Supervising Social Worker - Fostering Service

About the Borough

The London Borough of Sutton is situated less than 30 minutes by train from Central London, with direct connections to London Victoria and London Bridge. Found in zone 5 with good transport links in and out of London, Sutton boasts award winning parks and open spaces, low crime rates, affordable housing and great schools. As well as high levels of resident engagement and satisfaction, providing quality services and success in addressing our financial challenges, whilst involving residents in key issues and high street changes.

Sutton is continuously investing in the health, wellbeing and education of our residents and the future generation, as set out in the “Ambitious for Sutton” corporate plan. We are home to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together with the development of the London Cancer Hub, Sutton will be the world’s leading life-science district, specialising in cancer research and treatment. Our vision will create around 13,000 jobs while contributing £1.2bn to the UK economy each year, a vibrant community of scientists, doctors and innovative companies intended to deliver real benefits for cancer patients and drive economic growth. With the regeneration of the local areas with new homes and schools, Sutton is passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

The Council is seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment. As we strive to improve our services and spaces for our residents as set out in the ‘Ambitious for Sutton’ corporate plan, Sutton aims to shape the future of the borough and adapt to the needs of its residents to make our Borough a great place to live, work and raise a family.

About the Service and Team

The London Borough of Sutton Children’s Services offers a supportive and inclusive environment for its Qualified Social Work staff. Specialist support on challenging cases, regular structured supervision, and an environment that encourages all those to take part and ensure their voices are heard.

The Fostering Team provides placements for children who cannot live with their birth families. The core tasks for the position of a Supervising Social Workers are to provide guidance, support and feedback to foster carers to enable carers to provide high quality care for our children. The tasks would also include ensuring foster carers comply with policies and procedures, promptly dealing with any safeguarding concerns, complaints or allegations, involved in meetings and foster carers reviews.
This is achieved by working in partnership with relevant agencies, children and young people and their families. We provide a supported working environment that ensures manageable caseloads, regular supervision, daily management support and an abundance of learning and development opportunities for our Social Workers to grow and flourish. In addition we have a creative and flexible approach to the working week which allows for both home and office working which promotes a work/life balance.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

Join Children Social Care as a Supervising Social Worker on a starting salary of £43,680 and receive our Welcome Bonus of £1000 paid in your first month's salary and a Retention Bonus of:

• £1000 paid for your first completed year in service
• £2000 paid for your second completed year in service
• £3000 paid for your third completed year in service and every year thereafter.

In addition

• Car permit at Gibson Car Park
• Comprehensive training opportunities
• Opportunities for career progression

We've got an exciting opportunity for a Supervising Social Worker as part of our Fostering Service within Children’s Social Care. Our mission is to empower children to live independently as possible and provide the necessary support in safeguarding their well-being. We need your expertise to make it happen. In this role, your responsibility will include:

• Provide support and supervision to foster carers and the importance of cultural competency
• Ensure foster carers understand and adhere to policies and standards
• Work closely with the Placements team, children's social workers and other relevant professionals to match children with fostering households.
• Complete annual review reports on fostering households.
• Present reports to the Fostering Panel
• Managing allegations and complaints against carers
• Providing all foster carers with a required training and development programme, which is linked to the Training, support and development standards (TSDS).
• Undertake such other duties commensurate with the grade and nature of the job.

We aim to deliver a Fostering Services that recruits a range of foster carers who can meet the diverse needs of children who are looked after. This role will challenge you in a dynamic and diverse environment whilst helping you to expand your knowledge and skill set in the practice of children social care. Our teams are renowned for its ability to craft outstanding care plans that prioritise the needs and voices of service users, integrating input from various professionals, families/carers, and external agencies to ensure the best outcomes are achieved.

Are you ready to take the next step? We are here to support your growth as you begin your career at Suttons Children's Social Care. Apply now and join us.

This position offers an excellent opportunity for individuals with outstanding communication skills and a compassionate manner capable of effectively managing high levels of emotional distress. We encourage applications from candidates with experience in working within fostering and children’s service and those passionate about delivering person-centred care. You'll join a welcoming, supportive, and energetic team dedicated to providing first class supervision and ongoing professional development opportunities.

In addition, we would expect the following from all suitable candidates:

• To be registered with Social Work England and hold a degree in Social Care or similar.
• Have experience of working in a multidisciplinary team setting.
• Have sound knowledge and ability to deliver social work support to service users and their families.
• Ability to communicate complex social issues clearly to both patients and professionals.
• Ability to plan and coordinate social care plans and aspects of patient discharge.

For more information about the role and/or an informal conversation, view the Role Profile or contact Geeta Rath, Service Manager, Fostering by email- geeta.rath@sutton.gov.uk or Imran Khan , Team Manager Fostering -email imran.khan@sutton.gov.uk

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-32 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.