Member Job Opportunity: Barnardo's - Social Worker - Fostering South East

Location: Home based - London and South East
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 18.5
Salary: £28,631 - £37,414
Closing Date: 5 November 2021
Interview Date: To be confirmed

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Barnardo's Fostering South East has an exciting vacancy for a Social Worker to join its expanding Service covering London and South East.

Are you a qualified social worker with some fostering experience who wants to be part of a growing service that is open to new ideas? Then we want to hear from you!

We have over 30 years experience of providing fostering services across London and the South East of England.

We are in the unique position of being a small team but with the resources of one of the UK's most established, not for profit children's charities behind us. We are looking for someone who ideally has experience in fostering but is also keen to engage the carers and young people we work with in creative ways.

Ultimately, we want to provide the very best fostering placements, where they are needed most.  To that end we are expanding the skills of our carers to offer placements for the most vulnerable children and young people.  We are also expanding and developing our service to offer a range of placements, for example therapeutic and unaccompanied asylum seeking children. As a supervising social worker, you would hold a caseload of foster carers, completing tasks in line with fostering regulations. This would include assessment, supervision and oversight but there is scope in the role for involvement in other activities and service developments such as participation, training, recruitment and marketing. 

The post is home based and you will be provided with all the equipment you need to work remotely. As restrictions have eased, the team are increasingly meeting up in person and there is now access to hot desking 'hubs' across the region. 

We welcome applicants from a diversity of backgrounds as we recognise that to develop as a team we need a diversity of ideas.

Barnardo's is committed to the well being of their staff, offering support and confidential counselling services.  It is also dedicated to staff learning through our B-learning and Barnardo's University opportunities.  

One of our staff members writes: 'Barnardo's really looks after its staff - I have always felt they have wanted to invest in my future'

So please do consider applying to join our small, friendly and innovative team!

As a Social Worker you have the chance to make a real difference in the lives of Children, Young People and Families by:

• Recruiting, assessing and approving a diverse range of potential foster carers to meet the needs of waiting children
• Matching the needs of children nationwide with the skills of appropriate foster carers
• Ensuring all foster carers have access to excellent training, guidance and support when they require it, including managing ongoing contact with birth family
• Working directly with fostering families promoting a therapeutic and trauma informed approach and helping build and maintain family relationships
• Being part of Barnardo's undertaking to children, young people and foster carers to continuously learn and improve

If you have a passion and drive to make a positive difference to children and foster carers we would like to hear from you.

The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK and have use of a car and business use insurance. Barnardo's is, however, willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.

The applicant will need to be able to participate in an "On Call" rota for Out of Office helpline. There is additional remuneration for providing this service.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work life balance we therefore offer flexible working arrangements as the role involves some evening/weekend working and travel. This vacancy is for part time 18.5 hours per week and offers some flexibility in working.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described

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.

Barnardo's is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce for staff and volunteers. We actively encourage applications from disabled, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic and male candidates as they are under-represented within Barnardo's.

Full details and application documents here