Head of Regional Fostering Recruitment

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO10 £66,651 - £70,152
Contract Type: Full time, 9 months Fixed term contract with a potential for extension beyond 31st March 2026
Working hours per week: 36 hours

Application Deadline: 06/06/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC
Reference: 1743

About Us: 

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. 

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. 

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment. 

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method. 

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice. 

About the role: 

The Head of Regional Fostering Recruitment will lead a dedicated service to increase the number of local authority foster carers across the Local Community Fostering region. This role is responsible for developing and delivering an effective recruitment strategy with partners, ensuring a strong return on investment and overseeing the systems, marketing, training and support offer required to drive foster carer recruitment. 

>> Click here to download the Role Profile << 

Key Responsibilities: 

Develop and implement a regional fostering recruitment strategy to grow the number of local authority foster carers.

Lead and manage the Local Community Fostering service, providing direction, support, and performance oversight, ensuring that it provides high-quality, accessible and inclusive information, advice, guidance and support for those considering fostering and those going through fostering assessments.  

Ensure a data-driven approach to foster carer recruitment, using insights to enable responsible, agile marketing and recruitment strategies

Identify risks and issues affecting foster carer recruitment, sufficiency, and retention, and develop mitigation strategies to address them.

Support local authorities in preparing for and responding to Ofsted inspections of fostering services, ensuring that the work of Local Community Fostering aligns with regulatory expectations and best practice.

Manage budgets and funding streams effectively, ensuring financial sustainability and efficiency. Oversee grant management processes, ensuring compliance with funding requirements. Maximise return on investment for partner authorities through effective financial planning and resource allocation.

Provide strategic oversight of marketing activities, ensuring campaigns are data-informed and targeted to attract high-quality foster carers. Oversee the development of systems and processes to improve recruitment effectiveness. Drive innovation in digital and traditional marketing approaches to foster carer recruitment.

Build and maintain strong relationships with local authorities, foster carers and other partners to drive up the number of local authority foster carers and build an evidence-base of best practice in fostering recruitment. Work collaboratively with partners to ensure alignment and shared best practices in recruitment efforts.

Provide leadership on fostering recruitment policy, ensuring compliance with national standards and contributing to continuous improvement efforts

Oversee the design, procurement and delivery of a partnership training offer ensures prospective and existing foster carers receive high-quality training to enhance their skills and retention.

Ensure effective contract management and robust quality assurance. Build strong relationships with providers and promote meaningful partnership and co-production.

Qualifications and Requirements: 

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements: 

Degree in social work, marketing, business management, or related field.

Relevant professional qualification

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Strong knowledge of fostering recruitment, regulations and the England care system.
• Strong background in planning and overseeing fostering recruitment services.
• Understanding of foster carer recruitment challenges and sufficiency planning.
• Understanding of strategic, data-driven marketing and digital recruitment.
• Experience in grant management, budgeting, and financial oversight.
• Experience developing and delivering regional/national fostering recruitment strategies.
• Strong track record in stakeholder and partnership management across multiple agencies.
• Financial management experience, ensuring return on investment.
• Experience in identifying risks, implementing mitigations and improving service delivery.
• Strong leadership, strategic planning, and people management skills.
• Analytical mindset, using data insights to inform marketing and recruitment.
• Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills; ability to build effective partnerships and drive continuous improvement.
• Confident in public speaking and representing organisations at a senior level.
• Passionate about fostering and championing foster carers; committed to improving foster carer recruitment and outcomes for children.
• Collaborative, adaptable and resilient in complex environments.
• Understanding of relevant legislation, statutory guidance, and best practices in fostering services, including child protection and safeguarding.
• Experience in managing contracts and ensuring high standards in service delivery.
• Experience in developing and implementing person-centred services.
• Excellent IT skills, including proficiency in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and management systems.
• Ability to think creatively and ensure inclusive and equitable fostering recruitment services.
• Experience in providing expert advice and influencing decision-making.
• Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Commitment to continuous improvement and implementing quality assurance processes. 

Willingness to travel and work flexibly, including occasional evenings/weekends.

Terms and conditions: 

The below terms and conditions apply to this role: 

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; 

Satisfactory declaration of interest; 

This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults; 

Satisfactory DBS check; 

Continued professional body registration where applicable

Suitable driver’s license; 

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English. 

How to Apply: 

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.  

Equal Opportunity Employer: 

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. 

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy. 

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview. 

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us. 

Contact Information: 

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Roberta OnyeKwelu at Head of Service or Roberta.OnyeKwelu@walthamforest.gov.uk 

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.