Fostering Placement Officer

How you'll make a difference

As a Fostering Placement Officer, you will help to identify and secure suitable foster placements for children and young people who are unable to remain in the care of their parents or wider family network. Working closely with social workers, foster carers and partner agencies, you will help ensure children are matched with placements that meet their needs and promote positive outcomes.
What you will be doing

• You will identify suitable in-house foster placements for children and young people who need to come into care, working closely with the Looked After Children team to ensure their needs are met.
• It will be your responsibility to review placement referrals, ensuring information is complete and anonymised, and to identify the most appropriate placement match based on each child's individual needs and circumstances.
• Liaising with social workers and foster carers, you will gather and clarify information, coordinate placement arrangements and identify respite placements where required.
• Supporting the Family Placement team's duty function, you will undertake a range of administrative duties, working collaboratively with internal services and external partners to ensure effective placement processes.
• You will maintain accurate and up-to-date records relating to placements, including referrals, risk assessments, matching documentation and communication with all relevant parties.

What we need from you

• It is essential that you hold a degree, be working towards a relevant social care qualification, or be able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and experience gained through your career.
• We are looking for someone with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships and work effectively with a wide range of stakeholders while using influencing and negotiation skills here appropriate.
• You will have experience of working collaboratively within a team, and be able to effectively deliver a commissioning and contract function for social care services.
• Ideally, you will have experience of working within social care, health, the voluntary sector or a similar environment, with an understanding of commissioning, placement processes, service delivery or stakeholder engagement.

What you need to know

• This role is a limited term contract, covering maternity leave due to end 28th January 2028.
• Your working days will be alternate Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 7.4 hours per day and your salary is pro-rata to hours worked.
• You will be required to travel widely within the authority so you must either have a full, valid driving licence with access to a vehicle or have an appropriate means of alternative travel.
• Please note that due to the nature of this role it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained for this post.
• We are also offering this as an internal secondment opportunity, you should first seek your line managers permission before applying.

Interviews to be held on 8th December 2026.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different

• We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work.
• We trust our team to work in the way which allows them to make the biggest difference and we continue to invest in technology to help staff do their jobs to the best of their ability and celebrate innovation.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life.
• We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We’re making a difference, be part of it!

To view the full job description, please click this link:Placements Officer - Fostering