Social Worker – Advanced Practitioner – Fostering Recruitment Team
Location: Southend-on-Sea
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time
Salary: £46,142.00 - £52,413.00 per annum
Sanctuary Personnel, an award-winning and trusted recruitment agency, is recruiting a permanent Social Worker – Advanced Practitioner to join the Fostering Recruitment Team in Southend-on-Sea. This is a senior opportunity for an experienced fostering social worker or advanced practitioner looking to play a key role in recruiting, assessing, and supporting foster carers while contributing to service development and leadership.
About the Role
As an Advanced Practitioner in the Fostering Recruitment Team, you will deliver high-quality fostering assessments, interventions, and therapeutic support to prospective foster carers and their families. You will provide expert guidance, supervision, and leadership within the team, ensuring fostering assessments and approvals meet statutory requirements and best practice standards.
Key Responsibilities
* Deliver efficient, high-quality fostering assessments, interventions, and therapeutic support to prospective foster carers and their families
* Gather, investigate, evaluate, and analyse complex information to produce clear, evidence-based assessments and robust recommendations
* Apply a holistic, strengths-based approach that considers applicants within their wider family, social, educational, and health contexts
* Ensure all casework complies with fostering legislation, statutory guidance, and local authority policies and procedures
* Maintain high professional standards across investigations, enquiries, and assessments, ensuring accurate recording, up-to-date care plans, and auditable case files
* Prepare and submit detailed reports, statements, and fostering assessments for panels and court proceedings, including Family, County, and High Courts where required
* Identify service improvements and actively contribute to a culture of continuous improvement within fostering services
* Recommend needs-led assessments and interventions in line with policy and eligibility criteria
* Represent the fostering service at internal and external meetings, panels, and working groups as required
* Keep the Service Manager fully informed of workload pressures, risks, and service issues, seeking guidance where appropriate
* Maintain and analyse fostering data, statistics, and case records to support service planning and performance reporting
* Act as duty worker when required, responding to team queues and case-related issues
* Provide supervision and professional support to team members and deputise for the Team Manager as required
Requirements
* Degree or recognised qualification in Social Work (or equivalent)
* Social Work England registration
* Substantial experience within fostering, children’s social care, or a related statutory setting
* Strong working knowledge of fostering regulations, safeguarding legislation, and statutory guidance
* Commitment to continuous professional development (CPD)
* Proven ability to supervise staff, manage complex cases, and contribute to service leadership
* Excellent assessment, report writing, and communication skills
Working with Sanctuary Personnel:
Sanctuary Personnel is a trusted and award-winning agency for roles. With an ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot from over 1,000 reviews and many prestigious industry awards, we are dedicated to finding you the best possible rates in roles that match your skills and experience.