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
Full time, permanent
Salary: £36,648 – £41,418 pa (Plus £8,000 Annual Market Supplement)
Job reference: BFC0638
We currently have vacancies for case-holding, experienced 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.
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact recruitment@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Independent Fostering Agency
(Duty, Data & Carer Training & Payments)
Full time, Permanent post
Salary: £47,418 – £53,420 (includes £6,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 6 October 2024
Interview date: 14 October and 17 October 2024
Job reference: BFC0770
Our BFfC IFA is responsible for providing mainstream fostering services for BFfC, including the recruitment and retention of foster carers able to provide a range of placements for BFfC CLA. This is an exciting opportunity join our IFA service at a time when we are invested in expanding and improving the service in order to enable us to significantly expand our in-house fostering resource.
As part of this expansion, we are part of Local Authority Fostering Southeast and are working closely with the other local authorities that are within our sub-cluster (Oxfordshire, West Berkshire, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston, and Richmond) on developing our shared central foster carer recruitment hub, and harmonising and joining up on aspects of carer recruitment and retention. We are also working with Fostering Network around establishing our first foster carer support hub, based on the Fostering Network Mockingbird Family Model.
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact: Steffi Roth – IFA Registered Manager, on: Steffi.roth@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or Hilary Loades – IFA Responsible Individual, on: loades-bannon@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Term time, Permanent post
Salary: £31,364 – £41,418 per annum (pro rata)
Closing date: 7 October 2024
Interview date: 14 October and 15 October 2024
Job reference: BFC0762
Based within the Education Access and Support Team the Attendance Support Worker will work as part of the team to support the service to carry out the Local Authority’s statutory responsibilities to enforce regular school attendance, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The Attendance Support Officer will work closely with schools, families and children to help support school attendance across the Borough. The role involves working closely with partner agencies to help reduce barriers for children in accessing their education.
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Scott Bennett: Scott.Bennett@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £31,364 – £36,648 per annum
Closing date: 6 October 2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0773
The Leaving Care Advisor supports care leavers aged 16-25 years in their transition to adulthood. The role includes the completion, monitoring and reviewing pathway plans that provide focused outcomes for young people.
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact the Team Manager, Kayon Morris-Johnson at Kayon.Morris-Johnson@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
The Lodge Day Nursery
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £23,500 – £28,770 per annum
Closing date: 15/10/2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0751
We currently have an opportunity for you to join our fabulous team at The Lodge Day Nursery as qualified Level 2 and/or Level 3 Early Years Practitioner.
The Lodge Nursery at Southcote is a 48-place day nursery providing day care and sessional care for children 18 months to 5-year-olds. Due to expansion, we are looking for a passionate and motivated Level 2/or Level 3 qualified Early Years Practitioners.
You will have the privilege of working with the most amazing children and passionate staff within the nursery and part of Brighter Futures for children.
Our practice is underpinned by the value we place on working collaboratively with families with a systemic, holistic whole-family approach to support them in finding their own solutions and building on their strengths.
The children are very important and so is our team. We work closely with our practitioners to ensure that they continue to learn, develop, and share good practices.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact: Anna De Oliveira on Anna.Deoliveira@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Supporting Families Team
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £53,420 – £56,512 per annum (includes £6000 market supplement)
Closing date: 13 October 2024
Interview date: 22 October 2024
Job reference: BFC0776
We currently have a vacancy for an experienced Assistant Team Manager to join our Supporting Families Team, part of the Family Help & Safeguarding service. We firmly believe that relationship-based social work makes a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families, and our Supporting Families Team focus is on delivering outstanding support to families.
Our Supporting Families Team currently provides a range of interventions including supervised contact for Children Looked After; specialist support for parent/carers with substance misuse difficulties via a Consultant Practitioner; providing direct work and parenting interventions for those children subject to CIN and CP Plans and offering group work support for parents/carers who are survivors of domestic abuse.
For more information about this post and a confidential discussion, please contact the Head of Service, Dudley Foster on Dudley.Foster@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
For any query related to the recruitment, please contact us on recruitment@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Together for Families Team
Salary: £58,215 – £64,054 per annum (includes £6,700 market supplement)
Closing date: 13 October 2024
Interview date: 18 and 22 October 2024
Job reference: BFC0777
We currently have vacancies for experienced Team Managers to join our Together for Families Teams, part of the Family Help & Safeguarding service. We firmly believe that relationship-based social work makes a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families, and our generic Together for Families Teams focus on delivering outstanding support to families.
Our Together for Families (TfF) Teams have been developed in order to allow children and families to benefit from the continuity of having only one social worker, and to form a relationship with that worker that promotes sustained positive change.
For more information about this post and a confidential discussion, please contact the Head of Service, Dudley Foster on Dudley.Foster@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
For any query related to the recruitment, please contact us on recruitment@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
The Lodge Day Nursery
Salary: £31,364 – £36,648 per annum
Closing date: 16 October 2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0778
The Lodge Day Nursery is a busy, popular, and well-established nursery providing high quality, affordable and funded childcare to local families in the west of Reading. The nursery is set out over three 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 practitioners 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 practitioners to ensure that they continue to learn, develop, and share good practices.
We are currently looking for a Room Leader who can be responsible for the day to day management of our Inventors room and ensure a high quality, inclusive, sustainable service where parents, partners and the team are ambitious for the children and completely focused on their wellbeing and success.
For further information and to arrange a visit to the nursery please contact: Anna De Oliveira, Nursery manager at anna.deoliveira@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Fostering, Special Guardianship & Adoption Service
Full time, Permanent post
Salary: Salary: £44,648-£49,418 (inclusive of £8,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 6 October 2024
Interview date: 16 October 2024
Job reference: BFC0775
We have an exciting opportunity for you to join our Family and Friends team within Brighter Futures for Children’s Adoption & Permanence Service.
The post holder’s case load will focus on completing Viability, Regulation 24, Private Fostering and full assessments of prospective Family & Friends Carers and prospective Special Guardians, for children and young people who are in the care of Brighter Futures for Children.
Additionally, you will provide 1:1 support to Regulation 24 Carers who are looking after children who are in the care of Brighter Futures for Children and complete the assessment and registration process in respect of new Private Fostering arrangements.
Want to know more?
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact: Alexandra Lambert – Team Manager, on: lambert@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or Hilary Loades – Head of Service, on: loades@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Independent Fostering Service
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £44,648 – £49,418 per annum (includes £8,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 13 October 2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0774
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. 2024 will be an exciting time to join our IFA service 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).
For more information and a confidential discussion about the role please contact the hiring manager, David Brooks, on David.Brooks@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or our Assistant Team Manager, Grace Amps, on Grace.Amps@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We very much 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!