​Ruth is one of our Supervising Social Workers in the North East Region. For Social Work Week we caught up with her to hear all about her role and the relationships she has with her Foster Carers.

How did you get into social work?

I’ve been qualified as a social worker for 24 years. I always knew I wanted to do a job helping and empowering people. My first role was in a Looked After Children’s team in Lincolnshire. It was from that role at an early age that I knew my passion was fostering.

I’ve worked in a lot of different roles and I’ve been so lucky to have so many experiences. I can see things from the perspective of a child first coming into foster care to experiences children have in foster care, but also moving on from foster care. I still keep in touch with a lot of my looked after children who are now 25/26.

I’ve now been at Team Fostering for 3 years.

What do you love about your role?

Working with Foster Carers is my strength. My passion now is supporting children that are neurodiverse.  A lot of children are getting assessed for ADHD, foetal alcohol syndrome, autism and supporting Foster Carers with this is really important. The way I do it is just being there on the journey with them. Supporting them, helping them, making sure that they get the training that’s going to help them.

It’s still a job for me that I enjoy getting up in the morning and I enjoy doing. So that speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

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We offer hybrid working which includes a blend of home and office working with a minimum of one day per week in our office.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Supervising Social Worker to join our successful and GOOD rated Yorkshire and East Midlands Team. Your office base will be in Sheffield, and you will manage a caseload primarily across the West Yorkshire region. However, there will also be a requirement to support duty and other work across Yorkshire and the East Midlands.  You will share our commitment to delivering high quality services for children and young people and support our foster carers to do this too.

As a Supervising Social Worker you will provide a high level of supervision and support to foster carers, as well as the children and young people who are placed in their care. You will have the knowledge and skills to undertake the full range of Supervising Social Worker tasks, including supervising foster carers, working with other professionals, report writing and attendance at meetings. Not only will you have excellent communication and interpersonal skills you will also be hardworking, positive, and motivated to improve outcomes for Children in Care.

Whilst experience in fostering is beneficial, we welcome applications from newly qualified Social Workers and Social Workers with the relevant skills, commitment and enthusiasm who are seeking to move into fostering. You will benefit from a robust training and induction package to support your development within our team.
 
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We offer hybrid working which includes a blend of home and office working with a minimum of one day per week in our office.
 
Hours: 37.5 hours per week working flexibly between Monday – Sunday (Flexible working requests will be considered)
 
This role will involve some evening and weekend working. This would typically be between 5-8pm on an evening twice a week, and 3 hours on a weekend once a month. There may be occasions where it would be more hours on a weekend but this would be planned well in advance. Evening work and weekend work would mean this time would be taken back during the working week to allow flexibility for both the post holder and the agency.

As part of our continued growth as an agency and the on-going development of our services, we are expanding our Recruitment Team and would welcome applications from skilled professionals to support the agency in recruiting skilled and suitable foster carers by dealing with initial enquiries, liaising with potential foster carers, attending community based recruitment events, working closely with marketing colleagues, and engaging with current foster carers.

The successful applicant will have:

• Experience of a public facing engagement, recruitment or sales and marketing role
• Exceptional customer service and relationship management skills
• A confident and professional telephone manner
• Proven ability to communicate with a wide range of people and differing communities
• Excellent verbal communication skills and telephone manner
• Proven ability to write clear, concise reports and maintain written records
• Experience in the use of MS Office and database systems
• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to prioritise workload and work to tight deadlines
• A can do attitude and a willingness to learn
• Flexibility to work evenings and weekends when required

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We are now recruiting for Foster Carer Support Buddies to work with our Foster Carers and their families. This is a great opportunity for those studying within a social work or health related field who want to gain experience around their studies, or for those who have availability in the evenings/weekend or during the day to undertake the role duties.

The role is offered on self-employed or zero hours contract.

What are we looking for
This role will support our foster carers and children in a wide range of activities, which could include childminding, transporting children to school and activities, attending meetings, and taking young people for days out and other activities, in order to both work with and free up some time in a carer’s day. The post-holder may spend time with the young person on a regular or an occasional basis.

The role will involve
Supporting children with additional needs within their home
Assisting with meal times and personal care.
Supporting children to access activities
Accompanying them with their foster carer on days out
Post holders may be asked to sit with children in hospital during the day whilst carers attend meetings/ appointments
Supporting with care for children at the CFT office whilst carers attend training.

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As part of planned succession and our continued focus on strong, independent governance, we are seeking to appoint two Members to act as constitutional guardians of the organisation.

This is not a management or operational role.

Members provide strategic constitutional oversight — safeguarding the integrity, sustainability and long-term direction of the organisation. They step in where necessary to protect governance standards, uphold our Articles of Association and ensure accountability at the highest level.

It is an important but infrequent role, suited to individuals who value independence, integrity and principled leadership.

We would particularly welcome interest from individuals with experience in:

• Governance, regulation or constitutional oversight
• Children’s services, fostering and safeguarding
• Finance, audit, legal or risk environments
• Senior leadership in the public, voluntary or not-for-profit sectors
• Parliamentary engagement or understanding of government decision-making
• We are looking for people who bring sound judgement, independence of thought, and the confidence to act appropriately if serious governance concerns arise.

