Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team Manager – Children and Families Service

Hackney’s Children and Families Services offer visionary leadership, a culture of continuous learning and a climate for innovation. We are committed to outcomes for our children and families, recognising the impact of discrimination, disadvantage that many of our families experience. For these reasons, systemic, trauma informed and anti racist practice (STAR) is our practice model ensuring a social justice approach whilst creating change. We will offer exciting leadership learning and development opportunities to embed STAR and expect you
to lead exemplary anti-racist, trauma informed and systemic practice.

We currently have a Team Manager vacancy in Fostering Recruitment and Assessment which is based in our Corporate Parenting Service.

As Team Manager, you will lead the delivery of a confident, professional and respectful service that always places children at the centre of decisions. Your strong leadership skills will enable you to mobilise and engage multi-agency professionals and colleagues across all services to ensure families receive the right help at the right time, and to achieve the very best outcomes for children in Hackney. You will be responsible and accountable for ensuring the highest quality practice, contributing to the quality assurance and creating service wide change.

As part of our journey to be anti-racist we want our workforce to represent the community we serve and embrace diverse talent so we strongly encourage applications from Black and Global Majority Ethnic backgrounds.

You will be dedicated to our STAR approach, committed to child centred safeguarding practices and to identifying and challenging discrimination and racism. You will be creative, analytical and reflective and be willing to work hard to improve outcomes for children and young people. You will have excellent communication, negotiation and diplomacy skills to effectively create change in a partnership context.

Candidates must:
– Hold a relevant social work qualification or equivalent
– Be registered with Social Work England
– Have management and leadership experience

An enhanced DBS check is required.

Hackney is one of the most dynamic and progressive local authorities in the UK. We are a resilient, vibrant, and creative borough in the heart of London, with strong, diverse communities and a powerful set of shared values.

Over the past twenty years, the Council has built up first-class services, outstanding public infrastructure, and a reputation for excellence, innovation, and ambition. We are leading the way on essential work such as our fight for equity in Hackney with a particular focus on becoming an actively anti-racist borough. But the work doesn’t stop there, we are proactive in our approach to bringing fairness to all aspects of life including gender, neurodiversity and across the poverty divide.

As a Council, our most outstanding asset is our staff, who are highly dedicated to serving our residents and committed to our goals as an organisation.

If you want to work in a place where you can represent our values so we achieve the best for our residents, please click on the apply button below.

We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CV’s.

To proceed with your application, you will need to create an account and submit your application.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete a number of competency based questions. These questions allow you to demonstrate your suitability for the role and provide examples of your skills, knowledge and experience outlined in the job description.

We understand the benefits of using AI in the workplace. However, if you are thinking of using this tool to submit your application, we ask you to think about what value it will add. AI tools tend to lack the personal touch and authenticity we value in candidates. We encourage you to showcase your unique knowledge and skills using your own voice.

Closing date for applications: 01 June 2025 (22:59)

Interview date: W/c 16 June 2025

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk