Fostering Outreach Support Worker
Scale 6 (£31,537 to £33,699)
37 hours, Full-Time
Permanent
Hybrid Stopford House, community-based work and home working

Application Deadline: 16 August 2026 11:59pm
Shortlisting Date: 20 August 2026
Interview Dates: 1 & 3 September 2026
Interview Type: Face to face

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Your Role

To provide advice, guidance and support to Stockport foster carers (and Special Guardians) who are caring for Stockport children in foster care/guardianship arrangements.
To work directly with children and young people in foster care/guardianship arrangements who are in need of support or who are in crisis.
To ensure that the voice of the child is incorporated into all your work.
To practice and promote a culture which places children, young people and families at the heart of the service.
To work in accordance with legislative requirements and local, regional and national policy and procedures.
To understand and embrace restorative practice and a strengths-based approach to work with children, families and communities.
To support foster carers to develop their knowledge of and skills in the fostering task.
To provide practical support in its many forms to our foster carers e.g. transporting children to school or family time, delivering equipment, support with training etc.
To provide a safeguarding approach to all work undertaken with children, young people and their foster carers/guardians.
To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to bring about positive outcomes for children and young people in foster care and guardianship arrangements.
To help to organise and participate in events, which celebrate the achievements of our foster children and foster carers.
To work collaboratively with your team colleagues, attend team meetings and contribute to team development.
To be part of a duty rota providing support to children and foster carers/guardians in the evenings and weekends.
To maintain timely, accurate recordings, of all work undertaken with children, young people and their foster carers, using the Council’s computer systems.

Additional information:

The above bullet points offer a brief description of the role of a Fostering Outreach Support Worker as the work can be extremely varied with each day being different from the next.

You will be joining a team of experienced and skilled workers who value the role they have in supporting foster placement/guardianship stability.

The job requires a flexible approach in order to meet the business needs of the Service.

About You

Please use your application to tell us how well you meet the criteria listed below as these are the key skills, experience and knowledge base needed to be successful in the role. We will then use all the information you provide in your application to help us decide whether you are shortlisted for interview.

Have experience of working with children in need or children in public care, their families, social care colleagues and other agencies.
Have knowledge of how early life experiences such as trauma, separation and attachment issues can impact upon a child or young person’s development, emotional wellbeing and behaviour.
Have an ability to advocate on behalf of others, including children, young people and foster carers/guardians.
Have experience of working with complex situations and relationships with a focus on problem solving.
Have an ability to develop and implement support plans to address identified areas of need. To monitor the effectiveness of support plans and conduct regular reviews of those plans as required.
Have an ability to build positive and effective working relationships with children, young people, foster carers, guardians and birth family members and be flexible and creative in your approach
Have experience of managing your own caseload and have an ability to organise and prioritise your workload to meet the needs of the Service.
Have an ability to use IT systems to record, retrieve and update electronic information and a willingness to learn new systems when required.
Have an ability to communicate effectively, work collaboratively with your colleagues, and contribute to team development.
Have an ability to take responsibility for your professional conduct, practice and personal development.
Be able to demonstrate a commitment to anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice fully considering the diverse needs of children and families.
Have access to a private vehicle which is insured for business use.

About Us

The Fostering Service sits within the Stockport Family model of delivering social care services to children and families within the Borough. One of our main roles is to recruit, assess, train and supervise foster carers, enabling them to provide high quality homes to some of the most vulnerable children in Stockport. In more recent years the Fostering Service has developed its support to Kinship Carers with the development of a specialist team and also we have developed our support services to children placed on Special Guardianship Orders.

The Fostering Outreach Support Team is a small team of skilled workers who provide an integral support service to Stockport Council’s Fostering Service.

At Stockport Council we are one ambitious team on a mission to create opportunities for everyone who lives, works and spends time in the borough. Working at Stockport Council means contributing to one of the most thriving towns in the North. We’re keen to recruit people with the right values and behaviours that can help us ensure our workplace values are at the heart of everything we do.

We are proud to be recognised under the Good Employment Charter as an organisation committed to the wellbeing of our colleagues. As members of the charter, we have been recognised as a great place to work for all colleagues and pledge to pay the real living wage, engage staff in key decisions and endorse fair and flexible working conditions.

If you would like to find out more about the role please contact Debbie Boardman, Senior Practitioner, Support and Supervision Team on debbie.boardman@stockport.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

The successful applicant’s appointment will be subject to satisfactory pre-employment clearances including a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Stockport Council holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not currently qualify.

Please note that we have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers and ex-military personnel. As part of the Guaranteed Assessment Scheme you will therefore be guaranteed to be shortlisted for Assessment if you meet both the criteria for the scheme and the essential job role criteria.

Find out if you meet the criteria here: https://www.greater.jobs/our-guaranteed-assessment-scheme

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Stockport Council is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce culture - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and communities to join our workforce.

We want our employees to have a good work life balance and in many job roles we can offer a range of flexible/hybrid working arrangements. We also have inclusive employment policies and staff engagement forums to support our diverse workforce. We will listen to, learn from, and develop our workforce.

Supporting Documents

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