• Suffolk County Council
• Address: Endeavour House, Ipswich IP1 2BX – Hybrid working
• Salary: £74,716 - £84,404 per annum (including performance related pay progression)
• Hours: 37 hours per week, flexible working options available
• Contract: Permanent
We’re recruiting for a Head of Fostering and Adoption to provide strategic and operational leadership across our fostering, adoption and kinship services.
Your focus will be on strengthening sufficiency and building effective permanence pathways, ensuring children experience stable, nurturing care and achieve permanence without unnecessary delay. Providing stable homes built on love is our priority for our children in care.
About the role
You’ll lead both the strategic direction and day-to-day delivery of these services, with clear accountability for sufficiency, quality and performance. Your role is to ensure children and young people are supported to live in safe, stable family homes and achieve positive, lasting outcomes as a consequence of their care experience.
You’ll lead the teams and provision that recruit, assess and support carers and adopters, ensuring children move into the right long-term homes at the right time.
Working as part of the Children and Young People’s (CYP) senior management team, you’ll oversee performance, risk and improvement across your services, while contributing to wider priorities for children and families.
In this role, you will:
- Lead services that support children to live in safe, stable and nurturing family environments
- Strengthen sufficiency so families and carers are available to meet children’s needs
- Ensure children experience timely, well-supported permanence
- Oversee quality, performance and compliance across your services
- Manage resources effectively to deliver sustainable, high-quality support
- Work with partners to improve pathways and support for children and families
- Lead and support senior managers to deliver consistent, child-centred practice
This role supports hybrid working. While some home working is available, you’ll spend a significant proportion of your time in the office and with your teams, reflecting the leadership responsibilities of the role.
You will need
We’re looking for an experienced and credible leader who understands what it takes to deliver strong permanence outcomes for children and families.
You’ll bring:
- A Social Work degree and current registration.
- Senior leadership experience within permanence, fostering, adoption or closely related children’s services
- A strong understanding of sufficiency, permanence and the relevant legislative and regulatory framework
- Experience of working at pace with senior leaders, able to take direction, translate strategy into delivery and lead service improvement
- A track record of leading operational services and delivering high quality, consistent practice
- Experience managing complex services, including budgets, performance and risk
- The ability to build effective relationships with partners, stakeholders and senior leaders
- A clear commitment to child-centred practice and inclusion
You can view a full list of requirements in the Job and Person Profile (JPP), which you can find in the ‘How to apply’ section towards the bottom of this advert.
If you believe you can succeed in this role, apply. Even if you don't meet all requirements, still apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.
The team
You’ll be part of the CYP senior leadership group, working alongside peers across both operational and strategic services.
Your role manages a group of Social Work qualified Service Managers and other senior staff, providing direction, oversight and support to ensure strong, consistent practice across the service. You’ll create a culture of high support and high challenge, enabling social workers and managers to deliver high-quality, relational practice.
You’ll work closely with partners across the system, including regional arrangements, commissioned providers and the voluntary sector, with shared accountability for delivering effective and sustainable services.
Empowering Everyone
We’re big believers in potential, possibility and the power of different ideas. We’re always searching for ways to encourage, respect and enable everyone to be the best they can be. We want to represent the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals, especially those from groups that are currently underrepresented in the organisation, as shown in our Workforce Equality Report.
For more information
Please contact Andrew Borwick-Fox for a casual conversation. You can reach them by calling 01473 264493 or emailing Andrew.Borwick-Fox@suffolk.gov.uk.
How to apply
Step 1 - Read the Job and Person Profile (Word).
Step 2 - Click ‘Apply Now’ to start your online application.
Step 3 - Upload a supporting statement answering the following questions below (no more than 400 words per question). You should use the Supporting Statement template (Word).
- Tell us about a time you have led a significant service improvement within children’s services. What was your approach, and what impact did it have on outcomes for children and families?
- Describe your experience of strengthening sufficiency and improving permanence outcomes for children in care. What actions did you take and what difference did they make?
- Give an example of how you have worked with senior leaders to deliver priorities at pace. How did you take direction, translate it into action and ensure delivery through your teams?
- Tell us about how you have led and supported managers or social work teams to deliver high-quality, consistent practice. How did you ensure standards were maintained or improved?
Step 4 - Upload a CV (without name and personal details).
Please note: Without a supporting statement and CV, your interest will not be progressed. Any supporting documents must be in either PDF or MS Word format.
For guidance on completing your application, please see our How to Apply page.
Planning to use Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Please ensure your application still reflects your own skills, experience and ideas. If used inappropriately, your application may not be processed. Please read our guidance for using AI to understand what’s acceptable.
Do you need any reasonable adjustments to help you to apply? If you are disabled and/or have additional support needs, you can request reasonable adjustments. You can do this by contacting our Recruitment Team at recruitment@suffolk.gov.uk or 03456 014412. You can find examples of possible adjustments on our Reasonable Adjustment pages.
Closing date: 11.30pm, 30 June 2026.
This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks or police vetting will be required for relevant posts. #LI-Hybrid
