Department of Children’s Specialist Services

Children’s Social Care

Service Manager – Fostering - Agency Decision Maker

Special C £54,481 - £58,051 (Pro-Rata) 

Established

18.5 Hours

Based at Sir Henry Mitchell House

Fostering in Bradford is the largest fostering family in the district supporting fostering families caring for local children. 

Due to service investment and growth we are excited to be able to offer this opportunity for a part time Service Manager post within Fostering in Bradford. It is an exciting time to join our service as we move towards becoming a Trust.

We are seeking to recruit an exceptional Service Manager who is committed to service development and is able to support and influence best practice across the service. Your role, alongside the existing two Service Managers, would be to implement and embed the service development plan; support Team Managers and Supervising Social Workers in their delivery of high quality support to fostering families and engage in the wider improvement plan for children’s social care. A primary aspect of this role will be to act as Agency Decision Maker for the Fostering Panels and as Nominated Decision Maker for Connected Persons Viability Assessments (Temporary Approvals of Family and Friend Foster Carers under Reg 24).

Bradford is a City which offers a richness of culture and diversity; it is the fourth largest Metropolitan District in the country and home to a population of 534,300 residents.   Bradford has the largest percentage of population under the age of 16 outside London, over 30% of the population is under the age of 20.   It is one of the most diverse areas in England with over 37% of the population from BAME groups.  

 You will have :

• A Social Work Degree and be registered with the Social Work England as a qualified Social Worker. 

• Have at least 5 Years post qualifying Social Work experience. 

• Know what excellence looks like and champion best practice.

• Have a good working knowledge of fostering regulations and national minimum standards

• Ability to support, develop and inspire others.

• Have excellent verbal and written communication skills 

• Have sound safeguarding knowledge and experience

• Be able to make and maintain effective professional relationships

• We do hope that you are inspired to find out more about working in Bradford.  If you feel you have the skills and experience for the above roles, we would be interested in hearing from you.  

In return we can offer you : -

• A leadership team that cares and values your skills

• Tailored training and development opportunities linked to career progression 

• Regular supervision, on going support and annual appraisal

• Competitive salary and incremental progression

• Competitive annual leave scheme – up to 32 days plus 9 additional days

• Excellent defined benefit pension scheme 

• Bradford City Centre Parking Scheme

The Code of Practice on the English language requirement for public sector workers, Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 requires that Councils ensure that all candidates applying for customer facing posts must be assessed in order to establish their fluency in English.

The criteria under special knowledge and experience on the job profile which is shown in this advert outlines what level of fluency you will be expected to demonstrate.  Therefore, it is essential that you provide examples in your application.

An enhanced disclosure check with the Disclosure and Barring Service will be undertaken for this post.

For further information regarding this post please contact John Heron, Strategic Lead Manager on john.heron@bradford.gov.uk