Advanced Social Worker - Mockingbird

Are you an experienced social worker who is passionate about fostering and building strong, supportive communities around children and young people?

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Portsmouth City Council’s Fostering Service as an Advanced Social Worker specialising as our Mockingbird Liaison Worker. This is a fantastic opportunity to play a leading role in developing our established Mockingbird programme and helping foster families feel connected, supported and equipped to provide stable, nurturing homes.

About the Mockingbird model

Portsmouth is a south coast pioneer of the award-winning Mockingbird programme. The model creates an extended-family style network known as a constellation, bringing together up to ten satellite fostering households around a central hub carer. Through peer support, planned breaks, practical help and social activities, these communities strengthen relationships and provide valuable support to foster families and the children they care for.

About the Role

Working closely with the Mockingbird Team Leader, you will take a lead role in supporting our hub home carers and developing our Mockingbird constellations.

You will recruit foster carers into the constellations and work alongside families to build supportive extended-family communities for children and young people. You will promote effective communication between foster carers, fostering colleagues and social work teams, helping everyone work together to achieve the best possible outcomes for children.

You will also support the effective delivery and ongoing development of the model, providing performance and monitoring information to demonstrate its impact and ensuring the programme continues to operate in line with Fostering Network guidance

The Ideal candidate

You will be a qualified social worker registered with Social Work England, with relevant post-qualifying experience in children and families social work and experience of working with foster carers and children in care.

You will bring a strong understanding of fostering, safeguarding and relevant legislation, alongside knowledge of therapeutic parenting approaches and how these can support carers to meet the needs of children who have experienced trauma.

We are looking for someone who can build positive relationships, communicate confidently with children, families, foster carers and professionals, and appropriately challenge practice when needed. You will be resilient, organised and solution-focused, with the ability to work independently while being an active and supportive member of the wider fostering team.

Experience of the Mockingbird Family Model or another peer-supported framework would be an advantage, as would experience of project coordination or community engagement

Please ensure that you download and read the full job profile attached for the details and expectations of this role, paying particular attention the section 'Who is the person' as you will need to refer to this when completing your Personal statement on your application.

Additional Information

Working arrangements:You will be required to work a minimum of 2 days in the Office per week

Informal Enquiries: If you would like to discuss this role in more detail with the hiring manager, please contact Sarah Smith - sarah.smith2@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or Tom Barrow - tom.barrow@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

About Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.

We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours.

Application process

We strongly encourage candidates to add all Career and Education History to their application, as CVs are not reviewed as part of the shortlisting process.

As part of your application, we ask that you complete apersonal statement, this statement is crucial and is where you must demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the job against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person'points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills.This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience.

We are a disability confident employer and have an Armed Forces Covenant. We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria, however, for roles that receive a large number of applications, this is not always possible, and we will select the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria More information can be found at Equality, diversity and inclusion - Careers portal

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

Safeguarding

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) at Standard/Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Please read the relevant DBS privacy notice before submitting any information.

You will need to explain any gaps in your career history within the last 5 years - this is essential for all safeguarding roles.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616 800.