Social Worker - Children Looked After Team

Brighter Futures for Children

About us
Brighter Futures for Children is a not-for-profit company, owned by, but independent of, Reading Borough Council. Although we are independent, we are very much part of the Reading Family. Our people enjoy all of benefits as other Council employees including membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and continuous service.
We work closely with partners in the local community and key organisations including Reading Borough Council, policy, public health and voluntary groups. We are responsible for the delivery of children’s social care, early help & prevention, education services (including SEND). This also includes fostering and adoption, the Youth Offending Service and traded services with schools.
Our main aim is to protect and enhance the lives of the children of Reading. We help families find long-term solutions to ensure children lead happy, healthy, and successful lives.

About the role
We currently have a vacancy for qualified Social Workers in our Children Looked After Team.

The Children Looked After Team consists of 7 Social Workers, an Assistant Team Manager and a Team Manager. We also have students in our team who provide great support and learning to the team. We are Corporate Parents for our children in care and seek to ensure that all children in care achieve permanency and have effective care planning. The team works closely with Independent Reviewing Officers, virtual school, permanency team and health colleagues to ensure that our children and young peoples’ needs are being met. The Team are very committed and passionate about the children they serve to ensure the best outcomes is achieved for them.

We aim to ensure that our Social Workers have all the tools they need to do an exceptional job. Our Assistant Team Manager and Team Manager are hands to coach, mentor and support our staff through complex and high-risk case work. We also have access to Children in Care CAMHs, and an Emotional Wellbeing Panel that is crucial to support us with the work we do with our children and young people. There is also reflective team supervision to support your learning.

We have also secured excellent training for all our staff through Research in Practice, and we are focussed on being a trauma informed service and all staff have access to this training. We value our Social Workers and will always encourage and motivate you learn and develop your skills to be the best Social Worker you can be for our children and young people in Reading.

If you think you might enjoy working at Brighter Futures for Children, you share our values, and you have a social work qualification and current professional social work registration with Social Work England, then we would really like to hear from you.

Our Offer:

A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:

• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Incremental holidays starting with 26 days plus public holidays (rising to 33 after 10 years’ service)
• Discounted Child Care (on site nursery)
• Salary sacrifice Car Lease scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loans
• A range of local discounts
• Remote/Agile working

For any query or informal discussion, please feel free to contact hiring manager – Matthew Hearn on Matthew.Hearn@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

Inclusion and Diversity

We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.

Asking for Adjustments

Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.

If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.

Closing date: 7 April 2024

Interview date: To be confirmed

We look forward to hearing from you!