Become part of a team which shares your passion
Thank you for your interest in working with us. Whether you’re an experienced practitioner, a newly qualified social worker, or you’re looking for a support services role, you’ll be able to develop your career in a great working environment with us in Reading.
Please note, we guarantee all Reading care leavers an interview if they meet the basic selection criteria for a vacancy. Please let us know as part of your application.
Apart from our executive roles, our vacancies are advertised on Jobs Go Public and on Total Jobs. The recruitment process is handled for us by our parent company, Reading Borough Council.
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Current vacancies
Independent Fostering Agency
Fostering, Adoption and Permanence Service
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £44,648 – £49,418 per annum (includes £8,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 23/02/205
Interview date: To be confirmed
We are seeking to develop our IFA service in line with the changing expectations of the courts around permanence through fostering being a suitable long-term care option of Children Looked After, and the need to increase our in-house fostering resource and to reduce the numbers of children being placed away from the Reading area. It is an exciting time to join our IFA and help us to shape its future development.
Joining our IFA will give you the opportunity to have a varied case load covering different aspects of carer recruitment and retention. This will include assisting with the preparation, assessment, supervision, support and ongoing training of Foster Carers. You will also contribute to the matching process and assist with placing children with Foster Carers, in accordance with the Agency’s ethos and guidelines. In addition, as part of our social work team you will help us to provide a level of out of hours support to our carers, on a rota basis, during the evening and at weekends, in order to assist them to maintain high standards of care for all children who are placed with them (an extra allowance is paid for this).
If you would like to find out more and have a confidential discussion about the role, please contact: Steffi Roth – Registered Manager, on roth@brighterfuturesforchildren.orgor Hilary Loades-Bannon, on loades-bannon@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
The Lodge Day Nursery
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: 25,992 – £30,060 per annum
Closing date: 16/02/2025
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0811
The Lodge is a well established nursery providing high quality, affordable and free childcare to local families in Reading.
The nursery is set out over two bright rooms which connect to a private garden space. Our local community is diverse with children attending our setting from a range of different backgrounds and with many different languages represented. Our educators are completely focused on ensuring that all children achieve and have an equal chance of success in an environment which is inclusive, inspiring, and nurturing.
The children are very important and so is our team. We work closely with our educators to ensure that they continue to learn, develop, and share good practices.
We are currently looking for two level 3 early years educators who can work collaboratively with our team, families, and wider professionals in the best interests of the children.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact: Megan Jones (Nursery manager) on 0118 937 3922 or email megan.jones@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £54,971-£61,504 per annum
Closing date: 16 February 2025
Interview date: 24 February 2025
Job reference: BFC0810
This post is set within the Education Access and Support Service which is responsible for managing the Safeguarding and Inclusion Team to ensure Reading Borough Council meets its responsibilities in ensuring that all children are placed in a suitable setting or receive their entitlement to education.
This role will provide operational management of Children Missing Education, School Inclusion and Attendance Support Teams, which includes line management of a Children Missing Education Officer, School Inclusion Officer, two Senior Attendance Support Workers, and the Elective Home Education Officer in liaison with the Head of Education Access and Support.
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Fiona Hostler on Fiona.Hostler@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £42,314 per annum (includes £8,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 9 February 2025
Interview date: 17 February 2025
Job reference: BFC0809
We are currently recruiting qualified social workers interested in our Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme. This role provides an opportunity for newly qualified social workers to work in partnership with children and their families; to support them to live in the care of their parents when safe to do so or support them to grow-up in a permanent home away from their families, when that is the best for them.
As a Newly Qualified Social Worker, you will hold a reduced caseload; the number of families you are working with will increase gradually with its complexity. You will be working in a trauma-informed, relationship- and strength-based way with a range of children and families supported through Children in Need, Child Protection and looked after Care Plans.
