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.
Current Vacancies
Full time post
Closing date: 2 April 2023
Job requisition: BFC0518
The Berkshire Regional Partnership has been successful in gaining funding for another cohort of Step Up to Social Work, for high achieving graduates who are thinking of a career change. There are 19 opportunities overall and as part of the programme you will be based at one of the local authority partners within the partnership for your placements : Bracknell Forest Council (Lead Partner), Reading now known as Brighter Futures for Children, Slough Children’s Services Trust and West Berkshire Council.
Step Up to Social Work is a 14 month post graduate intensive fulltime qualifying programme. The course will start in January 2024 as part of the 8th cohort funded by the Department for Education. Once you’ve successfully completed the course, you’ll be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work enabling you to register and practice as a social worker.
Social work is both a challenging and rewarding career through which you can make a real difference for vulnerable children and families. You will need to build relationships with families facing difficult times, show a lot of patience and be a good listener. You will also need good observational skills, analytical thinking and sound judgement to make the right decisions and protect children. Social work regularly tests resilience, stamina, and resolve – all of which you will need to succeed. Social work can be life changing for those you support.
This is a unique opportunity to earn while you learn, as the Department for Education provides funding via a tax-free bursary payment of £19,833, over the duration of the programme, and payment of University fees for successful applicants. This will allow you to change or start a new career in social work and be able to continue to pay your bills and fund your living costs while you are studying. The programme runs once every two years, dependent on government funding, so if you are interested, make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to apply.
Application is through the Department of Education website (and not to the local authorities within the Berkshire Regional Partnership). The application window is open from the 17th of February 2023 to the 2nd April 2023.
Apply for step up to social work – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
If you would like to discuss this programme further, please contact Lin, Step Up Programme Officer at DianDian.Lin@bracknell-forest.gov.uk
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £40,798 – £47,493 pa (includes £8,000 Annual Market Supplement)
Closing date: 9 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0516
We currently have a vacancy for a qualified social worker in our Children and Young People Disability Team within our Childrens Social Care Service.
The CYPD Team looks after the children and young people of Reading with a disability 0 to 18. We are looking for a Social Worker who is passionate and who will be committed to this role and the team. If you feel you have the right qualities for our children and young people and want to make things better, then please come and join us.
We aim to ensure that our professionals have all the tools they need to do an exceptional job. We have recently introduced Consultant Practitioners into our establishment who are on hand to coach, mentor and support our staff through complex and high-risk case work.
We have also 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 about the role please contact the hiring manager: Albina Brahilika Albina.Brahilika@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £42,723 to £47,493 depending on experience (Includes £8,000 Market Supplement)
Closing date: 9 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0520
We currently have vacancies for qualified social workers in our Children Looked After Team.
The Children Looked After Team consists of 7 social workers one of which is a Consultant Practitioner and one who is an ASYE and an Assistant Team Manager.
We also have students in our team who provide great support and learning to the team. We are Corporate Parents for our children in care and seek to ensure that all children in care achieve permanency and have effective care planning.
The team works closely with Independent Reviewing Officers, virtual school, permanency team and health to ensure that our children and young peoples’ needs are being met.
We aim to ensure that our social workers have all the tools they need to do an exceptional job. Our Consultant Practitioner is hands to coach, mentor and support our staff through complex and high-risk case work. We also have Camhs, and an Emotional Wellbeing Panel that is crucial to support us with the work we do with our children and young people. There is also reflective team supervision to support your learning.
We have also secured excellent training for all our staff through Research in Practice, and we are focussed on being a trauma informed service and all staff have access to this training. We value our social workers and will always encourage and motivate you learn and develop your skills to be the best social worker you can be for our children and young people in Reading.
If you think you might enjoy working at Brighter Futures for Children, you share our values, and you have a social work qualification and current professional social work registration with Social Work England, then we would really like to hear from you.
For any queries or an informal discussion, please feel free to contact the hiring manager – Christina Subh on: Christina.Subh@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £51,495 – £54,587 per year, Includes £6,000 annual market supplement
Closing date: 16 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0522
This is a great career development opportunity where you will be able to lead a dedicated team to deliver a high- quality service in a specialized field.
Our Assistant Team Managers report directly to the Team Manager in their specific service and are responsible for the day-to-day operational running of their team. You will provide crucial direction and oversight in relation to cases and are responsible for high quality leadership. We are offering the opportunity to join a dynamic senior team who are committed to improving outcomes for children.
Together for Families (TFF) Service is an exciting new development for Brighter Futures for Children and has been introduced in order to improve services for children in Reading, and to help achieve the vision that is to help every child have a happy, healthy and successful life. Further to this, our service pays credence to the five underlying principles of trauma informed practice – safety, choice, empowerment, trust and collaboration.
There are 4 x Together for Families Teams within the Service, who will work with children during S.17 (Children Act, 1989) single assessments, S.47 child protection investigations, as well as working with children subject to CIN Plans, CP Plans and CLA. The expectation for all social workers within the TFFs is that children will remain allocated with their social worker for the duration of the child’s case being open for CIN/CP support.
This is to ensure the relational-based social work practice that is one of the key aims of the BFfC practice model, with much fewer transitions for children and their families. Support to families in the Service will also be provided via evidence informed and timely programme of support delivered via Family Support Workers and specialist adult practitioners in mental health and substance use – with the aim to ensure an effective trauma informed ‘whole family’ response to needs and risk for children.?
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Paul Sibanda on Paul.Sibanda@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Full Time, Fixed Term – 12 months
Some flexible working required depending on service needs
Salary: £29,439 – £34,723 pa depending on experience
Closing date: 9 April 2023
Interview date: 19 & 20 April 2023
Job requisition: BFC0526
The role is busy, varied and includes:
- To work with the whole family and partners to assess the needs within the household and acknowledge those of the extended family.
- To deliver evidence-based interventions with families including direct work with children and young people
- To adopt a key worker/lead Professional approach to develop, co-ordinate and deliver outcome focussed plans including:
- Organising, chairing and/or attending multi-agency Team Around the Child/family meetings to ensure a partnership approach to engaging and supporting families.
- Reviewing action plans and ensure they are timely and SMART
- To work with families who exhibit a range of challenges and who may be resistant to change and/or engagement – there may be a requirement to work intensively for a period with some families. This will include families stepping down from CSC statutory services, via CSPoA and some joint work with CSC
- To apply a challenge and support approach to working with families
- To Liaise effectively and work with universal, targeted and statutory services and partners where appropriate (eg schools, children’s Social Care, voluntary orgs etc)
- To use Case Management System, keeping timely and accurate records of interventions to set timescales
You should have previous experience working with children, young people and their families and ideally have knowledge of child development.
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Viktoria Blake or Tracey Fuller on 01189376545
Contact centre
Casual contract
Pay: £12.47 per hour
Closing date: 3 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0529
As a Social Worker Assistant, you will provide practical and social support for families with additional needs. You will support families with parenting, parental conflict, trauma recovery and other needs as identified by a Social worker. Part of the role will involve supervising court order contact for families where you will promote the rights of vulnerable children & young people and encourage their inclusion in the wider community.
The Social Worker Assistant role will
- Undertake Direct work and Life Story work with children
- Undertake planned work with parents and their families as identified on the basis of assessment by Social Workers.
- Work with children and young people, families, carers and communities to help them make informed decisions, enabling them to clarify and express their needs and contribute to assessments and service planning.
- Supervise and record court ordered contacts
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact: Tracey Daniel on Tracey.Daniel@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or Aleshia LaRose-Jones on Aleshia.LaRose-Jones@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Ranikhet Children’s Centre
Fixed term, 12 months maternity cover
Part time – 23 hours per week
Salary: £13,411 – £14,952 per annum
Closing date: 10 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0530
You will be working as part of a team within the Ranikhet Children’s Centre which comprises of Family Group Workers and Children Centre Family Workers.
West Cluster Children Centre is looking for a vibrant and enthusiastic Childcare Practitioner, to join our multi-skilled friendly team. A qualification in Early Years Childcare and education or equivalent Level 3 is essential for this role; together with knowledge and experience of using the Early Years Foundation Stage within your practice.
You will be required to deliver high quality childcare and family sessions to parents/carers and children aged 0-5 years, including:
- Set up, plan and run groups/crèche for targeted families as identified by local need
- Coordinate family learning activities for vulnerable and targeted families
- To provide safe and inclusive activities for young children and their families/carers to bond, play, learn and socialise within children’s centres
- To provide high quality childcare for children 0-5 years in a safe and inclusive environment that supports them to play, learn and socialise.
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Lorraine West on Lorraine.West@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Full-time, Permanent post
Agile/Hybrid Working
Salary: £29,439 – £34,723 per annum (Trainee Salary: £24,054 – £29,439)
Closing date: 9 April 2023
Interview date: 25 April 2023
Job requisition: BFC0528
Do you consider yourself a solution finder and a negotiator, if yes, our commission team needs you. The Outcome Focussed Placements Officer will co-ordinate and manage all placement requests for Looked After Children (LAC) including those with multiple and complex needs and children with special educational needs. This post is open to both non-experienced (trainee role) and experienced candidates.
You will negotiate in consideration of the achievement of the best outcomes for children and young people.
Responsibilities
- Maintain accurate records through data collection
- Ensure that placement options provide a best match to needs and outcomes in relation to accommodation, education and health, provide value for money and are carried out in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1998
- Understand and apply company and department procedures and practice to ensure that corporate social responsibility (equalities, sustainability, transparency, ethical, health and safety and social value) is at the core of all placement negotiations.
- To be proactive in workload management, prioritise placement searches as required and liaising with referring officers around service delivery expectations.
- Attend professionals’ meetings as agreed
- Ensure placement searches can be completed in a timely, effective and efficient manner
- Ensure placements are made as close to the borough as possible
- Support the collation of monitoring and recording of achievements in order to ensure the service is financially self-sustaining.
Contact details for an informal discussion: Bronaugh Cowen-Seagrove – bronaugh.cowen-seagrove@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Early Help Service
Part time, 25 hours per week
Fixed term post until March 2024
Salary: £14,577 – £15,114 per annum pro rata (£21,968 – £22,369 pa FTE)
Closing date: 17 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0531
- Do you passionately believe in providing early intervention support for children and families to improve their life chances?
- Are you committed to supporting all of Readings children born during COVID-19 with a focus on narrowing any development gaps.
- Are you committed to working in a trauma informed way to deliver a range of safe, inclusive activities to support children’s physical, cognitive, behavioural, and social and emotional development across the borough and provide babies with age-appropriate learning opportunities, they would normally have experienced in readiness for starting school.
Research provides evidence that Covid-19 lockdowns have negatively impacted the development and learning of 0-2s. Brighter futures for children have secured funding to make a difference to the lives of children born during the Covid-19 lockdowns. This fixed term 2-year post will focus on key priority areas to help children catch up and avoid long term needs requiring later interventions.
You will be responsible for delivering a graduated offer of support to parents and provide babies with age-appropriate learning opportunities they would normally have experienced in readiness for starting school. This will be delivered through fun and interactive sessions for children and families from a range of venues across Reading. Demand for these services is already high so this role will be fast paced and busy.
You will work alongside the co-ordinator and our outreach worker to support families identified as eligible for support and use an approved assessment tool to understand children’s levels of attainment and adopt support and signposting as appropriate.
You will be required to work in partnership with variety of partners such as Health visiting, speech and language teams, children’s centres, early years settings, SEND organisations and other community organisations to effectively identify, reach, overcome barriers and provide appropriate targeted support to families.
You will be required to work flexibly, and some weekend and evening work will be expected.
For any query or informal discussion about the role, please feel free to contact:
Belinda South on 07841271916 or Belinda.south@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Reviewing, Conferencing & Local Authority Designated Officer Service
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £21,575 – £24,054 per annum
Closing date: 6 April 2023
Interview date: w/c 17 April 2023
Job requisition: BFC0532
The role is to work as Business Support for Reviewing, Conferencing & LADO Service, providing business administrative support to the Management Team, Independent Reviewing Officers, and other Professionals as necessary.
The role includes:
- Dealing with and responding to a variety of contacts, including telephone calls and face to face clients, ensuring appropriate message taking or sign-posting with clear, precise and accurate information.
- Accurate and timely data entering onto appropriate electronic document management systems.
- Dealing with all enquiries within the team mailbox and incoming Mosaic requests.
- Setting up and sending invitations for Child Looked After reviews, Child Protection conferences and LADO meetings.
- Commitment to safeguarding and the welfare of children and vulnerable adults
For more information and a confidential discussion please contact:
Lisa Vought on Lisa.Vought@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Sure Start Whitley Day Nursery
Term time only
Part time, 32 hours per week
Fixed term until 29February 2024
Salary: £22,777 – £24,054 per annum pro rata
Closing date: 16 April 2023
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job requisition: BFC0534
Sure Start Whitley Day Nursery is a busy, popular and well established nursery providing high quality, affordable and free childcare to local families in the South of Reading. The nursery is set out over three 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 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 level 3 early years practitioner who can work collaboratively with our team, families and wider professionals in the best interests of the children.
You will be part of a supportive, hardworking and passionate team. We offer a competitive salary, and you will be paid above the average market rates for this area. We also offer a Local Government pension scheme. We offer a comprehensive training package and opportunities for professional development and progression for the right candidate. A generous annual leave allowance is included.
Applicants must have an excellent understanding of child development and must hold a level 3 childcare qualification. Experience working with children 0-5 years is desirable.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact: Kelly Goswell (Nursery manager) on 0118 937 3922 or email Kelly.goswell@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Open adverts
Full Time, Permanent
Salary: £42,723 to £47,493 per annum (including £8000 annual market supplement)
Open advert
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:
Primary School Direct
Primary School Direct in partnership with the Institute of Education, University of Reading
Primary PGCE programme
Primary PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of Reading
Secondary Initial Teacher Training
Secondary education at the Institute of Education, University of Reading
If you are a Reading school interested in hosting a School Direct trainee, please find out more and contact the University via
Institute of Education – Partnership website (reading.ac.uk)
School Direct 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 - and why!
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.
- Continuous service (if you’re joining us form a Local Authority)
- Local government pension scheme (Includes 13% contribution from BFfC and Life Assurance)
- Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities
- Agile and flexible working (role dependent)
- Modern working environment in centre of Reading
- Discounted staff car parking
- Discounted on site day nursery (at the Civic Centre)
- An array of discounts in shops, restaurants and online through the Vectis scheme
- From 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
- Additional leave purchasing scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Season ticket loans
The benefits of working at BFfC
The Civic Offices in the heart of Reading provide flexible state-of-the-art facilities.
Our overarching ambition is to build an open and supportive culture where we are committed to providing Research in Practice (RIP) membership, effective supervision, including guaranteed supervision time, achieving safe, manageable caseloads, providing strong, supportive leadership, including listening to all staff and high quality, professional partnerships to support vulnerable children.
In children’s social care we have a dynamic auditing model, ‘Beyond Auditing’, which is highly valued by frontline workers and managers. In addition to seeking and sharing views on the findings of audits, the model includes live coaching and reflection with social workers and managers on their work with children and families.
We are committed to helping our staff balance work and home life by offering an agile way of working.
You may want to avoid peak travel times, care for an elderly relative, extend your UK holiday, watch your child in the school play or work outside of Reading. You may choose to base yourself at home most days with occasional visits to the office, or you may want to work from a café or other location. We encourage our staff to work in an agile way which works for them and for the company.
To us, agile working is about give and take. We expect everybody to take responsibility for ensuring their work is completed on time and to high standards. We know that at times, staff will put in extra effort to get the job done, so we will do what we can to help them balance their home demands with work.
Our main aim is to deliver the best possible opportunities for the children of Reading. The goal of agile working is to create a responsive, efficient and effective organisation based on more balanced, motivated, innovative and productive teams and individuals.
As a Fostering Friendly employer Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) is able to give it’s staff who foster children and young people extra support.
BFfC launched the scheme, which is accredited by The Fostering Network, in recognition of the valuable contribution foster carers make to our society and especially the lives of children in care in Reading.
Brighter Futures for Children has its own Independent Fostering Agency and is actively seeking foster carers from within Reading.
If you’d like to know more about fostering visit www.readingfostering.co.uk
We have a number of pool cars available for use by staff who need to make regular visits or attend appointments outside of the office.
We offer staff discounts in shops, restaurants, on services and online through the Vectis scheme.
We are located in the centre of Reading just outside the Oracle shopping centre and within easy reach of the main Reading Train Station (10 mins walk). Buses to Reading town centre are plentiful and there are bicycle racks right outside the front door. We have a bike scheme where you can buy or hire a new bike via salary sacrifice and we offer staff season ticket loans and discounted travel with Reading Buses.
We offer a generous holiday entitlement – a minimum of 25 days a year (plus bank holidays), rising to 32 after 10 years’ service.
We provide a range of family-friendly provisions including maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave. We also recognise that you may have caring responsibilities for other dependants and provide other leave in addition to career breaks.
Kennet Day Nursery is Reading Borough Council’s workplace day nursery situated in the Civic Offices. The nursery is easily accessible by car, train or bus.
Rated Outstanding by Ofsted, Kennet offers high quality day care for children aged 3 months to 5 years. The nursery is open to children who have a parent or guardian who works for Brighter Futures for Children.
The nursery is open from 8am – 6pm and offers full and part time sessions with a minimum of 3 sessions per week. Demand for a place at the nursery is very high so it is strongly recommended that you place your name on the waiting list at the earliest possible time.
Kennet accepts all childcare vouchers and offers 30 hours funding to eligible families stretched across the full year. For information about childcare support, visit www.gov.uk/get-childcare. Please also see our information page 30 hour funding for 3-4 year olds.
For more information please contact the Nursery Manager on: 0118 937 2509 or email kennetdaynursery@reading.gov.uk
Our Employee Assistance Programme offers advice on issues such as consumer and statutory rights, state benefits, landlord and tenant problems, dealing with noisy neighbours or tackling debt. The programme is available to all staff and provides telephone access to a range of advice, information and personal support including counselling and dealing with stress, relationship problems, bereavement or improving your assertiveness skills.
We have a health and wellbeing programme and take an active part in the Healthy Workplace Challenge. We also have ample cycle facilities including lockers, showers and drying facilities at the Civic Offices.
We also have a Staff Club that runs a range of social events including pub quizzes and theatre trips. Staff also enjoy discounts at many local leisure venues and retail outlets.
You will have access to the Local Government Pension Scheme which will provide you with an income in retirement, payable for life and may give your loved ones financial security in the event of your death or ill health. Our scheme is known as a Defined Benefit pension scheme. The benefits you build up are based on a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) basis. It is a very secure scheme because the benefits are set out in law. This means that your pension earned each year is based on your actual pensionable pay received in each scheme year (1 April to 31 March) and not on the contributions you pay.
You will be admitted to the Scheme automatically from your first day of employment. You pay in a percentage of your salary and we will also pay a percentage depending on your salary level. You can also opt to pay in Additional Voluntary Contributions to improve your pension. You will get death in service benefit to the value of three times your salary and have access to a Credit Union.
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!