Gateshead Council - Children's Services
Are you a dedicated and experienced Social Worker passionate about supporting children to thrive within their family networks?
This is a rewarding opportunity to make a real difference by championing kinship care. You will play a vital role in assessing, supporting, and empowering kinship carers (grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members or connected persons) who step forward to provide loving and stable homes for children who cannot live with their parents.
About the Role:
As a Kinship Social Worker, your key responsibilities will include:
- Conducting thorough, sensitive, and timely assessments of prospective and existing kinship carers (Connected Persons assessments), including viability and full fostering assessments.
- Offering ongoing advice, guidance, and emotional and practical support to approved kinship foster carers, ensuring they feel valued, equipped, and empowered in their role.
- Advocating for kinship carers and promoting the benefits of kinship care within the wider children's services system and with partner agencies.
- Working collaboratively with children's social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers, and other professionals to ensure that children's care plans effectively meet their needs within their kinship placement. Attending and contributing to Looked After Children reviews and other relevant meetings.
- Effectively managing a caseload of kinship carers, ensuring regular contact, support, and adherence to fostering regulations and standards.
- Facilitating and supporting positive family time arrangements where appropriate.
- Ensuring all assessments, case notes, and reports are completed to a high professional standard and in a timely manner, in line with data protection and council policies.
- Ensuring all practice is compliant with relevant legislation (e.g., Children Act 1989 & 2004), Fostering Services Regulations, National Minimum Standards, and local policies and procedures.
About You:
We are looking for a resilient, empathetic, and child-focused Social Worker who has:
- A recognised Social Work qualification (e.g., Degree in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW, or equivalent).
- Current registration with Social Work England.
- Proven post-qualifying experience in children's social work, ideally with experience in fostering, kinship care, or assessment work.
- A strong understanding of the legislative framework relevant to fostering and kinship care.
- Excellent assessment, analytical, and report-writing skills.
- A valid UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for work purposes is desirable.
How to Apply:
If you are a qualified Social Worker with the skills, experience, and dedication to support kinship families and help children thrive, we would love to hear from you.
For an informal discussion about this rewarding opportunity, please contact: Lara on 0191 211 1382
Randstad Care acts as an employment business when supplying temporary staff and as an employment agency when introducing candidates for permanent employment with a client. Randstad Care is an equal opportunities employer and decisions are made on merits alone.
Did you know that Randstad Care have been awarded a place on the National Clinical Staffing Framework for the NHS? This means we will be able to bring you more opportunities within nursing & midwifery and clinical staffing.
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