Social Worker or Advanced Social Worker - Private Fostering

About the Role

Salary: £44,844 to £57,775 (inclusive of market supplement)

Contract:

Permanent
Working Pattern:
Full time, 37 hours per week - Hybrid working options can be discussed at interview.

Location:

Countywide

Please note that interviews will take place in the New Year

'West Sussex is passionate about supporting children and families to achieve positive outcomes. I feel fortunate to work within a supportive and collaborative team, where everyone is committed to making a difference. My manager has been consistently encouraging and approachable, which has allowed me to grow in confidence and develop professionally. I genuinely enjoy being part of a team that values each other and works together to support those who need us most.'

- Madlen, Social Worker in Family Safeguarding

The role will specifically involve responding to new notifications when a private fostering arrangement is made for a child by assessing the needs of the child and suitability of a private foster carer and their home environment. You will have your own caseload of children subject of private fostering regulations, and any other intervention they need. You will also undertake the carer assessments and private fostering visits on children allocated to other social workers if their arrangements become private fostering and therefore the role will require good cooperation with the child's Social Worker to ensure that the placement is suitable for their needs and considers their wishes and feelings.

These arrangements will need to be visited and reviewed as per statutory guidance to ensure that they continue to be suitable and safe arrangements for the child.

In this role, you will be actively involved in improving and promoting our private fostering service by ensuring that our responsibilities to children and their private foster carers are fulfilled in a timely way. You will be offering consultation and support to Social Workers across Children's Social Care to improve their identification of private fostering and raise awareness. There will be opportunities to develop and support training and be part of awareness sessions with the public/wider professional network.

This is real opportunity to develop practice, and we are seeking someone dynamic and passionate who wishes to complete good quality work with children and their private foster carers as well as striving to make this area of practice well promoted and effective for the children in these situations. It will be important that you are confident in your ability to work autonomously but you will also be well supported in undertaking this task and provided with regular supervision.

Family Safeguarding is a whole family strengths-based approach to safeguarding children who may be in need of support or at risk of harm. We work with families with children aged 0-18 years to help them identify and make real changes, so that they can stay together, and children can remain safely  more information, please watch our video on Family Safeguarding in West Sussex.

At West Sussex County Council, we aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where you can achieve your full potential, gain a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work you do with clear pathways to achieve your future aspirations. A few examples of these include:

• Flexible and hybrid working options within your small practice teams, managed by a Team Manager and supported by Child & Family Workers as well as additional flexible administrative support from Coordinators embedded within the service.
• Regular group supervision and peer learning alongside specialist roles within the team to focus on the most vulnerable children.
• We pay your Social Work England registration fee.
• Excellent learning and development provisions with 5 CPD and training days per year and access to Research in Practice and Community Care Inform.
• An excellent local government pension scheme
• Generous holiday entitlement of up to 29 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health…