Supervising Social Worker-Fostering in Taunton

Are you a social worker who is looking for the opportunity which allows you to make a real difference in children's lives? Due to expansion, we are looking for a passionate and enthusiastic Supervising Social Worker to join our team, covering the South West.

About Us

Empower Fostering is a family-run, therapeutic fostering agency based in Taunton, Somerset. It is proudly founded by foster carers, for foster carers. Our values of Empowering Care, Leading & Learning and Working Together are rooted in providing high-quality and proactive support, training and guidance within a child and carer focused service.

To enable this work to take place, our social workers have low caseloads to support them spending quality time with the families they work with. Social workers are encouraged to be reflective, curious and therapeutic in their approach and to role model these qualities for our carers to best support our children. The whole team are involved in events and activities for children and carers, ensuring that we maintain the family feel to what we do. We recognise that we are stronger together, and so although you will have your own caseload of families, you will have the joy of knowing all our children and carers. We place relationships at the heart of our practice, both in our work with our families but also in our work with each other.

Empower Fostering is part of Empower Family Group, giving our carers and staff access to a wider network of resources and support that many other agencies cannot offer. As a smaller agency, the role of a supervising social worker can be very varied, and this post would suit someone who is looking for creativity, flexibility and thinking quick on their feet.

Your day to day will include:

• Meeting, recruiting and assessing foster carers and families
• Supporting foster carers in their care of children, including regular supervision, conversations, advice and guidance
• Visiting and building relationships with any children in the home, both fostered children and children who foster
• Giving guidance and training on therapeutic parenting and helping families to understand the impact of trauma on children
• Completing work associated with the foster carer lifecycle – supervision, annual reviews, health and safety paperwork, unannounced visits etc
• Being part of identifying and meeting learning and development needs for foster families
• Being part of arranging and attending events for our children and foster families
• Engaging in regular reflective conversations and discussions about your role and the children and families you work with
• Being part of a rota that supports our families inside and outside of office hours

Requirements

What we are looking for from you:

• A social work qualification and registration with Social Work England
• Experience of working with children and families, including a knowledge of relevant legislation and regulations
• A commitment to relationship-based practice
• Knowledge of the impact of trauma and therapeutic parenting, or a commitment to learning more about this
• Flexibility in your approach to providing effective support to carers and children
• Strong communication skills and the ability to manage difficult times as well as positive times
• The ability to demonstrate initiative, and to work under pressure with competing demands
• A commitment to your own learning and self-development
• Excellent communication, assessment and analysis skills
• A commitment to reflective practice and discussions
• Working practices consistent with anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice
• Available to work flexible hours including evenings and weekends
• A full UK driving licence

Benefits

• 28 Days annual leave plus 8 Bank Holidays
• Blue Light Discount Card
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free personal mortgage advice
• Continuous professional development
• Nest pension scheme
• Health and Wellbeing Support via the Wisdom app
• Discretionary sick pay
• Staff discount site