This is a 12 month temporary opportunity for an experienced practitioner with at least 3 years’ post qualifying experience as a social worker. You will have responsibility for managing a caseload of children and young people who are privately fostered. You will ensure that the London Borough of Bexley’s duties towards children who are privately fostered as set out in the Children Act 1989, the amendments within the Children’s Act 2004 and the Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005 are fully implemented.
Please refer to the Job Description attached for more information.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact Antoinette Johnson, Service Manger Family Support and Protection, Frontline and Private Fostering on 0203 045 5828, Antoinette.johnson@bexley.gov.uk
We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the Candidate Information document attached.
We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date.
You will be required to undertake assessment of children and young people following notification of the private fostering arrangement and assess the suitability of the private foster carer. You will be responsible for visiting the child, monitoring the arrangement and for providing any necessary support. It is necessary that you are aware of the statutory regulations regarding Private Fostering and ensure that the Local Authority is discharging its functions in respect of privately fostered children appropriately.
You will be required to take appropriate initiative when working to support children and their families and escalate any concerns appropriately. If an arrangement is deemed inappropriate, it may be necessary to seek legal advice and remove the child from the home. There is a likelihood of court involved work in this role. You will also support other practitioners in the service through mentoring, advice, support, and occasional shadowing on visits or for meetings.
In the role you will build positive, supportive, and respectful relationships with families in order to help support children in need of help or protection who are privately fostered. Wherever possible, you will work in partnership with the parents of the child and the private foster carer in relation to the private fostering agreement in order to promote the child’s welfare. This will require working in a supported practice environment that respectfully challenges and enables you to use your professional judgement, autonomy, experience, knowledge, and skills. These all form the key aspects of our Signs of Safety practice model which we use when working with children, families and the wider professional network. You will engage with multi-professional networks and the general public in order to educate and raise awareness of private fostering and their responsibilities.
You will have a proficient ability to communicate in English and be able to influence others in an effort to help coordinate services and supports in the best way possible to keep children as safe and well cared for as possible.
For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description attached.
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.
Bexley is well connected, there are good transport links to central London, the Kent countryside and the Coast! It is the best of both worlds. Our residents and workers can benefit from the new high-speed Elizabeth Line which goes from Abbey Wood, here in Bexley and all the way to Reading, Southeast England.
We are a diverse and growing borough. By 2030 our population will be over 260,000 and almost 300,000 by 2050. Almost 25% of our population is Black and Asian Multi-Ethnic. Bexley is one of London’s greenest boroughs and has recently been awarded Public Sector Campaign of the year by Sustainable City’s prestigious annual awards.
We believe that everyone in Bexley Children’s Social Care should have the opportunity to grow and develop, in every role and at every stage of their career and offer a wide variety of social work roles, both for qualified and unqualified practitioners. Bexley Children’s Social Care offers the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in different areas of Children’s Services: we offer a comprehensive range of professional development opportunities and are committed to ensuring that Bexley is a welcoming and enjoyable place to work.
The children and families we work with, are always kept at the centre of our practice. We believe:
children should stay with their families whenever it’s in their best interests and safe to do so
where it’s not, we must act quickly through the courts to help children find a safe space
success depends on positive, respectful relationships with families and with each other
working with families is unpredictable, so we have to create a supportive environment for our teams
the most effective practice is based on ‘showing your working out’ – so that even when things don’t go to plan, the thinking behind decisions is clear and defensible
Working in social care in Bexley is endlessly rewarding. As well as helping some of the most vulnerable people in our borough, we invest in looking after you and your career.
We offer excellent benefits, from competitive salaries and generous leave to flexible working and a wealth of health and wellness programmes.
flexible working - including opportunities for hybrid working, job sharing, compressed hours, and career breaks
a comprehensive range of training and professional development opportunities including access to research, group and e-learning, coaching and group supervision for colleagues in all roles and at every stage of their career
clear career progression pathways, within a nurturing environment, which allows social work to flourish. From opportunities to undertake social work qualification; our dedicated ASYE Academy; to our Leadership Academy offering bespoke development for our aspiring and existing leaders. There are also opportunities for practitioners to be involved in university research & academic delivery with our partner universities and students.
family leave - includes maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave
mental health and physical wellbeing - including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, help to quit smoking, access to private healthcare, free eye tests and discounted leisure offers
financial wellbeing - excellent pension scheme, charitable giving options
generous annual leave - 25 to 33 days, with the option to purchase extra leave plus an extra bank holiday at Christmas
competitive pay - performance assessments with the opportunity for salary increments and transparent salary scales
transport offers - cycle to work scheme, carpooling, subsidised parking and interest-free season ticket loans
recognition - Thank you messaging to celebrate staff success and sharing of compliments received
professional and personal development - training and workshops to help you thrive and a discount on most Learning and Enterprise College Bexley courses
staff support networks - our networks support and encourage networking between staff with various events throughout the year
employee volunteering - get out of the office and help a local project blossom
MyChoice benefit scheme - your pick of perks from vouchers to car leasing
local authority discount scheme - attraction and theme park discounts and local offers in partnership with KAARP .
We work together in a modern, well-equipped, energising environment that supports team working and collaboration across the service and with partners