Fostering Social Worker

Role Responsibility

Following the Kent Change for Children Programme, an opportunity has become available for a Fostering Social Worker in the Placement Stability Team for the Kent Fostering Service.

In this role you will provide high quality supervision, support and training to foster carers, and their families predominantly working with connected person foster carers. You will be involved in developing and progressing schemes which provide high quality support and services to foster carers, their families and children in care. You will work to promote schemes through information events, targeted recruitment and monitor the progress of children, foster carers and placement stability.

The Placement Stability Team (which includes the Sense of Belonging Service) was established in 2019 and is a county wide service supporting Connected Carers, managing processes for foster carers who offer Sessional support to other carers, alongside establishing and supporting a Hub Family scheme throughout the county.  

This is the first time that connected carers in Kent have been brought together as a group and it is the aim of the team to seek to understand and address the specific issues that can face them, whilst enabling them to experiencing working together. The Team also help oversee the Sessional Worker scheme which seeks to match foster carers (and the children placed with them) with who have the time, skills and relevant experience to support them to promote placement stability. 

In time the Team hope to play an important role in supporting Hub Families (which again seeks to support placement stability through linking foster families to a main hub carer who would be able to offer respite and support). At the present time this scheme remains in the recruitment process for potential Hub Families, but we are very involved in supporting the wider understanding of this scheme and exploring potential families who may be interested in this.

The Sense of Belonging service, that also sits under the Placement Stability Team, seeks to supports foster carers and professionals through a network approach when placements are at risk of disruption. This includes supporting foster carers in understanding the meaning of their child’s behaviour and to consider what might help to both manage the behaviour and sustain the relationship with the foster child. The philosophy of this service is replicated in the overarching ethos of the Placement Stability Team and at times some of the work within the Team can cross over. This requires an ability to support placement stability for children in foster care including the application of a psychologically based understanding of children/young people and their foster carers. 

Kent Fostering has a clear vision for the increased recruitment of foster carers from the local community, so strong leadership skills and the ability to be creative will be required. It is our ambition to enhance our support offer to Kent Foster Carers and improve our retention, building their skills and knowledge to safeguard our children and achieve positive outcomes and placement stability for them.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure and Barring service and registration as a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England. 

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.  

For further information on this role please contact Tracy Burroughs on 03000 418543.

Contact Details

Tracy Burroughs

Kent Fostering
Placement Stability Team
Eurogate Business Park
Ashford
TN24 8XU

03000 418543