Social Work Assistant

The job requirements are detailed below. Where applicable the skills, qualifications and memberships required for this job have also been included.

Contractual hours 37

Basis Full time

Package Grade

Job category/type Social Work – Adults/Children

Date posted 09/07/2026

Job reference 18940

37 hours per week

Temporary – 2 years

Due to further expansion in the Kinship & Permanence team, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Social Work Assistant to join our friendly and dynamic Permanence team. This is initially a 2 year grant funded post.

The role focusses on supporting Special Guardians to achieve and maintain permanence for children and young people in their care and supporting children and young people in understanding their permanence arrangement.

In this rewarding role you will be committed to and able to evidence your experience and knowledge of working with Special Guardians/kinship carers, children/young people and their families in a strength-based and compassionate way. As a Social Work Assistant, you can expect to be working closely with all staff and Managers within the team, other Social Work teams and liaising with other professionals such as education, health and housing.

A proven ability to develop and maintain collaborative working relationships in a multi-agency environment through excellent communication will support a successful application.

To ensure that we consistently meet the needs of our Special Guardians, the children in their care and their families, an important part of your role will be to undertake reviews of Special Guardianship Support Plans and financial assessments in line with regulatory requirements and local authority policy for which training will be provided. You will also be required to undertake direct work with children and young people including lifestory work, therapeutic and emotional support and provide therapeutic, emotional, practical support, advice, and guidance to Special Guardians as and when required.

You will be encouraged to contribute to the development of the service through communication and consultation with Special Guardians and the children and young people in their care on how they experience our service.

Being part of a larger fostering service, you will also be encouraged to attend various children’s and carers events that are held annually.

To support you in this exciting and rewarding role, you will receive a robust induction, high quality, regular supervision as well as professional encouragement to access training and development opportunities to support you in your role. Whilst we are a Signs of Safety Local Authority, previous training and experience of the model is not a requirement as we provide favourable training and a dedicated officer to support the teams to integrate the model into their everyday working arrangements.

We understand that social care workers undertake challenging, yet rewarding, duties every day and as a local authority we value the resilience and passion demonstrated on a regular basis by our teams.

• We operate a convenient flexible working and hybrid working model, allowing you to maximise your time in line with your personal priorities.
• We are committed to promoting the health, safety, and wellbeing of our employees, and provide you access to a free Employee Assistance Programme which includes a confidential 24/7 counselling line and support specialists.
• As a valued member of staff, you will have access to a generous pension scheme and exclusive discounts and rewards.
• A monthly Health and Wellbeing newsletter with various initiatives and strategies to raise awareness and encourage a healthy workplace for you and your team.

The Kinship and Permanence Team is co-located with the General Fostering and Placements Team, Care Experienced Children and 15+ teams to enable effective collaborative working, based in the Civic Offices. We are a team of 16.5 staff comprising of Team manager, Deputy Team Manager, Senior Practitioner, Supervising Social Workers, Reunification Support Workers, a Social Work Assistant, as well as having dedicated Business Support staff.

We are a forward thinking, creative, supportive,…