Are you passionate about helping vulnerable children and young people to have the best opportunities to fulfil their potential? Do you believe that children have the right to live within a safe family environment where they get the care, support and encouragement they need to flourish?

If so, the role of Supervising Social Worker may give you a perfect chance to fulfil these aims.

About Aberlour Fostering

Our Fostering Team is home based, with access to offices for team meetings. We are a National Fostering Service, so this role requires travel to be able to meet with foster carers and other agencies.

What we are looking for....

With trauma informed practice at the heart of our work, Aberlour has a strong reputation, built over 20 years, for providing fostering services for vulnerable children and young people in Scotland. As a Supervising Social Worker, you will be responsible for recruiting, assessing and supervising a group of Foster Carers. This role is crucial, bringing together the needs of looked after children and young people and support and management of Foster Carers, liaising with the placing Local Authority. Your work with the Foster Carers will have a direct impact on the children and young people that they foster and so the role is key in supporting the Foster Carers to provide the right environment and support for the child/young person they foster. You will also contribute to the delivery and development of the Fostering Service. Evening and weekend work may be required, and you will be part of an on call rota.

“Aberlour Fostering is 5 Star. As we have taken a child under our wing, Aberlour has taken us under theirs. We feel part of a team, one big family with the same common goals and values. Working together with amazing people, we feel supported and valued” - one of our current foster carers

We are looking for people who:

• Have a recognised social work qualification
• Register and maintain an appropriate professional registration with the SSSC as a social worker
• Have experience of working within Children's services
• Have an understanding of fostering and the current legislation framework
• Hold a full UK driving licence

At Aberlour we want to make sure every child and young person has the love, support and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team. To have a look at our values to understand more about what we are looking for from our employees click here.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers. Find out more about our Employee Benefits here and our commitment to Equality and Diversity here.

Please also read our recruitment privacy notice - Aberlour | Privacy notice.

For an informal discussion, please contact Kerryanne Duffin, Service Manager, on 07815 839567 (not available on Wednesdays).

About Aberlour Sycamore Children’s Houses

Aberlour Sycamore Services’ vision is to provide warm, loving homes for children where everyone learns, laughs, grows into their future and is treasured always. We have a strong ethos of values and a culture that enables us to Be Brave and to Keep the Promise of involving the children and young people as fully as possible in taking decisions that affect their lives.

We are looking to appoint a House Manager who will join our strong and thriving residential child care community in Aberlour.

What we are looking for....

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual with a passion for supporting vulnerable children to achieve the best possible outcomes in their lives. The successful candidate will have the drive, determination and cultural values to be able to lead their team to empower the children and young people to make the changes which will ultimately transform their lives.

We want someone who believes that children living in a children’s house are deserving of love and someone who will support the team to ensure that our children are able to live fulfilling lives without having restriction imposed on them in their every day lives.

The person we choose to join us must have experience of working in and leading practice in a children’s house and must be visible to the team and children to ensure that the vision and values are lived every day – this will include working evenings and weekends.

Our homes provide a rich environment that provides safety, relationships, growth and healing for the children and adults who live and work there. To achieve this the successful candidate must have knowledge about developmental trauma, how this will have impacted children’s early life experiences and understand how to lead a team to ensure that every response a child receives takes account of their trauma.

A comprehensive support package focussed on achieving excellence in practice is provided to all of our teams and the successful candidate will also receive clinical supervision, provided externally to support their professional practice development and well-being.

Find out more information on what we are looking for in candidates on our website.

If you share our vision of Being Brave for every child and young person and Keeping the Promise and you have the skills and passion required to meet the challenges of this role we look forward to hearing from you. Have a look at our values to understand more about what we are looking for from our employees.

For an informal discussion please phone Lynne Reid, Head of Admissions and Programmes on 07854958137.

Ideally, candidates will have experience of leading a team within a residential child care environment involving a residential shift rota. You will be required to have or be willing to work towards the qualifications for being a manager in a residential childcare facility: a relevant professional qualification at SCQF level 9 or above plus a management qualification at SCQF level 8 or above.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers. Find out more about our Employee Benefits and our commitment to Equality and Diversity here

If you have any queries please e-mail: jobs@aberlour.org.uk

Aberlour is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of all our service users and uses a thorough and rigorous recruitment and selection process including PVG Scheme checks to ensure this commitment is not compromised.

Who Cares? Scotland is Scotland’s only national independent membership organisation for Care Experienced people. Our mission is to secure a lifetime of equality, respect, and love for Care Experienced people in Scotland and we currently have over 3000 Care Experienced members.

At the heart of Who Cares? Scotland’s work are the rights of Care Experienced children and young people, and the power of their voices to bring about positive change. We provide individual relationship-based independent advocacy and a broad range of imaginative participatory opportunity for Care Experienced young people across Scotland; we work alongside corporate parents and communities of all sorts to broaden understanding; we work with policy makers, leaders and elected representatives locally and nationally to shape law, policy and practice on the basis of all that can be learnt from the voices of those with experience of care – working together to build on the aspirations of The Promise and secure positive change.

The Advocacy and Participation Manager will oversee the development of our independent advocacy services, including our lifelong advocacy offering, and the engagement and empowerment of Care Experienced people through participation opportunities.

Contributing to Who Cares? Scotland’s leadership team and sharing the learning of this work positively and proactively across the organization, this APM role will provide a robust evidence base to support the evolvement of this work nationally.

The right candidate will therefore be capable of forming positive relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds, will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, and be adaptable to a wide range of contexts. With experience managing budgets and performance targets, as well as reporting internally and to key stakeholders, you will also be skilled at supervising and supporting the work of staff and volunteers. Some travel, as well as some evening and weekend work, is required due to the remit of the post.

You will have a proven record of working collaboratively with partners successfully and will be committed to children’s rights, inclusive working, and equal opportunities. You believe that all people can make transformative change happen in their lives if given the opportunity.

For an informal conversation about this opportunity please contact Caroline Richardson, Director of Advocacy and Participation at crichardson@whocaresscotland.org.

About Sycamore Fife

The Aberlour Sycamore Services are based in Fife and are widely recognised in Scotland for providing a range of quality therapeutic residential, education and fostering experiences for some of the most vulnerable young people in the country. The Service is a national resource and as such receives referrals from throughout Scotland.

What we are looking for....

We are looking for people to join our relief pool who are passionate about supporting children and young people. The children and young people who live in our houses have experienced significant trauma in their young lives and our aim is to create loving, nurturing family homes where they feel safe and cared for.

Our relief workers play a crucial role in supporting our teams. This work is offered on a casual, hourly paid basis to provide cover during staff absence and/or particularly busy periods. Work will be offered across our four residential houses in Fife – two of these are in Kirkcaldy, one in Dunfermline and one in Glenrothes.

Members of our relief pool have a varied range of backgrounds and often work in different areas of the workforce. Although experience in child-care is ideal, we would also like to hear from people who may have skills from their work experience in different sectors which would be transferrable and provide a good basis from which to learn and develop their skills, utilising the range of training we provide.

Find out more information on what we are looking for in candidates on our website.

At Aberlour we want to make sure every child and young person has the love, support and opportunity they need to reach their potential. If you share the same vision, we want you to join our team. Have a look at our values to understand more about what we are looking for from our employees.

What we offer...

As well as a supportive team and excellent training opportunities, we want all our employees to feel valued and rewarded for the vital work they do. When you work with us, we'll recognise your efforts with generous annual leave, an excellent employer pension scheme and a range of deals and discounts across various retailers.