About the Role
Shropshire Council are seeking an experienced and passionate Supervising Social Worker to join their Kinship Fostering Service. This rewarding role offers the opportunity to support kinship foster carers in providing safe, stable, and nurturing homes for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth parents.
As a Supervising Social Worker, you will play a key role in promoting placement stability, safeguarding children, and supporting carers to develop the skills and confidence needed to meet children's individual needs. You will work within a child-centred and trauma-informed framework, ensuring children's voices remain at the heart of all planning and decision-making.
Location: Abbey Foregate, Cherry Orchard, SY1 9XL
Rate: £33.30 per hour (umbrella rate)
Contract: Temporary
Hours: 37 hours per week
Office Requirements: Home working, office-based working, travel across Shropshire as required
Key Responsibilities
- Provide supervision, guidance, and ongoing support to kinship foster carers, promoting safe, stable, and trauma-informed care.
- Undertake regular visits to fostering households to monitor placement progress, carers' development, and children's wellbeing.
- Ensure children's wishes, feelings, and views are heard and reflected in assessment, care planning, and decision-making processes.
- Maintain compliance with fostering regulations, National Minimum Standards, safeguarding requirements, and relevant statutory guidance.
- Work collaboratively with children's Social Workers, education providers, health professionals, CAMHS, adoption teams, and other partner agencies to support positive outcomes and placement stability.
- Support foster carers to access training and professional development opportunities, enhancing their confidence and capability in their caring role.
- Contribute to quality assurance activities, service development initiatives, and continuous improvement within the fostering service.
- Promote therapeutic and relationship-based practice that supports children's emotional wellbeing and long-term stability.
About You
- Qualified Social Worker with current Social Work England registration.
- Experience within fostering services, kinship care, or wider children's social care.
- Strong knowledge of fostering legislation, safeguarding procedures, fostering regulations, and national standards.
- Ability to work independently while developing and maintaining effective multi-agency partnerships.
- Excellent assessment, communication, report-writing, and relationship-building skills.
- Commitment to promoting positive outcomes for children and supporting foster families.
- Knowledge of attachment theory, trauma-informed practice, and therapeutic approaches.
- Experience supporting carers through assessment, approval, and ongoing supervision processes.
- Understanding of permanence planning and fostering panel processes.
If you are a committed and experienced Social Worker who is passionate about supporting kinship carers and improving outcomes for children, we would love to hear from you.
This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. A DBS check may be applicable for this role, applicants are required to declare any cautions and convictions that are not protected under current filtering rules.