Commitment

• Approximately two formal meetings per year
• Preparation and review of governance documentation
• Availability if a significant governance issue arises

This is a remunerated role.

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We’re delighted to announce that our North East team has been rated Outstanding by Ofsted following the latest inspection in November.

The report highlighted ‘exceptional quality care’ for children from their foster carers and the ‘significant progress’ that they make.

Providing children with stability
It also praised the fact that ‘a significant number of children experience placement stability’ and children are supported by Team Fostering to ‘stay with their foster carers as long as they need to.’

This was attributed to the ‘tight working relationship’ between Team Fostering’s family finding team, foster carers, Team Fostering supervising social workers and local authorities.

Boosting wellbeing for our children and young people
The report also shows that we live up to our ethos of putting children at the heart of everything we do. It says Team Fostering and ‘its foster carers support children to make very good progress with their physical health, emotional well-being and education. Children have access to a range of universal health services and are supported to access specialist services when they need to. On occasions, where children are struggling to get the help they need, the agency funds this.’

Feeling like a family
At Team Fostering we also provide numerous opportunities and activities for carers and young people to come together, with the report saying, ‘foster carers were unanimous in their view that the activities that the agency organises supports foster carers and children to be able to get to know one another and feel part of a ‘wider family’.’

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Agency-wide role with travel across all office bases as required
 
We are seeking an experienced social work practitioner with management or supervisory experience to manage our foster carer assessment service. This involves managing and developing a pool of Independent Social Workers who are responsible for completing detailed assessments of prospective foster carers. The role is also responsible for our Recruitment, Retention and Development Social Worker and will act as Advisor to our Fostering Panel. The role incorporates an important quality assurance function, ensuring that our assessment process enables us to recruit capable and resilient carers that can meet the diverse needs of children that require foster care. The role is a key part of our safeguarding arrangements ensuring children receive safe and effective care.

Key Responsibilities

• To Manage the Recruitment, Retention, and Development Social Worker
• To Manage the pool of Independent Social Worker (Form F Assessors).
• To ensure and support the development of staff, ensuring their practice remains effective and in line with best practice guidance and research.
• Quality assuring Form F assessments, ensuring they are ready to be presented to Panel within agreed timescales.
• To work with other managers and colleagues, to ensure a joined-up approach to the recruitment and retention of foster carers that meet the needs of our communities.
• To help drive forward continuous improvement, contributing to training, learning and development work across the agency.
• Supporting the review and development of policies and procedures, ensuring best practice.

Click here for full job details 

Team Fostering is an ethical not for profit fostering agency with a strong reputation and track record for providing high quality, fostering placements for looked after children. We pride ourselves on our values and our commitment to making positive changes for children and young people.

As a Family Finding Officer you will play a vital role in supporting us to make those changes happen.  You will:

• Build relationships with Local Authorities and be the first point of contact for referrals for children and young people
• Get to know our foster carers and manage the matching process between our foster carers & the children referred
• Be key to supporting our children and families by coordinating short break care arrangements
• Support changes to arrangements such as placement moves and ends
• Update Carer Profiles and market the agency’s services to the local authorities
• Attending matching events hosted by Local Authorities

We are looking for a passionate individual, with a drive to improve outcomes for children and young people.  We would welcome applications from skilled professionals, preferably with experience of working in a social care setting who are able to demonstrate the following:

• Resilience to deal with sensitive information concerning children and young people
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, managing tight deadlines and competing priorities while remaining adaptable to changing plans.
• Experience of maintaining composure under pressure while adopting a positive, proactive, solution-focused approach to challenges and problem-solving
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for engaging with internal and external colleagues
• Proficiency in Microsoft Teams with the ability to lead and chair meetings in a professional and engaging manner.
• Excellent negotiation skills to influence decisions and secure the best outcomes for children
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team, being supportive, considerate, and available to assist colleagues when needed
• Self-motivation with proven ability to work independently and maintain productivity in a remote environment
• Commitment to the ethos and values of Team Fostering, with a genuine passion for making a positive difference in the lives of children and families.
• Open to learning and development, receptive to feedback, and proactive in asking questions and seeking support

Click here for full job details 

Fresh from the merriment of our Children’s Christmas party, eight young people and two members of our Education and Support Service in the Yorkshire and East Midlands region paid a visit to Rose Cottage Nursing and Residential Care Home in Sheffield, where we put on a Christmas party for the residents.

Starting with a Christmas sing-along, everyone young and old joined together to sing some Christmas classics.  Requests were taken, songs were destroyed, but hearts were warmed!  H, age 7 stole the show, and did a great job of covering up those of us who weren’t so good at staying in key.  Following this, N led a game of Play Your Cards Right, J ran a raffle, and H shared an amazing Christmas poem, which he had written especially for the visit.

Our volunteers programme is designed to give children the opportunity to try new things, give something back to others, and consider possible employment options for the future.  The latter definitely occurred, as one of our young people said that she would now consider working in an older people’s care home in the future after volunteering.

Click here to read the full article.