Transferring from the local authority, we had heard many horror stories about leaving a local authority and going to a private fostering agency. However, we were desperate for a fresh start with an agency where we would feel supported and cared about after experiencing some challenging times with the local authority. The reason we chose to transfer over to Young People at Heart was simply down to the response and information we received during our initial visit with them. We had spoken with various agencies, but we didn’t get a “feel” from them like we did with Young People at Heart. When we had our initial visit at home, they made us feel empowered, worthwhile and proud to be foster carers which we had somewhat lost in recent times. We knew immediately that Young People at Heart were who we wanted to be a part of. Despite having our young person already living with us, the assessment process was simple, flexible and relaxed. We always felt supported and felt able to ask questions along the way. There were a few occasions where we had to cancel and change our assessment sessions due to circumstances with our young person. Young People At Heart were understanding and supportive of this and offered us help and advice at these times. Once we had completed our assessments, we went to panel. Although we had been to panel with the local authority, it is still a nerve-wracking experience. However, the Young People at Heart panel made us feel relaxed and very welcome to be there. They showed a great interest in us as foster carers and as people and we were met with praise and heart-warming comments about the progress our young person had made since being with us. Since transferring to Young People at Heart, our fostering journey has been transformed. As foster carers, we have become part of a family. We have gained friends who have become a valuable part of our support network. We had never connected with other foster carers and this was a new experience for us. We regularly attend the coffee mornings and catch up with both staff and other foster carers of Young People at Heart. The difference we have also experienced is a different world of support from our supervising social worker. We know that we can call or text and will get a response very quickly. We have had a totally different experience of being supported and feeling as though we can rely on Young People at Heart supervising social workers to help us achieve things for our young person and successfully advocate for them. For our young person, they have seen a totally different view of being in foster care. Up until transferring to Young People at Heart, our young person only saw being in foster care as a negative thing. They have now had access to many opportunities and experiences they never thought they would do. They enjoy seeing the Young People at Heart family and have made lots of new friends they see regularly thanks to the social work assistants. In September, we all attended the Young People at Heart birthday event. Our young person wrote their review for Young People at Heart and on the part where they were to write what they had enjoyed, our young person wrote “making new friends”. They have since asked for play dates with the young people they met. In December, we attended the pantomime with Young People at Heart. Our young person stated afterwards, “you didn’t say we were going to the pantomime with all of those guys. Can we come again next year? And can you ask when we can all meet up again please?” For our young person, this is something we never thought we’d hear and we know they feel part of a family just as much as we do. To show you exactly the impact Young People at Heart have had on us, we attended our young persons looked after review. Our young person was asked to scale his life on a scale of 1 to 10. Our young person, for the first time in 3 years, rated his life at a 10. Our young person would not have been able to rate his life at a 10 without the help, support, love and experiences that Young People at Heart have provided us with. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts. Source: www.youngpeopleatheart.org/ Location: Fostering Eastern Region Salary: £45,986 depending on experience Contract Type: Permanent Specific Hours: 37.5 Hours per week Closing Date: 22 March 2024 We have a fantastic opportunity to join our team and a growing fostering service in our Eastern Region where you will be able to contribute to achieving positive results for young people.
About Us Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home. We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong. We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities. Key aspects of the Role:
Further details and application documents here The main reason many people foster with an agency over the Local authority is the better levels of support that agencies can provide. The fostering network states “The level of support – especially practical – is often higher with an agency than an LA. They have a better ratio of supervising social workers to foster carers so one is usually available to step in, if necessary, in an emergency and offer hands-on support, for example, by collecting a child from school” At Fair Ways, we find not only does fostering with an agency mean the practical support is better but also the emotional support is improved, due to the better relationships the Supervising Social Workers can build with the foster carers, their families and the young people in their care. These relationships are generally better with Supervising social workers due to them having a lower case load ratio and agencies having better staff retention rates. Fostering with an agency also means we work with a number of local authorities not just one. This improves the matching process to ensure the best compatibility with your family and birth children or any other foster children you may be already looking after. Although allowances vary, agencies do generally pay their foster carers a higher allowance than the local authorities. At Fair Ways, we know foster carers are financially better off fostering with us than the 5 main local authorities in our area. Source: www.fairways.co/ Location: Lincoln & Louth Salary: £23,400- £28,600 Contract type: Permanent Hours:37 Closing Date: 5 April 2024 Interview Date: 15 and 16 April 2024 Barnardo's work in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council to deliver its Leaving Care Service for care experience young people aged 16-25.
