Duty Child and Family Worker

Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and families? Do you have the skills and dedication to support those in need?

Working alongside Children's Social Care teams, you will be searching for and identifying the best possible in-house foster placements for children and young people. Completing Local Authority checks for members of the public wishing to be foster carers for other LA or IFA. Undertaking Initial Visits to people enquiring about fostering with Bucks. Making screening calls to members of the public being approached to care for children in their network.

About us

At Buckinghamshire Council, we are committed to making a positive difference in the lives of children and families. Our fostering duty team works collaboratively with the Fostering service to support our foster carers and the children in their care. We also assist in recruiting new foster carers and supporting the assessment of family and friends carers. We believe in supporting our foster carers to keep children in stable foster placements to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive. Our team is dedicated, passionate, and always ready to go the extra mile to support our fostering community.

About the role

As a Duty Child and Family Worker, your primary responsibility will be to search for and identify the best possible foster carers for children and young people. This role involves taking referrals for new placements or changes in placements, ensuring that all tasks and actions are completed within the required timeframes. Providing practical support to foster carers as required to enable them to continue to care for children, including seeking respite carers, ensuring they receive their fostering allowance and any equipment required. We try to provide an individual and nurturing service to our carers such that they feel valued and supported through the challenges of fostering.

Key Responsibilities and Duties:

• Taking referrals to place children into care, whether for new placements or changes in placements.
• Sourcing the best placement for the child, ensuring the setting meets the needs of the child while providing value for money.
• Supporting with complex placements and sourcing a range of placement options.
• Keeping the Placements Team Leader updated with the status of referrals and liaising with the referring social worker and stakeholders.
• Using your initiative and being proactive while covering duty tasks.
• Ensuring that children's electronic records are updated with placement information.

Any-Desk:

As an 'any-desk' worker, you'll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and families. The ideal candidate will:

• Respond in a timely manner to planned or emergency requests for a foster placement for a Bucks child.
• Have appropriate experience or understanding of fostering and some knowledge of the relevant statutory frameworks/requirements.
• Gain on-the-job knowledge of a range of tasks, procedures, and interventions to support our carers and others and complete tasks accurately and reliably.
• Work methodically, respond well to pressure, and be flexible with your time to ensure that tasks and actions are completed in a timely manner according to priorities.
• Maintain records and databases to a high standard ensuring accuracy.
• Show sensitivity and empathy to build trusting and supportive relationships with foster carers and other professionals.
• Exhibit excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to negotiate with carers and support them to understand how they could meet a child's needs.

Other information

This role requires an enhanced DBS check with barring.

• The position is countywide and may require travel to various locations within the county.

If you are ready to make a positive impact and join a team that values collaboration, ambition, and trustworthiness, we would love to hear from you! Apply now and be a part of our dedicated team at Buckinghamshire Council.

We are currently working from home and attending the office twice a week for meetings/events.

Number of positions available: 1 full-time post

Interview date: 10th and/or 11th April

If you would like to have an informal conversation with the recruiting manager, please contact: Joanne Chandler, Assistant Team Manager, Fostering Duty Hub

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are - Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that's why we're working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Buckinghamshire is a successful, growing place with fantastic natural assets, a highly productive economy, and many resourceful and thriving communities. However, we are far from complacent and our new and ambitious unitary authority is well placed to tackle the challenges associated with growth, an aging population, climate change and inequalities in both opportunities and outcomes - particularly for our children and young people.

Children's Services is on an improvement journey and as our very recent Ofsted report shows, we have continued to improve despite the pressures of the pandemic and have built solid foundations for future success. Relationships with partners are strong and our collective response to the pandemic has strengthened and deepened our work together.

We have a big, ambitious agenda for Buckinghamshire, and our teams work collaboratively and at pace to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people across the county.

No matter what role you take on in our Children's services, you will be part of a team who is dedicated to supporting children and their families to achieve their full potential.