We have an exciting opportunity for a full-time Senior Practitioner in the Fostering Recruitment & Assessment Team for an experienced Social Worker who is highly experienced in undertaking Special Guardian and Connected Person’s Assessments, Fostering Form F Assessments and Private Fostering Assessments.   As a senior team member you will hold a complex caseload and delegate for the Team manager as required.

The role is hybrid with a mix of home and office (Scott House in Huntingdon) working alongside visits.  

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Joanna Laur at Joanna.Laur@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or on 07717 646 463. 

Interviews will be held in person at Scott House in Huntingdon w/c 13th May.  There will be a written assessment as part of this, but we’ll give you all of the relevant information ahead of time.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:

• Flexible and creative working arrangements
• Flexible Bank Holidays
• A comprehensive wellbeing package
• Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
• A comprehensive pension scheme
• IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
• An employee recognition scheme
• We offer a generous mileage allowance

For our Social Workers, we offer more specific benefits like:

• Generous annual leave provision (28 days, plus bank holidays)
• A supportive management team that will champion your learning and development
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to free support 24 hours a day
• Payment for business mileage expenses (45p per mile)
• A pay progression scheme to enable our Social Workers to accelerate through the pay grade as you gain experience and skills.
• A relocation package of up to £8000 for eligible candidates
• Plus, 6 days of protected time each year to enable our Social Workers to maintain their Continuous Professional Development. 

Please read our benefits brochure attached for more information.

You will facilitate and lead Practice Groups/ Action Learning Sets and provide support and guidance to a team of experience Fostering social workers.

You will undertake Special Guardian and Connected Person’s assessments and support plans and provide supervision to temporary Connected Person’s Foster Carer’s as appropriate.

You may be required to undertake Fostering Form F assessments for applicants wanting to become Foster carers and support them throughout their journey to approval.
You will undertake Private Fostering Assessments and Regulation 8 visits.
 
You will become part of a very knowledgeable, committed, and supportive team and service. You will be supported by an experienced team manager and have access to excellent training and development opportunities.

You will be familiar with Connected Persons/Kinship Assessments and have an understanding of Private Fostering.

You will have a strong understanding of Fostering legislation and the National Minimum Standards. You will have experience of Court, managing a caseload and completing assessments within timescales.

The job specification asks for a Practice Educator qualification but this is not essential for this specific role.

We're looking for confident and dynamic individuals who enjoy making a difference in their local community, are curious and spot things that others might not see, enjoys building relationships and likes to explore possibilities.

You must:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
• Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers