Experienced Social Worker, Fostering Service

Here in Swindon we have a clear vision and plans to reduce the need for Children to come into our care with our new adolescent offer and edge of care work and we are continually working as a partnership to ensure or children are safe.

We’re making a real difference to the lives of the children and families we work with in Swindon.

Join us and be part of that difference.

About Us

We have now implemented the Family Safeguarding Model in 2022, a new multi-disciplinary approach that supports a whole-system change to child protection for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults so that children can safely remain within their families. This is a great opportunity to join us now and be part of this pioneering work as we continue to learn from multi agency family work and support more families to look after their children in their families and wider communities.

In addition, we have an established and growing our ASYE programme, linked to our Social Care & Leadership Academy, offering mentoring support, fostering a culture of learning and challenge, manageable caseloads and good quality supervision, as we commit and invest in growing our own talent, as well as our experienced social workers.

About the role

We are fully committed to ensuring safe recruitment and assessment of our foster carers in Swindon. We need a qualified, experienced social worker to join us with a shared commitment to the importance of fostering and connected care for the children we work with.

We are looking for someone who is motivated, has excellent assessment skills and understands the needs of children looked after both by connected and unconnected carers. You will have a knowledge of both fostering and Kinship care planning legislation. You will be joining an established and fully permanent team with lots of experience to help you grow in our role.

You will be assessing individuals as prospective carers (including related and unrelated carers) to consider their suitability to care for children under different legal arrangements including mainstream fostering and SGO.  You will help support individuals in the recruitment and preparation for their roles, whether that is caring for children in a kinship arrangement or caring for an unrelated child.

You will be joining the team at an exciting time with new foster carers being recruited, us developing our therapeutic offer of training for foster carers and social workers and the now live ‘Mocking Bird’ model.

The needs of our children we care for and carers don’t stop at 5pm so you’ll need to be able to commit to some flexibility in working to include visits to suit the needs of our prospective carers and some training and recruitment activity during evenings and occasional weekends

About You

We require all social workers to have a degree or diploma in Social Work, full Social Work England registration and a proven ability to work in partnership with children, young people, parents, carers and partners.

You should have;

• A strong strengths-based approach and child-centred value base that informs the work with children, young people and families.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to engage and motivate children, young people and their families in a range of circumstances.
• Effective assessment, analysis and planning skills and excellent direct work skill base and knowledge that can be shared with colleagues across the team.

Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children’s Services as we are. As a local authority, we continuously drive forward improvements in our services. We want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.

Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.

Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act – for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).

Our commitment to your development

We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.

We have an established Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy aims to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we support, develop and value the professional disciplines in Social Work and Social Care through a targeted framework of career development and learning opportunities. 

Your next package

• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria applies)
• Competitive salaries
• Free car parking at our central Swindon campus and easy commuter links to many locations

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance.

For Swindon to thrive in the future, we need to lay the foundations now. It’s why our regeneration and transformation programmes are already underway. So, you’ll be joining us at an exciting time on our journey. We’ll look to you to share your knowledge, influence decisions and drive real, positive change. With your contributions, we’ll achieve our vision of a prosperous, re-vitalised Swindon together. And you’ll be proud to say it was made better with you.

Please see our Vision and Values page for more details

Please see our new Swindon Plan

Your next steps

To be eligible for this role, you must be a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England registration.

As an inclusive employer, we welcome applications from a diverse range of communities, and in particular disabled people and people from ethnic minorities. Read our statement of commitment to equality & inclusion.

Read the role profile and select the Apply button where you will be redirected to the Swindon Borough Council website to complete our online application process. Clicking the ‘Apply’ button on this job website is not an application, you must register on the Swindon Borough Council website in order to be considered for the role.

For further information about the role please contact Emma Hunt, Assistant Team Manager at ehunt2@swindon.gov.uk 

If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your application please email resourcing@swindon.gov.uk