The Role

Do you have the drive to lead and inspire a team of social workers?

Are you passionate about supporting children to remain safely within their family networks?

Does the idea of shaping and delivering high-quality fostering and connected carers services excite you?

If yes, we have the perfect role for you!

Our Fostering, Special Guardianship and Connected Persons Service is looking for a passionate and dedicated Special Guardianship (SGO) and Connected Person’s Team Manager  to join our amazing team and make a difference today.

About the Role:

As SGO and Connected Person’s Team Manager, you will provide strong leadership and management to a group of supervising social workers. Your focus will be on delivering Southwark’s sufficiency and permanency strategy, ensuring that family and friends carers are robustly assessed and well-supported to care for children within their networks.

You will oversee performance, champion reflective supervision, and embed relationship-based practice to promote excellent outcomes for children. You will also manage recruitment activities, uphold practice standards, and provide professional guidance within the framework of fostering regulations and national minimum standards.

This is a permanent, part-time role working 3 days per week.

About You:

We are looking for a motivated and skilled leader who is passionate about connected carers and permanency planning. You will bring:

• A recognised social work qualification and current registration.
• Experience of managing and supervising social workers.
• In-depth knowledge of fostering regulations, special guardianship, and safeguarding frameworks.
• Proven ability to drive performance and practice improvement.
• Excellent communication, organisational, and leadership skills.
• A strong commitment to reflective supervision, relationship-based practice, and supporting carers to build capacity.

About the Team:

The Fostering, Special Guardianship and Connected Persons Service is part of Southwark’s Children’s Services, with a clear focus on permanency and sufficiency for children in care. We are a collaborative and supportive team that values continuous learning, innovation, and reflective practice.

We work closely with carers, children, and professionals across the partnership to secure the best possible outcomes. As part of a forward-thinking department, you’ll have opportunities for ongoing professional development and to contribute to service improvements that truly make an impact.

For detailed qualifications and requirements, please review the job description and person specification located at the bottom of the advert.

Contact Information:

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Sophie Jones at .uk.

Additional Information:

• This is a permanent, part-time role working 3 days per week.
• This post requires a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) DBS check at Enhanced level.

Benefits and more information:

In your role, we want you to feel supported, challenged and rewarded. You will benefit from our family-friendly policies including flexible working, home working, and a local government pension scheme, plus many other staff benefits. You will join a motivated, driven and supportive team that strives for excellence and values its members. You will also be part of a successful and high-achieving development team that is making a real difference to the lives of residents in the borough. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Staff Benefits page.

Recruitment timetable

Advert close date: 11:59pm on 21st May 2025

Interview date/s: 30th May 2025

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme:

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

Attachments

• Click here to view the Job Description