Post Approval Fostering Team Manager

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About the role

As the Team Manager for Fostering at Dorset Council, you will lead a committed and passionate team, directly contributing to the wellbeing of children and young people in care. You'll have the opportunity to make a tangible impact by shaping and developing fostering services to meet the evolving needs of children and families across Dorset. Your role will be key to ensuring the delivery of high-quality, safe, and stable homes for children and young people in care.

You'll benefit from working in an innovative environment where reflective practice and continuous professional development are strongly supported. As part of Dorset Council, you'll be empowered to make decisions, collaborate with a wide range of partners, and lead a team that shares your commitment to making life better for children. Alongside a competitive salary, we offer flexible working arrangements and an excellent benefits package to ensure your work-life balance.

What You Will Be Doing:

• leading and managing a team of fostering professionals, ensuring high-quality care and support for children, young people, and their foster families
• o verseeing the assessment and quality assurance of kinship carers, special guardians, and private foster carers
• d eveloping and expanding fostering provision across Dorset to meet the current and future needs of children and young people
• w orking closely with fostering and kinship care communities, promoting resilience and offering consistent support and challenge
• p roviding a strength-based approach to fostering, using evidence-informed practice to guide decision-making
• ensuring that all assessments and reports for fostering placements are completed to a high standard and within required timescales
• t racking and monitoring the progress of assessments, the annual review process, and providing regular performance data to support forward planning
• c ollaborating with multi-agency partners to develop holistic care plans for children and young people with complex needs
• d eveloping and leading restorative, strength-based practices within the fostering service
• m anaging and supporting the expansion of the supported lodgings service
• e nsuring the recruitment, retention, and support of foster carers by developing services that meet their needs
• p roviding oversight of court work, ensuring timely submissions of statements/reports and tracking at performance meetings
• t aking responsibility for ensuring the quality of information presented to fostering panels and that all processes are followed effectively.

About You:

• experienced in fostering or children's services, with proven leadership skills in managing and developing teams
• k nowledgeable in managing complex placements and providing high-quality care and support for children and young people
• s trong communicator with the ability to build effective working relationships with foster carers, colleagues, and multi-agency partners
• s killed at using performance data to inform decisions, drive improvements, and enhance service delivery
• a ble to lead with a restorative, strength-based approach, empowering your team and supporting foster carers and kinship carers
• o rganised and able to manage multiple responsibilities, ensuring high standards and timely delivery of work
• r egistered with Social Work England and possess a relevant qualification in social work
• f ull UK driving licence and access to a vehicle are essential due to the significant travel requirement of the role

Further Information

For further information about this role , please contact Lisa Wilms, Service Manager - Fostering, on [email protected]

This is a full time role at 37 hours per week.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders .

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people .

See our adult safeguarding policy

You must:

• have a degree in social work or equivalent
• be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• be able to fulfil the travel requirements of the post

See the children's social worker framework .

About Us

We're passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours . We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn .

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply .