Team Manager – Fostering & Kinship

Team Manager – Fostering & Kinship | Herefordshire Council

Up to £60,915 + £4,000 retention bonus + £10,000 relocation package + £10,000 welcome bonus (paid in two increments)
Hybrid working | ASAP start | UK experience required | Driver required

Herefordshire Council are recruiting a Team Manager into their Fostering & Kinship service. This is a high-impact leadership post for someone who can demonstrate genuine management grip: strong oversight, confident decision-making, and the ability to ensure safe, stable and well-supported fostering and kinship arrangements for children.

Herefordshire’s Children’s Services have been on a clear improvement trajectory, with recent Ofsted messaging highlighting strong leadership. The council has also been strengthening its recruitment and retention offer across Children’s Services to attract and keep high-quality practitioners and managers.

Salary and incentives

• Salary up to £60,915
• £4,000 retention bonus (added onto salary)
• £10,000 relocation bonus/package (subject to eligibility)
• £10,000 welcome bonus (paid in two increments)
• Hybrid working (balanced office/home set-up)

Key responsibilities (detailed)

As Team Manager in Fostering & Kinship, you will be responsible for the quality, oversight and impact of practice across the team, ensuring carers are well supported and children experience stable, nurturing placements.

Leadership, supervision and performance

• Lead and manage a team of Supervising Social Workers and associated staff, ensuring high-quality support and clear professional standards across fostering and kinship services
• Provide regular reflective supervision, case direction and oversight, with a consistent focus on:
• risk management
• placement stability
• carer support and development
• quality of assessments and recording
• Manage allocation of work, caseload balance, capacity and workflow, ensuring statutory requirements are met (foster carer supervision, annual reviews, kinship assessments and key deadlines)
• Set expectations, monitor performance, address underperformance appropriately, and build team culture that balances support with accountability

Practice quality and decision-making grip

• Maintain oversight of practice through:
• assessment audits / dip sampling
• management oversight and sign-off
• performance tracking against statutory timescales
• learning from complaints, feedback and internal QA
• Ensure high-quality:
• Form F assessments and kinship assessments (including SGO)
• foster carer reviews and supervision records
• panel reports and documentation
• support plans that reflect children’s needs and placement objectives
• Chair or contribute to key decision-making forums as required (e.g., fostering panel, disruption meetings, complex case reviews, escalation around placement stability)

Placement stability, recruitment and outcomes

• Drive and quality assure placement stability through strong support and challenge to carers and staff
• Provide active oversight, escalation and problem-solving where placements are at risk of disruption
• Support recruitment, assessment and retention of foster carers and kinship carers
• Ensure children’s lived experience is central to planning: participation, identity, education, health and emotional wellbeing are consistently addressed

Multi-agency working and corporate parenting

• Lead effective partnership working with children’s social care teams, IROs, education, health, CAMHS, providers, commissioning and legal services
• Represent the service confidently in complex professional arenas and support the team to maintain strong thresholds and defensible decision-making

Legal literacy (minimum threshold for this post)

• Provide management oversight on kinship assessments linked to legal processes, ensuring the team’s work is evidence-led, analytical and timely
• Quality assure court-related documentation where required (SGO reports, assessments, analysis) and ensure professionals are well-prepared for hearings

Systems, compliance and recording

• Ensure timely, high-quality recording and management oversight on the council’s electronic case management system
• Advantageous if you have worked on mainstream children’s systems such as Liquidlogic (LCS) or Mosaic, with the ability to use dashboards/workflows for performance oversight

Non-negotiable requirements

• Current/recent Team Manager experience in UK Children’s Services (this is essential)
• UK local authority experience (statutory environment)
• Strong background in fostering, kinship or permanence services, or demonstrable transferable experience from LAC/court work
• Social Work England registration
• Must be a driver (full UK driving licence)
• Strong written and analytical standards; able to quality assure complex work and coach others to improve

What makes a strong applicant for Herefordshire

• Evidence of improved outcomes (placement stability, carer retention, quality of assessments, permanence progression)
• Clear management style: confident, consistent oversight and the ability to bring practitioners with you
• Comfortable operating in a service with performance expectations and improvement focus

Apply or refer someone now

If you’re a proven Team Manager and can start quickly (or have a clear notice period), get in touch today. We offer up to £1,000 for a Manager referral if you know someone.

Josh Da Costa
jdacosta@sheldon-phillips.com
07513 834554 | 01635 226350