Child and Family Worker

Overview

The Fostering Service has a great opportunity for you to join the thriving team as a Child and Family Worker.

The Team provides an excellent service to Foster Carers and children living in their households to ensure children remain in stable and caring home.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.  

Buckinghamshire is an ambitious, rapidly growing county, and our economy is one of the strongest in the country. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ranks as one of the top rural areas to live in the UK and yet it is incredibly well connected– only an hour from London on the train. The county has a rich history and heritage and is the birthplace of the international Paralympic movement.

We are looking for motivated, ambitious and inspiring people to join us on our journey. You will be entitled to a range of different benefits to make sure you are happy both at work and at home.

About the role

This position is part-time, 18.5 hours per week. Therefore, the advertised salary will be pro-rata giving an annual salary of £16,992 per annum.

The Child and Family worker will be essential to ensure placement stability for children living in care. The additional focus is also to include foster carers’ birth children in the support process.

• To work directly with foster children, foster carers' birth children and foster carers.
• To have a good understanding of trauma and the impact of trauma on children and adults.
• To have a good understanding of therapeutic parenting.
• To have access to a variety of direct tools to work with children.
• To be a part of our training offer to foster carers, supporting/delivering training.
• To work as a team in providing support groups/activities to foster families.

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

The Fostering Service is looking for a self-motivated Child and Family Worker who will join the team with a passion to support foster children and their carers.

The aim is to avoid children moving from fostering households and therefore the successful applicant will have to have exceptional communication skills in working with children, carers and professionals. You would require experience of direct work with children, and it would be ideal to have experience of working with foster carers.

You will join an experienced group of Child and Family workers who will offer you support and guidance to adapt to your new role.  A flexible approach will enable an individual, child centred approach to the planning and delivery of work.

This advert more accurately reflects the Job Purpose, Responsibilities and Duties but the attached job summary includes detail of the essential/desirable criteria. 

Other information

The Fostering Service expects workers to be in the office twice a week, this role does require home visits to foster carers or attend support groups or other activities.

The Child and Family workers become involved with activities which might not be within working hours i.e. the occasional weekend or evening work.

If you would like to find out more about this role, please contact Julia Hammett at [email protected]

Closing date: Midnight on 28th November 2024.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

If successful, you will be required to apply for a DBS at an enhanced level. Further information about the DSB Scheme can be found at www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Buckinghamshire is a successful, growing place with fantastic natural assets, a highly productive economy and many resourceful and thriving communities. However, we are far from complacent and our new and ambitious unitary authority is well placed to tackle the challenges associated with growth, an aging population, climate change and inequalities in both opportunities and outcomes – particularly for our children and young people.

Children’s Services is on an improvement journey and as our very recent Ofsted report shows, we have continued to improve despite the pressures of the pandemic and have built solid foundations for future success. Relationships with partners are strong and our collective response to the pandemic has strengthened and deepened our work together.

We have a big, ambitious agenda for Buckinghamshire, and our teams work collaboratively and at pace to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people across the county.

We are looking for talented and driven individuals to help us achieve the best outcomes for our children, young people and families in Buckinghamshire. Our key priorities include continuing to protect vulnerable children and young people from harm, whilst sustaining an environment where social work practice can thrive. Through our vital work with our partners, including The Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Childrens Partnership, we continue to improve our collective response to children and young people who have been exposed to domestic abuse, exploitation, substance misuse and mental health issues.

No matter what role you take on in our Children’s services, you will be part of a team who is dedicated to supporting children and their families to achieve their full potential.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/