Grade: H scp 27 £37,035 to I scp 35 £44,711 plus Essential Car User Allowance up to £963pa
Contract: Permanent
Essential Requirement: Full UK driving licence
Essential Qualification: Social Work Qualification
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role
Ask us about flexible working options to fit with your work/life balance - #HappytoTalkFlexible
The Role
Adoption Now is looking for a social worker to join their family finding team based in Bolton.
Adoption Now is a Regional Adoption Agency made up of six Local Authorities - Bolton, Blackburn with Darwen, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside. Adoption Now is also responsible for recruiting and assessing adopters for all six local authorities and provides all aspects of pre and post adoption support.
This role involves working closely with Bolton Children’s Services to family find for children who have a plan of adoption and cannot return to live with their birth families. The role is varied including the early tracking of care plans for children who are coming into care and family finding for children whose plan is one of adoption.
There is the opportunity to share training, knowledge and expertise across children’s services, working closely with children’s social workers to find the right family for a child(ren). You will assist with operating the duty line for all aspects of adoption, and becoming involved with the training and development of prospective adopters and staff.
Bolton is a fantastic place to work, and our employees thrive working here. We are incredibly proud of our Bolton Family, of which you will become an integral part.
If this sounds like an opportunity you’d like to know more about, we’d love to hear from you. For an informal chat, please contact the Deputy Team Manager, Debbie Ryan on 07386664193
About You
For this role, you will need excellent communication skills and a comprehensive knowledge of attachment theory and the impact of developmental trauma on children. You must have experience of working within a children's social work team and developed an understanding of the importance of considering a child’s individual holistic needs to support in care planning decisions. An awareness of developmental uncertainties, child permanence reports, contact arrangements, sibling assessments, life story work, direct work and the preparation of a child for transitions are all advantageous.
As a family finding social worker, it is essential that you can work in partnership with all those involved in the care and planning for the child; this includes children’s social work colleagues, prospective adopters, foster carers and multi-agency partners. You need to be diligent and driven to securing a timely and carefully planned adoption placement for the child.
A good understanding of the legal and policy frameworks surrounding care proceedings, adoption and adoption support is desirable.
Because we pride ourselves on excellent standards you must be highly motivated and committed to improving your practice via continuous professional development.
About Us
This is your opportunity to join us at an exciting time as we have strong ambitions for the borough.
Bolton is a great place to work. We are a welcoming organisation that wants to contribute to a place where people feel active, connected and prosperous. We are passionate about improving the outcomes and experience of Bolton people. We want Bolton to be a vibrant place built on strong cohesive communities, successful businesses and healthy, engaged residents.
As an employer we want to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment, by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits, including discounts and exclusive gym membership prices and salary sacrifice schemes. In addition, we offer a generous annual leave allowance, flexible work opportunities, access to a Pension Scheme, as well as a range of employee wellbeing and support services.
Our Values are really important to us, read all about them below, along with all our great staff benefits, the job description/person specification for the role and the important legal bits, and our Top Tips too.
Ready to apply? Then please click Apply and upload your anonymised CV and supporting statement discussing your relevant skills and experience and explain how you believe they make you a strong fit for this role.
Within Greater Manchester, local authorities have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel. Please see greater.jobs for further information before you apply.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. An Enhanced DBS with check of relevant barred list is therefore required for this post.
This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English as per the person specification.
This organisation has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. That means we will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester local authority or NHS organisation that has signed the comitment, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority, giving you access to our service-related benefits. Please see the home page of greater.jobs for more information.
For more information about working for Bolton Council, please see greater.jobs; for advice and support with your application, contact recruitment@bolton.gov.uk