Rodeo
Get started

Enfield Council

Service Manager for Fostering and Permanence

Enfield
£70.7k – £91k/yr
Posted 1 day ago
Sign up to applySee more jobs like this
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever

How your CV stacks up

1Upload CV
2Analyse CV
3Improve CV

Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role

?%

Reference Number: PEO-002856

Salary: HOS2 £70,752 to £90,921

Advert closing date: 24/09/2026

Department: People

Location: Thomas Hardy House

Contract type: Permanent

Division: Children in Care

Hours Per Week: 36

Contract End Date: Not specified

Interview Date: 02/10/26

Job Description

Role overview

As Service Manager for Fostering and Permanence, work with the Fostering and Special Guardianship teams you will guide the teams in providing support, guidance, and supervision to family and local authority assessed carers. In addition, you will be responsible for the management of the in-house contact centre.

You will drive high-quality, relational, and trauma-informed practice, working with partners to improve permanence, placement stability, education, health, and wellbeing.

Reporting to the Head of Children in Care and Care Leavers, you will support service strategy, transformation, and continuous improvement.

What You’ll Do

  • Provide the teams and partner agencies with support to maintain placement stability and improve permanence and wellbeing for children in care.
  • Lead service improvement and embed strong relational practice.
  • Ensure strong performance, quality assurance, and statutory compliance.
  • Strengthen partnerships and develop the enduring relationship Hub to support stability, family time, lifelong networks, and better outcomes including the successful reunification of children with parents following a positive assessment.
  • Support the current Fostering association and the staff group to review the support improved placement stability.
  • Produce and promote the local offer to Kinship carers alongside partner agencies.
  • Be an active member of the North London Fostering Consortium.
  • Represent Enfield with partners, Members, and regional forums.

What We’re Looking For

  • Senior leadership experience within statutory children’s social care services including working with children in care and carers.
  • Ability to lead high-performing teams, manage complex services, and deliver improvement.
  • Able to lead change while maintaining good services.
  • Strong understanding of children in care and the importance of family and lifelong networks.
  • Experience managing large budgets effectively.
  • Knowledge of statutory frameworks, Ofsted, and quality assurance.
  • Experience leading change in complex organisations.
  • Politically astute and confident with Members and senior stakeholders.
  • Excellent communication, influencing, and partnership skills.
  • Qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England.

Reasons to use Rodeo

I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?

Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.

Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.

Start with a chat, not a search bar

Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.

P

Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme

PwC·London, UK
£35,000/yr

Why you're a good match

Strong

Your economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.

See breakdown
Save jobNot relevant
View details

It searches the market for you

Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.

Why you're a good match

You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.

See breakdown
Strong

Experience fit

Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.

See breakdown
Strong

Only hits

No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.

Why Join Us

  • A key leadership role improving outcomes and shaping change.
  • Opportunity to shape services that make a difference.
  • Collaborative, forward-thinking leadership culture.
  • Commitment to development and improvement.
  • An ambitious, diverse borough with strong partnerships.

For further information please contact Karen Alderton at karen.alderton@enfield.gov.uk. If you have any difficulties accessing this information, please contact Debola Olufon at debola.olufon@enfield.gov.uk.

Closing date for applications is 24th September with interviews expected to be held on the Friday 2nd October.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications have been received. Therefore, we advise that you complete fully and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We do not see your name or title when shortlisting your application. This is one of many initiatives to build a more talented and diverse workforce. However, if you put your name on your CV or Statement it will be visible to us. For this reason, we ask that you do not include your name on these documents. Please note it is your responses to the Essential/Desirable criteria, as detailed in the Job Description and Person Specification which is available on the job advert, that will determine if you are shortlisted for an interview, therefore we encourage you to always address the essential and desirable criteria in your application/CV.

Get help with your application

Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.

Get help applying for this job

Why it's great to work for Enfield Council:

  • An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
  • Up to 32 days annual leave depending on grade and length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year and an extra day off at Christmas.
  • A blend of remote and office-based working for most roles.
  • Interest-free season ticket loan repayable over three or ten months.
  • Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods.
  • Employee Assistance Programme to provide advice and counselling services. This is a free and confidential service available to staff and members of their family.
  • Health and leisure discounts and tax-free bikes for work.
  • 1 month's paid sabbatical for registered Social Workers working in Children's Social Care.

We are passionate about our people and how we deliver services to our community in Enfield. That’s why we encourage a culture that puts our customers at the heart of everything we do - by empowering our people to work together to find solutions, be open, honest, and respectful, take responsibility, and listen and learn. If you value these behaviours too, we’d love to hear from you - and of course we are always happy to talk flexible working, click here to find out more.

If you have previously applied for this role within the past 6 months, unfortunately, a second application will not be considered.

Certain posts in the Council are ‘politically restricted’ which means that staff employed in these posts may not undertake political activities either in or outside the workplace and therefore if candidates are affiliated with any political party, we may not be able to proceed with their application.

Trusted by 25,000+ job seekers

“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”

Jessica, London

Get help applying for this job

Location

Enfield, England, United Kingdom

Sign up to applySee more jobs like this