Job Opportunity with Barnardo's: Practice Manager - Fostering

Location: North West 
Salary: £35,360.00 - £47,320.00 per annum (Full time equivalent)
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 37
Closing Date: 10 December 2023
Interview Date: to be confirmed

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​Barnardo's North West Family Placement are looking to recruit a Practice Manager to join our excellent team, with an Outstanding Ofsted rating. This position is a fantastic opportunity offering a full time, permanent contract based around the North West area.

You will work alongside other Practice Managers as part of a wider team of staff responsible for the recruitment and support of foster carers who provide care to looked after children and young people who are referred to our service from the Local Authority.  This post is primarily linked to our North West Fostering  service with an expectation on occasion to travel further afield.

As a Practice Manager, you will be working with a range of internal colleagues, external contacts and Children and Young People, it's crucial that you are a confident communicator with the ability to respond to the needs of all parties on a daily basis.  You will also have relevant experience and be confident in leading a team to deliver on an ambitious service – would your team describe you as proactive, organised, and supportive?

Some of the essential criteria for the role include:

• Valid SWE Registration
• Social Work Qualification
• Having a strong understanding of the legislation, policies, and National Standards we work within
• Having confidence and experience producing complex reports for Local Authorities and other relevant stakeholders

 
This is a truly rewarding role that offer a vital service for  the Children and Young People who need it.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out 1st April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a key pillar of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to grow and develop in their career at Barnardo's as it will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues to progress through the pay band of their role.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay progression steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you
The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's
At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.
 
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is reflected in our values and our practice, and we have invested in this area of our work to ensure that we can deliver on our commitments to be an inclusive employer. EDI is a key enabler of our purpose as a charity and we want to ensure that the diversity of our teams is reflective of the communities we serve and that we continue to learn and develop our work with a focus on inclusion. We particularly encourage applications from candidates from Black, Asian and  Minoritised Ethnic Communities, candidates who are LGBT+ and Disabled candidates. 

Full details and application documents here