Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO2 £42,771 - 45,750 (indicative, pending evaluation)

Contract Type: Full time (fixed term - 9 months)

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 29/04/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 30 April, 1 May, 6 May

**INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY**

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

Since May 2024, LB Waltham Forest has led the delivery of the regional fostering recruitment service for Tower Hamlets, Redbridge and Havering via the Local Community Fostering Recruitment Hub. The Hub forms part of the Department for Education (DfE) Fostering Recruitment and Retention Programme and the region has become one of the top three performing fostering hub regions in the country in terms of approved foster households. In January 2026, the government published Renewing Fostering Reforms – Homes for 10,000 More Children, setting out its vision to reverse the decline in foster carers and reform the fostering system. As part of these reforms, the remit of Local Community Fostering will expand, taking responsibility for the full foster carer recruitment process and post-approval support.

This role will support the coordination, development and implementation of this new regional fostering recruitment, assessment and support service, working across multiple local authorities and partners to deliver a consistent, high‑quality fostering journey from initial enquiry through to approval and ongoing support.

The role will support project activity linked to the expansion of fostering hubs beyond a recruitment ‘front door’, helping to embed new service models, processes, governance and performance arrangements that improve conversion, timeliness, carer experience and retention, while ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and national policy expectations.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

Support the planning, coordination and delivery of workstreams that contribute to the design and implementation of a regional fostering service covering recruitment, assessment, approval, training and post‑approval support.

Coordinate activity across participating local authorities, fostering services and partners to support the transition from local arrangements to a single regional model, including managing interdependencies, risks and milestones.

Maintain project documentation including plans, timelines, risk and issue logs, highlight reports and governance papers, ensuring information is accurate, up to date and shared appropriately with boards and delivery groups.

Support the development and implementation of consistent regional processes, pathways and standards across the fostering journey, helping to reduce duplication, delays and variation between local authorities.

Work with service leads, practitioners and foster carers to support co‑design activity, engagement events and feedback processes that inform service development and improvement.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Experience of managing small to medium projects in complex and challenging environments.
Experience of supporting complex projects and programmes in managing and reporting project progress, risks and issues, budgets, decisions to the SRO/ Product Owner.
Experience of managing stakeholder relationships.
Possess in-depth understanding of project management methodology
Experience of planning, prioritising and monitoring work programmes, tracking progress against timescales, and coordinating delivery of agreed outputs.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with an ability to interact effectively with people at all levels in an organisation including senior level executives.
Work effectively as part of a team and have a genuine desire to assist colleagues.
An ability to respond to unpredictable volume of work, with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives.
Work effectively and efficiently, paying careful attention to detail, data confidentiality and accuracy.
Self-starter with high degree of initiative, urgency, and follow through.
Possess strengths in organisational, attention-to-detail, reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references;
Satisfactory declaration of interest;
This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves access to data on children and/ or vulnerable adults;
Satisfactory DBS check

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Janice Horslen, Head of Regional Fostering Recruitment at janice.horslen@walthamforest.gov.uk or 020 8496 6519.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.