Social Worker - Fixed term contract until 6 October 2022

Job content

The Fostering Team provides foster families for children and young people in care within Warrington. The recruitment, preparation, assessment, training, supervision and support of Foster Carers are the core tasks undertaken by the team.

The Fostering Service aims to provide sufficient number of foster families wherein foster carers are enabled to develop their skills and capacity to meet the needs of children in their care. The stability of the foster home is paramount in ensuring positive outcomes for children and young people. The quality of foster carers is recognised as a central component in enabling children and young people in care to achieve a high quality experience of family life.

The Role Of The Fostering Social Worker Includes

To provide support and supervision to a number of mainstream and family and friends foster carers to assist them in providing excellent care to children

To work closely with staff within the service and social work teams to effectively match children to families

To assess and provide training/ development opportunities to foster carers

To prepare high quality, accurate and thorough reports for a variety of purposes e.g. presentation in legal proceedings, LADO consultations, planning meetings, children’s reviews, fostering and adoption panels

To carry out an annual review of foster families

To contribute to the development of the fostering service

Be willing to work flexibly including evening work, when required

Be involved in the recruitment and assessment of foster carers and undertake Regulation 24 and viability assessments

Be placed on the duty rota to family find for children in care and respond to any emergencies

Ensure children in care are safeguarded and relevant procedures are followed if an allegation/ concern is raised against a foster carer

Ensure that children’s care and development needs are met within their foster home

Manage and appropriately prioritise tasks within an allocated workload

To assess the need for resources to support a foster care in meeting the needs of any children placed including the identification of risk to children and young people, assess their need for protection, and determine the best method of intervention, ensuring that the Team Manager is consulted/advised throughout the case progression.

Ideally we are looking for social workers who have experience of working with children in care and experience of undertaking fostering assessments.

For further information please contact, Jo Morris, Service Manager Fostering; email: jo.morris@warrington.gov.uk tel: no 01925 442026

DBS clearance is required.

The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.

If you are a permanent WBC employee you will need to apply for this fixed term position as an internal secondment opportunity and will need to discuss this with your current line manager prior to applying.

Warrington Borough Council is a Disability Confident employer