Social Worker Fostering and Kinship Team

Achieving for Children was created by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in 2014, and since then has been commissioned to deliver children’s services on behalf of both local authorities. In August 2017, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead became a third owner of the company. Our Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) was created in August 2018 and the Kingston and Richmond Branch was inspected in June 2023 and achieved a “Good” rating in all areas.

The Windsor and Maidenhead branch of the IFA was inspected and approved as a branch in June 2021 with a “Good” rating.

AfC offers flexible hybrid working. We are looking for an experienced social worker with good assessment, communication and report writing skills, and the motivation to achieve excellent standards in contributing to the development of our service. You will ideally have experience of working with mainstream and/or connected carers, completing a variety of assessments including special guardianship, as well as experience supervising carers.

Our fostering service has a strong focus on stability and permanency for the children we care for.

In this role you will work with colleagues to provide the full range of fostering services, including recruitment, assessment, training and supervision / support, duty services, supervising regulation 24 arrangements, as well as Form F, Form C and Special Guardianship Assessment.

You will undertake a range of tasks to safely place and work to achieve permanency plans for children. The team also completes initial family assessments aka viability assessments. There will be opportunities to be involved in the development / engagement of carer training, support groups, duty and out of hours support.

Achieving for Children work within the framework of signs of safety and we place a strong emphasis on signs of belonging, as well as peer group supervision sessions.

If you wish to have an informal discussion about the role please contact Claire Hunt t

• Hold a professional qualification in Social Work (DipSW/CQSW/CSS or equivalent).
• Active Social Work England registration and proven evidence of continuing professional development.
• Knowledge and experience in working with current legislation and regulations especially fostering regulations and national minimum standards.
• Experience in completing thorough assessments, ideally Form F/C & special guardianship assessments.
• Experiencing in supporting foster carers through regular supervision visits, tracking of training engagement and supporting overall placement stability.
• Preferably experience in working within the signs of safety framework and peer supervision practice.
• Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and working with a range of professionals, especially foster carers.
• Good understanding of the challenges faced by foster carers, and the complexities of fostering assessments including private fostering.
• Supporting special guardianship order processes, considering support plan needs, post order supports and ensuring strong starts to the arrangements.
• Experience in presenting to fostering panels, and completing annual review reports.