Social Worker - Fostering - Assessment Team

Location:- Cable Plaza, Brierley Hill, Dudley. DY5 1LW

Grade 9 to Grade 10 - grade and salary subject to experience

At Dudley MBC we are recruiting for posts within our Fostering Service, this is an exciting time for Dudley’s Fostering Service as we grow and expand our services provided to our Kinship and Mainstream Foster Carers. Our priority is for Dudley children to be kept safe, local, happy and fulfilling their potential. We need you to be part of our journey in ensuring our children’s wellbeing is at the top priority.

Dudley Fostering Service is dedicated to recruiting and assessing the very best Carers to provide a warm and loving home for our children in care. We are based at Cable Plaza Waterfront in Brierley Hill, Dudley, where we are co-located with the rest of children’s services which supports great joint working opportunities.

The Role

Your role will be to complete assessments of potential foster carers, some of whom will already have children placed with them under kinship legislation. Experience of working to court deadlines would be desirable. Experience of delivering Skills to Foster training would also be desirable, but opportunities will also be given for shadowing and mentoring.

We have three teams within the fostering service – assessment, supervision and support, and kinship. The workers are support of each other, and the teams work closely together to ensure that workloads are fair across the service, for example all of the social workers in our teams undertake initial viability assessments on a rota basis.

It is an exciting time to join Dudley. In our fostering service we are passionate about working with our foster carers to achieve stability and permanence for our Dudley children. We have good relationships with our foster carers, and work with our foster carer association to continuously improve and develop the fostering service. Applicants you assess will have the opportunity to have a Buddy allocated to them, another foster carer who has been through the journey. They will also have the opportunity to attend regular monthly support groups (attendance is usually between 15 to 30 foster carers per group). We are also developing our kinship offer, and one of those groups is specifically for SGO carers.

You will be fully qualified social worker, with a minimum of 12 months post qualification experience in statutory social care.

You will receive regular supervision and guidance from your team manager, as well as receiving support from colleagues in a fostering service which has a positive culture. You will also receive regular opportunities for training and development.

For further information about position email the team manager cordell.simpson@dudley.gov.uk, who will be happy to arrange an informal discussion regarding the role.

Please note:- Applicants that have not completed their ASYE will not be considered for this role, and we are looking for a minimum of 12 months post qualification time.

So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.

Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK.

Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK.

If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.

If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/

If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.

The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications

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