Social Worker or Advanced Social Worker - Private Fostering
| Posting date: | 17 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £36,360 to £46,845 per year |
| Additional salary information: | inclusive of market supplement |
| Hours: | Part time |
| Closing date: | 24 November 2025 |
| Location: | Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO19 1RG |
| Company: | West Sussex County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | CAFHE06063_1763361937 |
Summary
About the Role
Salary: £36,360 to £46,845 pro rata salary. £44,844 to £57,775 fte (inclusive of market supplement)
Contract: Permanent
Working Pattern: Part time, 30 hours per week - Hybrid working options can be discussed at interview.
Location: Countywide
Interview dates: Monday 8th and Wednesday 10th December
'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 0-18years to help them identify and make real changes, so that they can stay together, and children can remain safely at home. For more information, please watch our video on Family Safeguarding in West Sussex.
How We Support You
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 Worker 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 Cash Plans.
For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.
About You
Just some of the skills and experience you will need include:
- Analyse and interpret complex information and data, being able to prioritise needs and devise plans for intervention and provision.
- Proactively work as a member of the team to make accurate assessments of needs and negotiate and implement effective outcomes.
- Develop strong relationships, working alongside carers, colleagues and external agencies to deliver an effective service.
- Communicate clearly and effectively in both written and oral format, including the ability to explain complicated information to a variety of people and use negotiation and persuasion skills to encourage others to adopt a course of action they may not wish to take.
- A recognised Social Work qualification e.g. Degree in Social Work, Post Graduate Certificate in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW or equivalent as recognised by the relevant professional body.
- Completion of relevant post qualifying training.
- Registration with the relevant professional registration body and maintaining registration with that body.
- You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars are available.
For a full list of key skills and experience please refer to the job description attached.
About Us
Here at West Sussex County Council, we are ambitious for our children and our workforce. We have made great improvements in our service for the children and families in West Sussex over 5 years. You will join us as at a key time on our continuous improvement journey; the service you would be joining has a stable workforce with manageable caseloads and a fully permanent management team. We are proud of the work we do and we are proud to be a support and inclusive employer.
That's why we need professionals, like you, who really want to be part of the positive change that is happening for children. Be part of an ambitious ongoing improvement plan and make a significant difference to children and families in West Sussex. There has never been a more rewarding time to join.
For further information about us and about working in Children's Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit Careers in children's social work in West Sussex.
Further Information
The reference number for this role is CAFHE06063.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Moira Keen at and for issues or queries regarding your application please contact
To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and application form. In your application form please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to Social Work England registration, an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.
Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.