SALARY RANGE: £35k – £41k depending on experience and qualifications
Context:
We are seeking a motivated, creative, and relationship-focused supervising social worker to join our nurturing team of six dedicated professionals. Lika is a values-led organization, committed to making a difference, and we’re looking for a like-minded individual to contribute to our mission of supporting foster carers and ensuring excellent outcomes for children in care. If you are inspired by meaningful work and aligned with our values, we’d love to hear from you.
Lika Family Fostering is a small, independent fostering agency based in London, recruiting foster carers for children in local authority care. We support carers in developing resilience, offering guidance on building and maintaining secure relationships with everyone significant in the child’s life. Our systemic approach enables us to provide comprehensive support to both child and carer.
At the heart of every foster home lies a shared commitment to ensuring that each looked-after child receives the best possible care and a nurturing foster family. To achieve this, Lika Family Fostering upholds high standards through a comprehensive training and support program tailored for both foster carers and their supervising social workers. This program is grounded in systemic therapy principles, which focus on fostering meaningful relationships within families. Rated as an Outstanding agency in 2024, Lika’s approach empowers carers to become confident, skilled professionals who understand and meet the needs of young people with complex backgrounds.
Purpose:
This London based, Supervising Social Worker (SSW) role provides direct support, supervision, and guidance to foster carers, ensuring a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for the children in their care. This role involves building strong, trust-based relationships with foster carers, conducting regular visits, and providing on-call therapeutic support. SSWs play a crucial role in safeguarding by monitoring children’s well-being, identifying concerns, and collaborating with the children’s network to implement necessary support plans.
The SSW also contributes to the professional development of foster carers, guiding them through training, personal development, and fostering requirements. Assessing the needs of foster carers, addressing challenges, and ensuring compliance with fostering regulations and agency policies are key responsibilities. The role requires active participation in fostering assessments, report preparation, and making recommendations to fostering panels, always with a focus on the best interests of the child and family stability.
Duties:
1. Manage a caseload of up to 12 foster carers. Foster carers are based around London.
2. Guide and support the induction period of newly approved foster carers, ensuring the TSDS portfolio is completed to a high standard.
3. Conduct monthly reflective supervision with allocated foster carers, enabling them to reflect on their interventions and understand the impact they have on the child’s development and outcomes.
4. Equip carers to make a positive difference in a child or young person’s life using a clear theoretical framework, such as systemic, social learning theory, therapeutic parenting principles.
5. Undertake direct work with children to enhance placement stability and support the development of children in placement. This work will be coordinated with the placing authority and aligned with the support level provided by Lika.
6. Identify learning and development needs of foster carers in the fostering task, in line with the organisation’s therapeutic approach.
7. Conduct unannounced visits and health and safety/risk assessments, ensuring carers fully understand the fostering role.
8. Participate in Annual Reviews of foster carers within required timescales, providing written evidence of competencies. Present Annual Review Reports to Lika’s fostering panel.
9. Arrange and/or attend meetings to support foster carers, children, and young people, preparing reports as necessary, such as for LAC reviews or placement stability meetings, and advocate for both the foster carer and the young person as needed.
10. Collaborate with Lika Family Fostering’s therapist and managers to ensure effective direct work with both foster carers and children in placement.
11. When needed, assist the matching lead with connecting foster carers who have availability to young people referred to the agency.
12. Part of our out of hours duty rota – supporting foster carers during emergencies.
13. Participate in Lika Family Fostering’s recruitment and advertising campaigns.
14. Attend both monthly 1:1 reflective supervision with the Practice Lead as well as group supervision to assess foster family dynamics and create interventions to improve the care provided to each child or young person.
15. Ensure full compliance with legislative requirements and company operational standards to safeguard children and manage business risks effectively.
16. Ensure children and young people are informed of their rights and supported in using Lika Family Fostering’s complaints procedures, as well as those of their local authorities/health trusts where necessary.
17. When confident, assist with the facilitation of training for new carers through Skills to Foster.
18. Prioritise the protection of children and the promotion of their welfare in all activities, ensuring that critical incidents and allegations are documented, investigated, and appropriately addressed, per Lika Family Fostering and relevant local authority child protection procedures. Report any concerns to the Registered Manager immediately.
19. Work with the social work team to help identify any needs within the foster family eg respite, activities, therapy, holidays, with all members of the child’s network, including contributing to all meetings and any other tasks defined.
Experience & Qualifications:
Social Work qualification (e.g., Dip SW, CQSW) plus relevant Post Qualifying training. Registered with Social Work England.
A minimum of two years of qualified social work practice, including direct fieldwork experience in childcare planning and/or fostering.
A qualification in systemic family therapy is desirable, with essential experience in applying these techniques and concepts professionally.
Experience in analytical and critical report writing.
Experience in direct work and life story work with children.
Experience working with challenging behaviours and facilitating positive change when supporting families or foster carers.
Knowledge:
Appreciation for the impact of brain development, separation, and loss on children.
Awareness of the diversity in family structures and their potential to meet children’s unique needs.
Understanding of Fostering Regulations and National Minimum Standards, with motivation to seek applicants capable of exceeding these standards for the benefit of vulnerable children.
Knowledge of the Children Act 1989 and other relevant laws/regulations governing fostering.
Familiarity with the fostering panel process and ability to support foster carers through reviews effectively.
Abilities:
Strong interpersonal and listening skills.
Proficiency in clear and effective oral and written communication.
Capability to process, analyse, and summarise complex or distressing information for professional reports and fostering panels.
Skill in conducting balanced risk assessments focused on children’s safety and well-being.
Capacity to identify key issues and solutions and convey them clearly.
Ability to facilitate the participation of all family members in the supervision process.
Proficiency in creating engaging, supportive, and challenging supervision sessions for foster carers to enhance their development and knowledge in trauma-informed care.
Skill in making informed, decisive recommendations on foster carers’ support and training to provide optimal placements for vulnerable children.
Ability to perform direct work with children to strengthen their sense of identity and self-esteem.
Commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for children in care.
Dedication to supporting foster carers in meeting the needs of children with complex backgrounds.
Valuing of diversity across ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation.
Commitment to confidentiality in all professional interactions.
Willingness to enhance knowledge and understanding through reading, discussion, and supervision.
Annual Leave: 28 days, increasing to 30 days after two years of service.
Flexible Work Environment: Primarily home-based, with 4–6 days per month in the office for collaborative team sessions.
Performance Incentives: Eligibility for performance-based bonuses
Professional Development: Access to therapeutic training opportunities for ongoing growth.
Private Health Services: Physical & emotional health support / 24-hour employee assistance helpline.
Travel Reimbursement: Mileage reimbursement of 0.45p per mile for drivers / Oyster card provided for all work-based London travel.
EMAIL enquiries@likafamilyfostering.co.uk
PHONE 020 8667 2111
ADDRESS Lika Family Fostering, Davis House, 4th Floor,
1 Robert Street, Croydon, London CR0 1QQ
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