Advanced Practitioner – Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team – Fostering Service.
Band F – £47,754 - £49,764 pro rata per annum
Hours: 18.5 hours per week
At Solihull Council, we pride ourselves on being a Council that is small enough to care, but big enough to make a difference.
We are on a transformational journey, designed to improve the experience of the children and families we work with. Children’s Services is our top priority within our Council Plan, and we are placing children at the heart of all that we do.
To support us on our journey, we have created new roles of Advanced Practitioners across the teams. We have a part-time vacancy within the Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team within the Fostering Service.
We are looking for an exceptional candidate who is passionate about improving the lives of children, young people and their families at this exciting time, here in Solihull.
You will be responsible for ensuring high quality and effective social worker practice within the team and will lead and develop the professional practice of team members and model and facilitate restorative practice.
As an Advanced Practitioner, you will support with fostering recruitment, hold a reduced caseload of complex and challenging Form F assessments, and support carers in their first year. You will support best practice development, through sharing expertise and providing support and development for other practitioners. You will use your social work expertise and fostering knowledge to support with the recruitment of new potential foster carers. There will also be an expectation to line manage non-social work staff within the team.
You will be Social Work qualified, registered with Social Work England and you will have substantial post-qualifying experience of practice with children, families and their carers.
You will also have:
* Significant experience working within a fostering setting either in a Local Authority or Independent Fostering Agency.
* Knowledge or direct experience of fostering practice and National Minimum Standards, knowledge of trauma-informed practice in relation to fostering, along with supervisory experience and knowledge of safeguarding and managing/overseeing complex caseloads.
* Knowledge of relevant up-to-date social work legislation, statutory guidance, theories and research and how it impacts on practice.
* Experience of staff management, supervision or practice teaching.
* Excellent spoken and written communication skills, to enable you to build strong relationships with children, young people and their carers, as well as wider partners and voluntary agencies.
* A full driving license and access to a car, though reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled applicants, where required.
In return, we will agree a bespoke personal development plan; you will have access to our high-quality internal training programme and continuous professional development framework, to enable you to further develop your leadership skills within a friendly, professional working environment.
We are ambitious in Solihull and are building a stronger Solihull for our children, families and workforce. Connecting Families is the name of Solihull Children’s Services practice framework. At its core, Connecting Families demonstrates the beliefs, values and principles of restorative practice and gives us a consistent relationship-based way of practicing to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.
We believe that families and their connected networks are of primary importance and are the most important influence on improving outcomes for children. We believe that children and their family networks are experts in their own lives and that children and their family networks have strengths, on which they should be empowered to build and draw on through effective family decision making.
We are a small and friendly local authority with good relationships across the children’s social work service. We also have close partnerships across agencies in the borough, which allow for a culture of support, shared learning and mentoring between agencies.
Our team also enjoy a hybrid approach, working from both their home and our modern offices, as well as various flexible working arrangements and a generous benefits package that includes competitive salaries and payment of SWE registration; a modern working environment; a staff discount scheme; and a strong focus on staff wellbeing, with access to our Employee Assistance programme.
So, if you are ready to lead our ambitious team – and make a tangible impact and positive difference to families’ lives – then we would be delighted to receive your application.
To apply, please click on the link.
Or to find out more about our teams and all the great benefits of working in Children’s Services at Solihull Council please click here.
If you have a specific question regarding this vacancy please contact:
Neelam Ahmed - Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team Manager - neelam.ahmed@solihull.gov.uk
Closing Date: 20 April 2025
Interviews will be held on 30 April 2025.
This post will require an enhanced DBS and barring list check.
This post is covered by the Fluency Duty, as outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers.
Solihull Council has a responsibility for, and is committed to, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk, and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Solihull Council is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed on merit.
Attached documents
Job Description & Person Specification
#J-18808-Ljbffr