Assessing Social Worker (Form F) - Fostering

Job Title - Assessing Social Worker

Pay - £35,893 per annum + £750 Homeworking Allowance

Hours - 35 Hours per Week

Contract - Full time / permanent

Location – Home based with some travel required across Bristol and the South West

As a ‘not for profit’ organisation, TACT puts the needs of our children and carers first and look to appoint individuals who are as passionate about fostering as we are. TACT invests all surplus income into staff, carers, and child development. This means that we have been able to establish expert in-house support services such as our TACT Health and Education Services and create TACT Connect, our ground-breaking scheme for care experienced young people and adults.  New staff will join us as we  embark on a journey to become a wholly trauma-informed organisation with the aim of increasing our effectiveness and improving outcomes for the children and young people in our care.

We pride ourselves on our flexible working opportunities, an extensive wellbeing programme and our benefits package, all curated to support a healthy work-life balance for all our staff. We will also invest in your learning, supporting you to grow and develop during your employment with TACT.  You will be encouraged to attend personal and professional development opportunities and will have access to learning and resources to empower you to advance your knowledge and skills.

We are currently the 4th Best Charity to work for and the 16th Best Mid-Sized Company in the UK according to The Best Companies criteria and our survey results have evidenced “outstanding” levels of engagement amongst staff in recent years. You can view our Best Companies summary video here.

As an Assessing Social Worker with TACT,  you will be a part of our amazing team of professionals working with our organisational values at the heart of their everyday practice. You can review our values here.

The Assessing Social Worker will be responsible for ensuring the success of TACT's projects and change initiatives. The successful candidate will take a pan-organisation view of all projects and other change activities and seek to ensure that the organisation’s leaders have timely, complete, relevant and accurate information on the status of change activities and early insights into potential issues and opportunities.

Whilst being homebased, the Assessing Social Worker will be required to travel for visits, team meetings, training and other in person events across the following areas:  South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, Gloucestershire. Therefore, a practitioner based in Bristol or the surrounding area would be preferred. We are also interested in Social Workers who are/would consider maintaining registration with Social Care Wales to undertake assessments in Wales when then need arises.

Core Assessing Social Worker Tasks include: 

• Preparing applicants for the fostering role
• Promoting and supporting the development of trauma informed foster care / therapeutic parenting
• Assessment of prospective foster families
• Contributing to the continuous improvement of fostering assessments and applicant preparation

The main role requirements for this role include:

• BA or Master’s in Social Work or Dip SW, CSS or CQSW qualification
• Social Work England Registration
• Post qualifying experience including relevant family placement work or post qualifying experience in other child-care settings which must include statutory childcare work
• Experience of assessing foster families and preparing them for the fostering tasks
• A proven track record in working with and on behalf of children and foster families, using a trauma-informed therapeutic approach
• A passion for ensuring children receive the highest quality care from their foster family
• Knowledge of relevant child-care and fostering regulations, legislation, and best practice
• Good IT skills including Office 365

TACT offer an excellent employee benefits package including:

• 31 days paid holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata if part time).
• Flexible working arrangements (including compressed hours, flexibility around core hours, and volunteer days policy).
• Family-friendly policies.
• Homeworking ‘bundle’ including annual allowance of £750, IT equipment and a loan for home office set up.
• Stakeholder pension scheme (salary sacrifice) and life insurance from day one.
• Employee Assistance Programme (including free CBT counselling, remote GP appointments, physiotherapy, mental health support and second opinions).
• Fantastic professional learning and personal development opportunities.

An Enhanced DBS clearance is required for this role and will be processed by TACT on your behalf.

Please see the Job Information Pack, Job Description and TACT website at Tactcare.org.uk for more detailed information.

• Closing Date: Wednesday 6th December 2023
• Interview Date: Thursday 14th December  2023 (via Microsoft Teams)

Safeguarding is everyone’s business and TACT believes that only the people with the right skills and values should work in social work.  As part of TACT’s commitment to safeguarding, we properly examine the skills, experience, qualifications, and values of potential staff in relation to our work with vulnerable young children.  We use rigorous and consistent recruitment approaches to help safeguard TACT’s young people.  All our staff are expected to work in line with TACT’s safeguarding policies.

TACT does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.