We support, encourage, and empower care experienced young people to live independent lives. Knowledge of the risks worries and safeguarding concerns when working with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking young people is desirable. Initial Specific Responsibilities
Supplementary Information
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. In addition to the stated salary the post comes with a £3,000 uplift of worker retention payment from 01/04/24 to 31/03/25 paid pro rota: this is only payable once the probation period has been completed. Further details and application documents here Location: West Bromwich Salary: £40,842 Contract Type: Fixed Term Specific Hours: 37.5 hours per week Closing Date: 22 March 2024 Salary up to £40,842 depending on experience
About Us Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home. We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong. We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities. About the Role The role is responsible for the successful recruitment of new St. Christopher’s foster carers, proactively building excellent relationships with potential fostering applicants & guiding them through the assessment & approval process. The role will proactively lead on the recruitment strategy for a given region but the postholder may have to work across other regions as required by workflows. The postholder will deliver an increased number of fostering households through a targeted approach, enabling the recruitment and assessment of foster carers who can meet the needs of St. Christopher’s looked after children. Further details and application documents here Location: Bristol, Southwest England. Salary: £22,500 per annum pro rata Contract Type:Fixed Term Part-Time Closing Date: 15 March 2024 Interviews: Week Commening 26 March 2024 Contract/Hours: Fixed Term/ Part Time working 18. 5 hours a week (Fixed Term till March 2025)
Benefits: 29 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays pro rata, excellent training and development opportunities, flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages, up to 7% employer contribution pension, and a discount portal with your favourite brands. Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 discounts from national retailers. Why Action for Children? Working here is more than a job. Everyone in the Action for Children family is passionate about protecting and supporting children. It is the sense of purpose that drives us every single day. Because we know that, when we work together, we can make a huge difference to bring lasting improvements to vulnerable children's lives. A bit about the role Our three linked services, Fostering Southwest, Fostering Southwest Peninsula and Family Breaks Devon provide high quality foster families to vulnerable children and young people from our offices in Bristol and Exeter. As a Transitions Worker you'll be providing one to one (and possibly group based) practical and emotional support to our young people to make the transition from foster care/continuing care into independent living. You'll coordinate and direct the support to young people by agreeing and providing interventions, enabling positive and agreed outcomes to be achieved, in accordance with organisational policies, procedures and regulatory requirements. How you'll help to create brighter futures You'll offer support and advice to our young people to overcome barriers that can include housing, homelessness, confidence and self-esteem issues, poor social skills, lack of qualifications and employment opportunities. You will also support young people with emotional wellbeing and provide resilient and nurturing support, even in challenging and demanding situations. Key responsibilities of your role will be to:
Further details and application documents here Foster Wales is working to amplify young people’s voice to challenge stereotypes and stigma faced by children in care. As part of its Bring Something to the Table campaign, Foster Wales aims to correct the misunderstandings surrounding young people and the experience of fostering. The campaign was launched to mark Care Day last month – a day designed to celebrate and recognise social workers, those who have experience of care, and the importance of the sector. Molly*, from Bridgend, who is in foster care, said: “We get judged before people even get to know us. “People just think we’re troublemakers who do drugs and get pregnant underage. It’s just not true.” Alistair Cope, Head of Foster Wales, told CYP Now: “A lot of the messaging around Care Day is myth-busting, commonly around teens in care. “I’ve seen first-hand the common sort of misconceptions people have; that teens in care are bad news or come with a whole host of issues.” He explained that foster carers do not need to have particular experience, adding: “They [people considering foster care] think perhaps it takes some kind of superhero or magician to foster – someone with defined skills. “What we’re trying to do with the campaign is show that everybody has something they can bring to the table.” Cope’s top priority is to encourage people to foster through their local authorities in a bid to ensure children are not moved to out of area placements. He said that around “85 per cent of children [fostered through their local authority] stay within their locality”, this helps children to keep the same friends, school and access to family time, which maintains the stability essential for looked-after children. Cope added that this statistic drops to around 20 per cent when a child is placed through private residential or foster care agencies. According to StatsWales, the number of children in care has reached more than 7200. “We’re at unprecedented numbers of children in the care system. We’ve got a really ambitious aim to recruit 800 carers by 2026 across Wales, and this campaign is just the start of that process”, said Cope. *Names of some young people have been changed to protect their identities. Source: www.cypnow.co.uk/ Location: Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Salary: £35 per hour Hours: Variable Closing Date: 07/04/2024 Interview Date: 19/04/2024 Locations: Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath & North East Somerset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Swindon, North Somerset and Gloucestershire
