Central Bedfordshire Council
Team Manager - Fostering Team - Children and Families
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Team: Fostering Team - Corporate Parenting Service
Job Family: Enabling M – CBG13
Salary: £51,471 - £55,585 per annum plus Standard MRS £4,600 per annum
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.
Contract Type: Hybrid - Permanent
Closing Date: 14th September 2026
Interview Date: 16th, 17th and 18th September 2026
About the Role
We have ambitious and exciting plans to continue shaping how we work with families and their children. As part of our ongoing commitment to providing children with safe, stable and nurturing homes, we continue to invest in and strengthen our Fostering Service as a key contributor to permanence, stability and belonging for children.
Relationship-based practice sits at the heart of everything we do. We work alongside children, families, foster carers and their wider support networks to build on strengths, overcome challenges and create positive outcomes for children and young people. Our foster carers consistently tell us how much they value the support and relationships they receive from our service, helping them to provide loving and stable homes for children.
We are immensely proud of our workforce and their dedication to our children. If you are passionate, creative and committed to achieving outstanding outcomes, we would love to hear from you.
The Role
We are seeking to recruit a Fostering Team Manager - Mainstream Supervision. This is an exciting opportunity to join a committed, reflective and supportive team who firmly believe that children are at the centre of everything we do.
The Mainstream Supervision Team sits within our Fostering Service, a dynamic and evolving area of Central Bedfordshire's Corporate Parenting offer. This role is integral to ensuring high-quality supervision, support and development for our mainstream foster carers, enabling them to provide safe, stable and nurturing homes for children and young people in our care.
You will provide leadership and management to a team of Supervising Social Workers and Life Story Practitioners, ensuring children, young people and foster carers receive high-quality support and interventions that promote stability, permanence, identity and belonging.
Working alongside foster carers, social work colleagues and partner agencies, you will play a key role in supporting placement stability, strengthening foster carer resilience and ensuring children have opportunities to understand their life experiences through meaningful and child-centred life story work.
You will work closely with colleagues across:
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- Children's Social Care Services
- The Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Hub
- Family Help Services
- The Virtual School
- Health and Therapeutic Services
- Education Providers
- Legal Services and partner agencies
You will have significant opportunities to further develop your leadership skills, supported by structured learning, training and a highly experienced senior leadership team.
As a Team Manager, you will:
- Provide effective leadership, management and professional direction to Supervising Social Workers, Life Story Practitioners and support staff; fostering a culture of reflective, strengths-based and relationship-centred practice.
- Ensure high-quality supervision, support and development for foster carers, maintaining oversight of annual reviews, support plans and professional learning opportunities to promote excellent standards of care.
- Promote placement stability, permanence and positive outcomes for children and young people through proactive support, timely intervention and effective multi-agency collaboration.
- Lead a child-centred and strengths-based service that prioritises the welfare, voice and lived experiences of children, ensuring practice is focused on achieving the best possible outcomes.
- Support and oversee the delivery of life story work and therapeutic interventions, enabling children to develop a positive understanding of their identity, history, relationships and sense of belonging.
- Develop and maintain strong partnerships with foster carers, the Virtual School and wider stakeholders, recognising carers as valued partners and promoting educational engagement, stability and achievement for children in care.
- Ensure compliance with fostering legislation, regulations, National Minimum Standards and statutory guidance, maintaining high standards of practice and safeguarding across the service.
- Lead quality assurance, auditing and continuous service improvement activities, contributing to service development, sufficiency planning and the ongoing enhancement of Fostering and Corporate Parenting Services.
About you
You will be:
- A registered social worker with a minimum of five years’ post-qualifying experience working with children in care.
- Experienced in leading, supervising or supporting social work practice.
- Confident in providing clear professional oversight, while promoting learning, curiosity and reflective supervision.
- Skilled in working collaboratively across services and systems to promote joined-up, child-focused practice.
- Committed to achieving the very best outcomes for children, young people and their families.
Our Offer
Central Bedfordshire Council is proud to support the wellbeing, development and progression of its workforce. We offer:
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- Access to training in Systemic Practice and Motivational Interviewing.
- Support to complete Practice Educator qualifications.
- Support to undertake a post-qualifying MSc in Child and Family Social Work.
- Regular individual and group supervision.
- Supportive managers, senior leaders and strong peer networks.
- Manageable caseloads, enabling high-quality, relational and meaningful social work.
Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer. We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.
You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack.
Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.
For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Allyce Copley at allyce.copley4@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 6199
Safeguarding
Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and contractors to share this commitment. This post is subject to the disclosure of criminal records.
Application Information
To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system. We thank you for not submitting your application offline.
Your application to us is a reflection of who you are professionally and should give us an accurate and authentic picture of your skills, experiences and if applicable qualifications. Before you submit your application, we will ask you to confirm if you have used AI.
All new starters will join us on a four-month probationary period. During this time, if you are offered a Hybrid role you will be required to attend a Central Bedfordshire Council office location more frequently to support thorough and well-supported onboarding into your role. Please keep this in mind if you anticipate extensive travel to Central Bedfordshire.
Please note we are unable to offer sponsorship for our roles. Successful applicants that may require a visa will need to consider the options for obtaining and/or maintaining the legal right to live and work in the UK for the duration of the contract offered.
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