If you have any queries or for a confidential discussion, email our Head of Service, Dudley Foster, Dudley.Foster@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £45,938 – £50,708 pa (includes £8,000 Annual Market Supplement)
Welcome payment: £5000 (after successful 6-month probationary period)
Loyalty payments: £3000 after 12 months and £3000 on completion of 24 months
Job reference: BFC0802
We currently have vacancies for case-holding, qualified social workers. We believe that relationship-based social work makes a difference in children, young people and families’ lives and our generic teams focus on direct work with children, young people and families.
Our Together for Families (TfF) service is an exciting development for Brighter Futures for Children and has been introduced to allow children and families to benefit from the continuity of only one social worker. The benefit for social workers is lower caseloads and an environment that makes relationship-based social work flourish.
Our Together for Families teams work with children during S.17 (Children Act, 1989) single assessments, S.47 child protection investigations, as well as working with children subject to Child In Need Plans, Child Protection Plans, pre-proceedings, proceedings and those becoming looked after.
Support to families is also provided through our evidence-informed and timely programme of support delivered via family support workers and specialist adult practitioners in mental health and substance use. The aim is to ensure an effective trauma-informed ‘whole family’ response to needs and risk for children.
There are numerous opportunities for training and development at BFfC. We have secured excellent training for all our staff through Research in Practice and established a sound partnership with the NSPCC. We value our staff and want to support them in their progression with us.
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact Sabina Baz on Sabina.Baz@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or Paul Sibanda on Paul.Sibanda@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Children’s Social Care Analyst & Education Analyst posts
Full-time, Permanent posts
Salary: £32,654 – £37,938 per annum
Closing date: 9 March 2025
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0812
This is an exciting opportunity for you to work as a Performance Analyst within the Performance and Data Team. We are looking for 2 Performance Analysts to support and promote the effective use of data. One role will have a focus on Family Help and Children’s Social Care whilst the other will have a focus on Education data including special education needs and disability, attendance and inclusion. You will be responsible for developing extracts and reports using Power BI/SQL/Excel, analysing output and monitoring the quality of the associated data, liaising with service colleagues to increase awareness of internal processes and best practice, and encouraging the effective use of our tools and reporting.
For any query or informal discussion about the role, please feel free to contact hiring manager, Children’s Social Care: Fiona Dziewulski on fiona.dziewulski@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Education: Michael Steen on Michael.Steen@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Considering a career in childcare?
Click the button below to find out about childcare career pathways in Reading.
Routes into Teaching
Our local Initial Teacher Education provider, the University of Reading, works in partnership with local schools to provide various routes into teaching. These include primary and secondary School Direct, school-based routes into teaching through which trainee teachers are embedded in local schools throughout the year as well as attending university for core training and support. Visit the following pages for further information and to find out your next step on the road to becoming a teacher:
If you are a Reading school interested in hosting ITE, please find out more and contact the University via Institute of Education – Partnership website
This can be a great way to ‘grow your own’ teachers, and with both salaried and tuition-fee funded routes available there is not necessarily any cost to the school.
How to join us
Our staff are at the very core of what we do. Without them we wouldn’t be able to provide any of our services. They represent us within the community and are at the frontline of decision making for many children, young people and their families.
Our aim is to value, support and enable everyone to be able to do their jobs well and it’s the same for our employees of the future.
We value the fact that it takes time in your busy day to call and make an enquiry or to complete an application form. It is important to us that we provide an efficient and effective service to everyone that we have contact with and we aim to provide all candidates with a very positive and efficient recruitment experience.
We aim to confirm receipt of all enquiries within 48hrs and to keep you informed at each stage of the recruitment process.
Most of our communication with you will be via email so be sure to give us the correct email address.
We welcome enquiries and visits so if you would like to pop in and meet us and see who we are prior to making an application or attending an interview then just let us know.
While you're here...Ever thought about becoming a foster carer?
Foster carers receive an allowance, so essentially it’s a paid role and can be a hugely rewarding career!