We are looking for a passionate and committed Social Worker to join our Fostering Service, supporting and supervising our approved foster carers.
This is an exciting opportunity to work within a highly regarded fostering service that is committed to delivering excellent outcomes for children and young people. Rated Good by Ofsted, our service continues to grow, offering innovative support to carers through initiatives such as the Mockingbird Model of Care, mentoring programmes, support groups, training pathways and therapeutic approaches.
About the Role
As a Supervising Social Worker, you will manage and support a caseload of foster carers, helping them provide safe, nurturing and stable homes for children and young people.
You will provide supervision, guidance and ongoing support to foster carers, helping them to deliver safe, stable and nurturing care for children and young people. You will promote trauma‑informed and therapeutic parenting approaches, working collaboratively as part of the wider team around the child to achieve the best possible outcomes.
You will support foster carers to develop positive relationships with children and their families, while ensuring fostering standards, safeguarding responsibilities and statutory requirements are consistently met.
You will also deliver training, facilitate support groups and create development opportunities that enable carers to strengthen their skills and confidence.
In addition, you will contribute to service development projects and fostering initiatives, participate in the foster carer support duty system and, where applicable, the out‑of‑hours support rota.
There will also be opportunities to become involved in the recruitment and assessment of prospective foster carers, undertake kinship fostering work and play an active role in driving continuous service improvement.
The Ideal Candidate
- Qualified Social Workers registered with Social Work England.
- Post‑qualifying experience in children’s services, particularly with children in care and/or foster carers.
- Understanding of trauma‑informed practice and therapeutic parenting approaches.
- Strong assessment, analytical and risk‑management skills.
- Ability to build effective relationships with carers, children, families and partner agencies.
- Confidence in producing clear, high‑quality reports and records.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Capacity to manage competing priorities and work effectively both independently and as part of a team.
- Commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
Benefits
- A supportive and experienced fostering team.
- Strong culture of restorative practice.
- Innovative approaches including an established Mockingbird community.
- Extensive learning and development opportunities.
- Close partnership working across children’s services.
- Opportunities to contribute to service development and improvement.
- A chance to work with dedicated foster carers who are passionate about supporting Portsmouth’s children.
Hybrid Working
You will be required to work at least 2 working days in office.
Contact
If you would like to discuss this role in more detail, please contact Sarah Smith at Sarah.Smith2@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
EEO Statement
We are a disability confident employer and have an Armed Forces Covenant. We are committed to offering an interview to all candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria.
You will need to demonstrate that you have the right to work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.
Please note we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
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