14+ Bridgend County Borough Council Jobs

Social Worker - Kinship and Permanence

Job description

37 hours per week.

Bridgend County Borough Council offers a great opportunity to further your social work career. As a member of the Kinship and Permanence team, you will benefit from being part of a well-established, supportive and stable staff team who assess and support Kinship foster carers.

In Bridgend County Borough Council we aim to ensure that Foster Carers are recognised as professionals who views are actively sought and considered when decisions are being made about children in their care. Foster Carers will be provided with the right support at the right time to ensure that children and young people in their carer achieve the best possible outcomes.

You will receive a robust induction, regular reflective supervision as well as additional support and mentoring where required. Our programme of support for newly qualified social workers won the 'Developing a Confident and Sustainable Workforce' award in the 2018 Social Care Wales Accolades. Additionally, you will be able to further your career with both development and promotional opportunities.

We are a reflective organisation that continuously builds on its strengths and is committed to the principle that the most effective way of improving outcomes for all Children, Young People and Families is through the provision of accessible, universal services. Join us and you will work in a rewarding, learning environment where staff feel valued.

We want to ensure the best outcomes for children and young people are achieved via the completion of high-quality assessments and provision of comprehensive support packages for children to reside in permanent homes.

To ensure that our foster carers are well supported, supervising social workers have manageable caseloads and are able to access a placement support worker, who will work with carers to ensure that appropriate advice and guidance is provided to enable them to continue to provide care to the children/young people who they are looking after and can include support during a crisis. The fostering service also has a dedicated team of reunification workers who can provide support to a child during transition between placements and work collaboratively with childrens social workers to support children and young people return home.

The Fostering service is divided into two teams, the General and Placements Fostering Team and the Kinship and Permanence Team, with the General and Placements Team supporting mainstream foster carers and the Kinship and Permanence Team supporting connected persons foster carers and Special Guardians. Duty and recruitment activities are shared between the social workers in the teams.

We want the best Social Workers to join us , where we work closely with foster carers and other professionals to ensure the best outcomes are achieved for our children and young people. Bridgend County Borough is a great place to live and work. It occupies an enviable position between Swansea and Cardiff and stretches from the scenic valleys to our beautiful coastline - presenting easy access to urban centres as well as picturesque rural and coastal settings. With excellent schools, affordable housing and excellent public services, there is something for everyone here, and plenty to do all year round to support work/ life balance. A relocation package up to £8,000 will be considered for this post.

Protecting children, young people or adults at risk is a core responsibility of all council employees.

Applicants should note that a criminal records check by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) will be necessary for the successful applicant.

For further information on working as a Supervising Social Worker in Bridgend, please contact: Amanda Etherington () Team Manager Kinship and Permanence or Alex Fitzpatrick () Principal Officer Placements and Provider Services.

Benefits to working at Bridgend County Borough Council

Closing Date: 18 October 2023

Job Description and Person Specification