Fostering Support Officer

Contractual hours: 30 Package: We are pleased to offer a wide range of benefits to support you and your wellbeing. You can read about them on our Why work for us pages., A small number of our children and young people in care are placed within a residential children's home due to the complexity of their needs during a specific period in their childhood. For some, past trauma and their family experiences may lead to poor emotional and mental health expressed through their behaviour. They are often highly vulnerable children who may exhibit behaviours that carers will require additional support with, such as placing themselves or others at risk. Our ethos is that wherever possible, and if it is safe to do so, children should be cared for within a family environment. Therapeutic care provided by the residential setting, should form the basis of a care plan that works towards preparing the child to transition to a family home. In Brighton & Hove we call this scheme Foster Plus. This Fostering Support Officer (Foster Plus) role involves high intensity support to young people when they are stepping down from residential into foster care to support transitions and to scaffold relationships. Our young people will require a consistent and committed team around them that supports them to feel contained and understood during a significant change in their life. As a Fostering Support Officer, you will be central to this. You will work closely with residential homes, young people, foster carers, families and Social Work teams to support stability and help strengthen relationships. A key part of this role will be supporting carers to feel confident and capable in managing risk, working with safety plans and building relationships with young people in a trauma informed and strengths-based way. You will work as part of a team of Supervising Social Workers and other Fostering Support Officers to assist with their key areas of responsibility in supporting carers and young people. Key priorities for this role will include:

• Building strong relationships with young people through direct work. You will recognise the strength and value of relationship-based practice and have confidence in delivering interventions with young people about a range of difficulties and risks in their lives.
• Develop trusting relationships with carers. Your support will enable carers to connect to and support the young people in their care. You will be an available and committed practitioner who can work flexibly with carers to acknowledge the challenges they face whilst scaffolding positive risk management and safety planning for young people.
• Actively work within a multi-agency network. You will be a key part of multi-agency networks that collaborate to support safety, relationships and connections. You will play a role in managing transition plans and supporting young people to connect with their family, friends and key professionals., The Brighton and Hove Fostering Service is configured into 4 Pods/small teams to enhance the quality of support and supervision provided both to carers and to staff. Staff in the pods get to know each other and the carers and families they are working with.
These changes have had a positive impact on the work of the service supporting and enabling workers to build positive relationships with their carers and to develop the service further. The pod system is based on providing emotional containment for staff and ensuring staff feel supported in their role. Support to carers has been the central component of the development of the Fostering Service over the last few years. The service has built up a range of differing support services to assist carers and there are now a range of resources for carers to access and the impact of this is seen in improved placement stability figures. At the heart of the service is creating a diverse and vibrant carer community ensuring that carers are supported in their role. The service is proud of its achievements in helping secure good outcomes for children in care and beyond the support offered to carers alongside the knowledge and skills of the staff team. The supervision model developed includes group supervision, 1:1 supervision, and Reflective Practice Groups for practitioners and managers at every level. The service focuses on fostering a community of workers who are curious, empathetic and supportive. We know that our dedicated and professional staff are our greatest asset and our ethos at Brighton & Hove is to invest in them by giving them the time and active support they need so that they can make a real difference to children's lives. There are good training opportunities available and opportunities for professional development. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Brighton and Hove Fostering, Placements and Permanence Service. Fostering Plus is a developing area within the Fostering and Placements Service with the number of Foster Plus carers growing. Encouraging a diverse workforce Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans. Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our actions, our and the work we are doing to Why work for us? As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
  
  The team is committed to deepening their understanding of the lived experience of those that we work with. We are striving towards developing a culture of trauma informed, compassionate approaches that build on strengths. We are seeking curious, open and enthusiastic applicants who can contribute to a positive culture both within the team and the wider service. Knowledge, understanding and ongoing commitment to developing anti-racist practice is essential to this role.
We are looking for someone who has a sound understanding of issues related to children in care and care experienced young people. You need to have demonstrable experience of working with teenagers with complex needs and managing risk factors such as substance use, exploitation and mental ill health. You will need adaptable communication and organisational skills and a passion to achieve good outcomes for children and young people. Young people moving from residential to foster care will require a high level of support and engagement where they feel you are invested in them. You will have a managed caseload that enables you to dedicate high levels of time to each young person and their foster carers. You will be expected to travel over Sussex at short notice to meet the needs of young people and their carers to provide practical and emotional support. You will be required to transport young people to activities and meetings and therefore a driver's license is essential to the role. There is an available pool car scheme for staff

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only. Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check. We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.