Hours:- 37 hours per week.

Salary:- Grades 9 to 10 - grade and salary subject to experience

Are you an experienced social worker? Are you passionate about giving children and young people a better start in life? Do you have assessment experience and or experience of working with foster carers in any field? Are you good at building relationships with staff, families and key professionals? Are you passionate about children being supported to fulfil their potential, by recruiting and assessing the very best foster carers to provide a warm and loving home for our children in care? If yes, then Dudley is the place to be.

The Role

We need you to be part of our journey in ensuring our children’s wellbeing is at the top priority. Our priority is for Dudley children to be kept safe, local, happy and fulfilling their potential. We are looking for an experienced Social Worker to assess Mainstream and Connected foster carers and Special Guardians in our Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team. It is an exciting time to join Dudley, we believe in investing in you so you can be the best in the recruitment and timely assessment of new foster carers. 

You will be fully qualified social worker, with a minimum of 12 months post qualification experience in statutory social care. With strong skills in assessment, and report writing, you will help train and assess new foster carers and ultimately be dedicated to improving the lives of children and families within Dudley. Your manager will offer hands on support, regular supervision, guidance, and the opportunity for professional development through training, various opportunities to retain and promote the voice of our foster carers and uphold the Fostering National Minimum Standards. 

We Offer a stable, permanent management team, competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme.

Come to Dudley and join the journey. Dudley Fostering Service has a really strong team ethos. Our teams within the Fostering Service are supportive, friendly, and experienced, and embrace the restorative approach in our practice. Successful applicants will be welcomed into the service by colleagues and managers and will receive a comprehensive induction programme. You will work in a service where the management team listens and values the contributions of social workers.

As a member of our team, you will benefit from comprehensive training and development opportunities. As a service we are strong believers that by investing in our social workers, they will then have the knowledge skills and experience to be able to provide our foster carers and children in care with the very best service. To this end we work with several leading training providers in the field of fostering including The Fostering Network, Coram BAAF, The Foster Care Training Hub, this is in addition to working internally with Dudley’s Centre for Professional Practice who support teams across the directorate to develop their practice, skills, and knowledge.

For further information about this exciting opportunity, email:- john.heron@dudley.gov.uk

Please note:- Applicants that have not completed their ASYE will not be considered for this role, and we are looking for a minimum of 12 months post qualification time.

If you have been qualified as a Social Worker less than 12 months, or have not yet completed your ASYE programme, and are interested in working at Dudley Children’s Services then please contact our Centre for Professional Practice who will be able to advise of any vacancies available and describe the ASYE Programme on offer, please contact CPP@dudley.gov.uk and a member of the Team will contact you directly to discuss.

The following link has information about the ASYE programme and a link to the handbook:

https://www.dudleycpp.org.uk/careerprogression-ld

Top tip when applying – As we’ve got a new recruitment system the application process has changed a little. You’ll need to register and create a profile the first time you apply. If you use a personal email to create a profile, then please be aware that once you’ve registered just pop back to the job advert and you’ll then be taken to login and apply.

So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.  

Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.  

If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk  who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.  

If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk  

If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/    

If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk 

Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.  

The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at http://www.dudley.gov.uk/  

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications

#LI-DMBC2019 

john.heron@dudley.gov.uk

Attached documents
JD/PS
EVP
CPF
Benefits List