Therapeutic Support Worker in Manchester

Location: Office / Regionally based across Greater Manchester

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: Full Time - 37.5 Hours per week

Salary: £28,500 to £33,000 dependent on experience

About Alpha Plus

Alpha Plus Fostering is a medium sized Independent Fostering Provider based in Oldham. We are well established and have consistently been ranked as a preferred independent fostering provider for local authorities across the North West. During our 2025 Ofsted Inspection where we were judged Outstanding, inspectors noted that we provide “highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good.”

We aim to meet the individual needs of each child and help them to settle and thrive in their foster home. We are proud of the stability and longevity of our foster placements with a high number of children living with their foster carers on a long-term basis and several remaining into adulthood.

Alpha’s Healing Hearts Service provides wrap-around support to foster carers and children & young people and includes support from designated supervising social workers trained in Therapeutic Parenting (Foundation Level), access to Psychotherapists, a Therapeutic Life Story Worker and other clinicians, and peer support from our Foster Carer Champions. We aim to empower foster carers to become trauma-sensitive caregivers, providing safety and connectedness to help children to heal and attach.

About the Role

The Therapeutic Support Worker will provide trauma-informed, relationship-based support to children, foster families and agency staff as part of the National Fostering Group’s therapeutic framework. The role ensures every child, particularly those with complex experiences, receives consistent, emotionally attuned and developmentally sensitive care embedded in their daily lives.

As our Therapeutic Support Worker, you will be trained and supported to deliver elements of our therapeutic model, including Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP), Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW) and counselling-informed approaches. This role strengthens our commitment to embedding trauma-informed care and delivering high-quality Therapeutic Life Story Work across all aspects of a child’s experience.

In addition to the therapeutic aspects of the role, you will also offer practical support to foster carers and children. This may include supporting children in their routines and activities, accompanying them to appointments or community activities, and providing hands-on assistance that nurtures stability and positive relationships.

Who we are looking for

We’re seeking a compassionate and reflective professional with experience supporting children or young people who have experienced trauma, loss or disrupted care. You’ll bring a strong understanding of relational and emotional complexity within caregiving environments and be confident working with families in high emotion or high need situations. Experience within fostering, care or clinical settings is desirable.

You’ll have a solid awareness of trauma, attachment, emotional regulation and safeguarding in therapeutic contexts, alongside knowledge of approaches such as DDP, PACE and Therapeutic Life Story Work. Skilled in building trust and working relationally, you’ll be an organised and confident communicator, committed to reflective, trauma-informed and ethical practice.

You will also need a qualification of Minimum Level 3 in Children & Young People, Social Care, or a related field.

But what else is in it for you?

• Your health and wellbeing are important to us, so you’ll get an exceptional reward package including:

• Up to 39 days annual leave each year (25 base entitlement + 1 One moment in time + 8 bank holidays + ability to buy up to 5 extra days)
• Life Assurance
• Pension scheme with options to increase your contributions
• “Your Wellbeing Matters” – access to a wide range of first-class mental health support services and physical health checks
• And a market-leading benefit offering through our Flexible Benefits Platform, Vista, enables you to choose the package that’s right for you, including:

• A wide range of health, wellbeing, and insurance benefits
• 100’s of discount options valid in the UK and abroad
• Cycle to Work Schemes
• Electric Car Purchase Scheme
• Critical illness cover

And that’s not all, we place the outcomes of the children and vulnerable young adults in our services at the heart of everything we do, so you’ll wake every day in the knowledge that your role will have a significant positive impact on the lives of others.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we expect all employees to share this commitment and undertake appropriate checks.

Wherever you work – whether in a city location or one of our more rural settings – you’ll be part of one dynamic family, aiming high and dreaming big, and helping the people we work with achieve their own personal goals.