looked after children and their foster carers.
• Thorough and consistent administrative and report writing skills plus excellent communication and relationship building skills.
• The skills to prioritise and work autonomously, against potentially conflicting deadlines with regard to regulatory requirements.
• The ability to support our foster carers and their families to achieve the best outcomes for the children in their care.
• You will need to have a Social Work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
• An Enhanced DBS clearance is also required and will be processed by TACT on your behalf.

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The Fostering Recruitment Officer/Family Support Worker role focuses on working with prospective and approved foster carers, children and families.   You will be available to plan and participate with recruitment events across the West Midlands, contribute to face to face and online activities and opportunities to attract those interested in fostering.    You must able to travel across the West Midlands as key support to children and their carers and flexibility is required within the role to manage and support at short notice to meet the needs of the children/service.   Flexibility will also be expected as there will be some occasional weekend and late evening working to support the needs of carers and children, in addition to recruitment activities. 

Please see the Job Information Pack, Job Description and TACT website at tactcare.org.uk for more detailed information.

An Enhanced DBS clearance is required for this role and will be processed by TACT on your behalf.

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Our TACT North West team took 13 of our foster care households out for a day of partying and fun – courtesy of a donation provided by John Lewis.

The day consisted of face painting, dancing, a raffle, a visit from Stitch (of Lilo & Stitch fame), a photo booth, buffet, TACT sweets and cupcakes – and some very special performances from two of our talented TACT young people!

Wellbeing events for our fostering families are so important as they provide a platform for our young people to make new friends or to catch up on existing friendships. They also provide a space for our foster carers to connect with other carers and our staff. Wellbeing and mental health for all is the overriding factor, and the memories and experiences generated at events such as these are priceless.

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We require a Social Worker to support foster carers in Somerset and Devon. The successful applicants will be joining a forward-thinking team with focus on the child being central to decision making. The roles are homebased with a requirement for regular travel to meet carers face to face locally, attend team meetings in Bristol monthly, and for other wellbeing and team events as necessary.

If you want to be valued as a professional, be appreciated at work and contribute to better outcomes for the children and young people connected with TACT, apply now.  

Main role requirements:

• Post qualifying experience in family placement work or post qualifying experience in other childcare settings.
• A proven track record in working with and on behalf of children, respecting and maintaining their individuality and promoting their positive development.
• Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation including the Fostering National Minimum Standards and Fostering regulations.
• Experience of working with/supporting looked after children and their foster carers.
• Thorough and consistent administrative and report writing skills plus excellent communication and relationship building skills.
• The skills to prioritise and work autonomously, against potentially conflicting deadlines with regard to regulatory requirements.
• The ability to support our fostertactfostering.org.uk/job/senior-supervising-social-worker/ carers and their families to achieve the best outcomes for the children in their care.

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Trina was helping out at a school, when one of the teachers recommended fostering to her. She decided to look into it. She’s now been a TACT foster carer for 17 years.

Many years ago I was helping out in the local school, and one of the teachers was a TACT foster carer and she kept saying to me ‘you could do this – the way you are with children’. So it was actually one of the school teachers that got me into this.

So I gave TACT a call, hoping that they were going to take me seriously – and I’m still here 17 years later.

You can foster as a family
When I did look into [fostering] further, we only had my son Ben at home at the time – the other three had left. Ben was 9 when I first started to look into it, and by the time TACT had come out and done all their investigations, and I’d done the Skills to Foster course – we actually became foster carers when our own son was 10.

Ben’s always grown up around other foster children because his best friends in school were twins and they were both fostered. So he understood the fostering side of looking after children. He actually just thrived with the six year old little boy. They both had the same interests – it just worked really well.  I don’t think Ben ever had his face put out of joint because this isn’t my adventure, this is our family adventure.

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Aileen learned a lot from the young people in her care; from arts and crafts right through to adjusting expectations to be in line with the needs of her young people.

My favourite thing about being a foster carer is watching young people develop from sometimes a frightened young person, or a young person who is unsure of where they are going, into blossoming young adults who go to university or college or get an apprenticeship.

My last young man who got himself into little bit of bother: we’ve now got him in the Princes’ Trust learning a trade. It’s about being positive, not looking at everything that’s negative and helping them to develop confidence in their own abilities, so they can move on and realise that they can do things.

The support from TACT has been superb. I have the finest Supervising Social Worker that any person could ever have. She is absolutely brilliant.

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TACT South West are looking for a children’s resource worker to collaborate with them to support foster children and carers within Bude and Torquay. The ideal Children’s Resource Worker will already have some experience in engagement and participation with vulnerable young people, care experienced children or have similar experience in child-facing settings. Experience of working with young people who are neurodiverse would be beneficial.  Activities would include completing one-one work with young people with life skills, healthy relationships, taking to activities, completing emotional literacy work. High level of flexibility required to cover weekends, evenings and bank holidays. Occasionally may be required to support with overnight residentials and night support within the foster home.

Car driver and owning a car is desirable. There will be opportunities for training and development for this role, as new workers join us at our organisation wide journey to become a fully trauma-informed organisation. The successful candidate will undertake essential  duties that will impact positively on the long-term outcomes for the young people and children in our care. This role is an essential part of the wider team, working in close partnership with parents, carers, young people, local authorities and their social workers. 

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Applicant must be based within a 20 mile radius of Walsall or West Bromwich area to be able to cover carers and children support within Walsall, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Shropshire, Cannock, Coventry.

TACT West Midlands are looking for a children’s resource worker to collaborate with them to support foster children and carers within Walsall, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Shropshire, Cannock, Coventry. The ideal Children’s Resource Worker will already have some experience in engagement and participation with vulnerable children, young people, care experienced children or have similar experience in child-facing settings.  Activities would include completing one-one work with children and young people, taking to activities, completing emotional literacy work. High level of flexibility required to cover weekends, evenings and bank holidays. Occasionally may be required to support with overnight residentials and night support within the foster home. Car driver and owning a car is essential.

There will be opportunities for training and development for this role, as new workers join us at our organisation wide journey to become a fully trauma-informed organisation. The successful candidate will undertake essential  duties that will impact positively on the long-term outcomes for the young people and children in our care. This role is an essential part of the wider team, working in close partnership with parents, carers, young people, local authorities and their social workers. 

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TACT Yorkshire and North East were recently awarded a donation of £1333 from the John Lewis Community Matters Scheme, which funded a trip to Mission Out in Leeds.

As there were funds left over from this event, we consulted with our young people to find out what they would like to do as another activity. The vote for quad biking, which none of them had done before, was pretty unanimous!

We took six of our young people to Yorkshire Outdoors, who kindly gave us a charity discount, where they got to try quad biking for an hour. The Yorkshire Outdoors staff were amazing with our young people, and kept them safe at all times.

It did get rather wet at times, but everyone really enjoyed biking around the track in the rain!

All our young people had a great time, and it was wonderful to witness them socialising and nurturing friendships made from previous social trips and events. We even managed to talk with them about our Connect community, which they are able to join upon turning 15. All were very excited to sign up.

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