Family Practitioner - Fostering

About Southampton Children’s Services

Southampton Children’s Services were inspected by Ofsted in June 2023 and found all services to be Good with Outstanding Leadership and Management; an outcome we are extremely proud of! Never has there been a better time to join an organization that is good across all areas and remains committed to continuing on its journey of improvement. Ofsted said that ‘impressive strategic and operational leadership, aligned with corporate and political commitment, has provided a clear vision, ambition and energy which has garnered the confidence and commitment of key partners. There is a collective momentum to continue to improve services and outcomes for children across the city’. (Ofsted June 2023)

Role Overview

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to undertake the role of Family Practitioner within Southampton City Council’s Fostering Service.

You will be Level 4 qualified (BTEC, NVQ or equivalent) in Education, Health, Social Care or Early Years or have a commitment to work towards gaining qualification.

This is an excellent opportunity for an energetic and responsive Family Practitioner to join us on our improvement journey to become an invigorated, vibrant, creative and outcome focussed fostering service. You will have the opportunity to be part of our transformation as we work on our Building for Brilliance plan in Fostering and will be a pivotal part in reaching our goals over the next year.

Being part of the Southampton City Council team requires people who are willing to take personal responsibility for delivering excellence, to work with others to achieve the best possible outcomes, to embrace change and new opportunities, to make the most of the resources available to us and to think and act in the best interests of our children, young people and their families.

Commitment

• Commit to the protection and safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and value and respect their views and needs.
• Contributing to the development of the team and service ensuring service users are provided with effective services ensuring anti discriminatory practice and in accordance with agreed performance standards.
• Participate in individual and group supervision and training, to ensure that team and departmental performance standards are met and individual professional skills and knowledge is developed.
• Ensure written records are accurate and kept in accordance with Data Protection requirements and department policies and procedures.

You will

• Have a clear understanding of children’s safeguarding procedures and processes.
• Be accountable for own workload and arising issues, ensuring individual and team performance is maintained and addressed.
• Be creative and able to prioritise and deal with several issues at once and have excellent problem solving and analytical skills.
• Have excellent IT skills being able to use excel, word and other IT databases and go from one to the other with ease.
• Have excellent accurate written skills, and the ability to write reports and present information in a clear and concise way.

The work is varied and challenging, and there is a strong team approach ensuring good support for the successful applicant. The role requires lone working, use of initiative and a commitment to team working and service user empowerment. You will need to have a flexible approach and a solid understanding and experience of a Family Lead Professional case holding role, risk assessment and planning.

Benefits

Here at SCC we have a range of different benefits, a few examples can be found below.

• Excellent local government pension with 15.2% employer contribution
• Death in service benefit of 3 salary, and optional salary sacrifice shared cost voluntary contribution
• Generous holiday 25–31 days, based on role and service
• Flexible working options (role-dependent)
• Family-friendly policies – Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared/Unpaid Parental Leave, Time off for Dependents
• Training and development, including coaching and mentoring
• Health and wellbeing support – Employee Assistance Programme, Menopause Pledge, Mental Health First Aiders and access to a variety of staff networks
• Veteran-friendly employer with the Armed Forces Covenant
• Retail discounts and savings through the Southampton City Council benefits platform
• Discounted memberships at local sports and fitness centres
• Sustainable travel benefits – low emission car scheme, cycle to work, season ticket loans
• Employee volunteering scheme with 2 paid days leave to volunteer

Further information on benefits

For further information on our benefits package please visit Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk).

Contact details

For more information or an informal discussion about the role please contact carly.arnold@southampton.gov.uk or 023 80833855

Recruitment contact: recruitment@southampton.gov.uk, Tel: 023 8083 4033

Southampton City Council

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