Pay - £35 per hour We are the UK’s largest specialist charity provider of fostering. Our core work involves providing high quality and well supported fostering families for children and young people in the care of local authorities. As a ‘not for profit’ organisation, TACT puts the needs of our children and carers first and look to appoint individuals who are as passionate about fostering as we are. TACT invests all surplus income into staff, carers, and child development. This means that we have been able to establish expert in-house support services such as our TACT Health and Education Services and create TACT Connect, our ground-breaking scheme for care experienced young people and adults. New staff and workers will join us as we embark on a journey to become a wholly trauma-informed organisation with the aim of increasing our effectiveness and improving outcomes for the children and young people in our care. As a self-employed worker with TACT, you will be a part of our amazing team of professionals working with our organisational values at the heart of their everyday practice. You can review our values here. We are recruiting Self-Employed Allegation, Concerns, Complaints and Safeguarding Inspector to carry out internal safeguarding and standards of care investigations, concerning allegations, concerns, and complaints relating to foster carers, in line with local and National Guidance (e.g. Working Together to Safeguarding Children (DFE 2018), Keeping Children Safe in Education (DFE, 2019) and TACT’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Procedures. Further details and application documents here Could you help steer and govern a leading, high profile and dynamic East Anglian charity to new heights? Are you committed to improving young lives? If so, we have an exciting opportunity to join our organisation as a Trustee (voluntary position). We are particularly seeking to recruit to the Board applicants with expertise in one of the following:
What we are looking for: We are seeking to recruit three trustees with different areas of expertise who are committed to helping us to deliver our vision and mission. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our Board and making sure we best reflect the young people and families we serve. For this reason, we would particularly welcome applications from:
This is an opportunity to join an experienced and dedicated Trustee Board, working alongside a professional and skilled Senior Management Team that lead an agile and highly qualified workforce, to give the very best care to each young person in our services. As a Break trustee you will:
About Break Break is a forward-thinking non-profit organisation that’s delivered unique support for young people across East Anglia for over fifty years. Co-production with staff, young people and families is at the very heart of everything we do. We have a range of residential services, a family assessment centre, a fostering agency, Staying Close, Staying Connected and services for disabled children and their families. As a trauma-informed organisation, all our young people and employees are supported by our highly skilled therapeutic team - and our lifelong offer means that even when young people leave our care, we will always be there for them. With low staff turnover and vacancy rates, we have over 90% good and outstanding gradings across our services and deliver great outcomes for our young people. Our ambition is to grow and build even further - creating an environment where people can develop their talent and see the difference they make. Break employs around 450 staff and 900 volunteers, the majority of the latter in its shops. The staff are located primarily in Norfolk, with the main administrative offices in Norwich. Break is Investors in People gold accredited and has featured in the Times Best Companies list. Break has an exceptional training provision for internal and external customers that has a reputation for being interactive, innovative and of high quality and is leading the social pedagogy agenda within the region. You could be part of making amazing things happen. Change the Lives of Young People Leaving Care with Break - YouTube Please include a covering letter stating why you would like to a Trustee for Break with your application. If you are interested and would like an informal chat with our Chair, in the first instance, please contact Charlotte Johnston (charlotte.johnston@break-charity.org) who will arrange a discussion with the Chair. Full details and application documents here Location: Fostering Eastern Region Salary: £45,986 depending on experience Contract Type: Permanent Specific Hours: 37.5 Hours per week Closing Date: 12 March 2024 We have a fantastic opportunity to join our team and a growing fostering service in our Eastern Region where you will be able to contribute to achieving positive results for young people.
About Us Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home. We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong. We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities. Key aspects of the Role:
Applicants should have:
In return we offer:
Recruitment Process At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements. Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to starting. Your online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. For the full Job Description and Person Specification click here For more information or assistance during the application process, please contact recruitment@stchris.org.uk Closing date: 12th March 2024 We advise to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and this opportunity might be filled before the stated closing date. Full details and application documents here |
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