Fostering Reviewing Officer - Social Worker
| Posting date: | 17 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £38,258 to £40,958 per year |
| Additional salary information: | Competitive |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 12 May 2024 |
| Location: | Huntingdon, PE29 3AD |
| Company: | Cambridgeshire County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | Ref/1660/4165 |
Summary
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced fostering Social Worker as a Fostering Reviewing Officer to provide an independent view within the Fostering Service. Working as part of The Quality Assurance function within the service, the Reviewing Officer will offer their objective view to evaluate the quality of practice both in respect of the foster carers and the fostering service as a whole.
This is a countywide role with an office base at Scott House in Huntingdon. The role is hybrid with a mix of home and office working alongside visits.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact Service Manager Stuart Stapleton on 07825 781 868 or email stuart.stapleton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Interviews will be held week commencing 20th May 2024 via Microsoft Teams. We may include a virtual assessment as part of this, but we’ll give you all of the relevant information ahead of time.
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Our benefitsWe value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:
- Flexible working
- Flexible Bank Holidays
- A comprehensive wellbeing package
- Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
- A comprehensive pension scheme
- IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
- Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
- An employee recognition scheme
For our Social Workers, we offer more specific benefits like:
- Generous annual leave provision (28 days, plus bank holidays)
- A supportive management team that will champion your learning and development
- Employee Assistance Programme – access to free support 24 hours a day
- Payment for business mileage expenses (45p per mile)
- A relocation package of up to £8000 for eligible candidates
- A pay progression scheme to enable our Social Workers to accelerate through the pay grade as you gain experience and skills.
- Plus, 6 days of protected time each year to enable our Social Workers to maintain their Continuous Professional Development.
Please read our benefits brochure attached for more information.
What will you be doing?The role includes:
- The organisation and chairing of the foster carer's annual review meeting as required by the fostering regulations.
- Rigorously assess foster carer's capability to meet the needs of children in foster care, incorporating their wishes and feelings, as well as feedback from other professionals.
- Preparing high quality review reports with clear recommendations to the foster service regarding the carer's household’s suitability to fostering, evidencing the reasoning behind the recommendations made.
- Developing positive relationships with the fostering team, to promote and implement the review process.
- Carrying out discussions and investigations where there have been issues around allegations and standards of care.
- Contributing to the analytical reporting to the Head of Service, identifying examples of excellent or poor practice, themes and trends, feedback on children’s views and suggestions for development, change to practice, or policies and procedures.
We are looking for a qualified Social Worker, registered with Social Work England, who is passionate about wanting to contribute to providing the best service to the children who require the care of foster carers. Both in ensuring that children feel well supported, but also that their carers are receiving a good service in order to provide good quality of care.
We are looking for an experienced Social Worker, with knowledge and experience of working within fostering services. The preferred candidate will have a good understanding of the fostering regulations, national minimum standards and best practice within fostering.
The role does require some travel, including out of county, so a driving licence and access to a car is essential.
About usCambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme