Job Title: Family Support Worker - Fostering Assessment
Contract: Permanent
Location: Hereford
Hours: 37
Salary: HC7 £31,067 - £35,235 per annum
Location: Multiple locations – Ross on Wye, Leominster, Hereford.
Closing date: 27/07/2025
Come and join us on our Restorative Journey of Improvement to gain the best for children and families in Herefordshire
The Role
Are you ready to make a real difference in the lives of children and families? Join our dynamic Fostering Service as a Duty Family Support Worker and become a vital part of our service to find safe, loving homes for children in both planned and emergency situation.
In this pivotal role you will be responsible for contacting foster carers to find homes for children in our care, you will build strong relationships with our incredible foster carers and work closely with colleagues across the service to identify and support in matching children with the right foster carers.
Your ability to communicate with empathy, clarity and confidence will be key as you collaborate with professionals across the service.
You will be working alongside our home finding team and fostering teams who are a passionate and welcoming and will be on hand to support you settle into your role. Together you will identify homes for our children in care.
You will have a flexible approach to a demanding role and you will be operate flexibly within the wider team to ensure that priorities are delivered proactively and be able to adapt to changing demands, and provide cover to ensure business continuity.
This role is predominantly office based at our Plough Lane office in Hereford.
Herefordshire is on a journey, and we would like you to be part of our next chapter. This is an exciting opportunity to have a genuine impact on the local authority and help improve and protect the children and young people within it.
Benefits of working for Herefordshire Council:
A competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:
- Pension Scheme Enrolment in the Local Government (LGPS)
- Generous Annual Leave: 31 days (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum
- Flexible working: flexi-time, job-share, part-time hours and, in some instances, home working
- Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling
- Payment of professional membership fees
- Pick your perks – our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.
The Council plan sets out how we will make our contribution to achieving a better and more successful Herefordshire, please see the link below to find out more:
Herefordshire Council Plan 2024-28
About Us
Herefordshire is a beautiful, historic county located in the heart of the Marches on the border with Wales. We are one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England with a wealth of unspoilt countryside, distinctive heritage, and lively and attractive market towns.
Our priority in Herefordshire is to keep children safe and give them a great start in life. It’s the priority for the council, our partners and for all of us who work with Children & Young People.
How do we do this? By having dynamic, dedicated, passionate and professional staff who work in a culture that focuses on what we can achieve with children, what they can achieve themselves, and the relationship we build with families and partners to enable this. We have invested heavily in training and developing staff in our relational practice approach with our improvement partner Leeds City Council, so it's an exciting time to join Herefordshire – we believe in investing in you so you can be the best you can be!
Herefordshire has a really strong team ethos. Our teams are passionate about the work they do and the positive difference they and the teams they are in make to people’s lives. This is all underpinned by the focus and support from their managers and the council as a whole.
We will deliver better support to our most vulnerable children and their families, develop stronger relationships with partners across the region, and beyond.
Therefore, we take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment.
Come to Herefordshire and join the journey.
Herefordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and vulnerable adults. If you are offered this position, it will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service enhanced check and further pre-employment checks.
We welcome applicants whatever their personal characteristics or social identity. All requests for flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments will be considered.
The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:
- Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme;
- Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, or their families. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant; and
- Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care.
Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details of this role.
To apply, please submit your CV and complete the supporting statement within the application form, referring to the job description & person specification, detailing how you meet the specific requirements of the role.