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.

Why join BFfC?

All you need to know about why BFfC is a great place to work

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Reading's a great place!

Find out why Reading has been named one of the best places to live by the Sunday Times

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Current Vacancies

Term Time (+10 days), Permanent role
Salary: £27,668 – £32,330 per annum
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 25 March 2024
Job reference:  BFC0704

This role will provide operational management of the Elective Home Education (EHE) and responsibilities in liaison with the Education Access Team Manager, and Head of Education Access and Support.

For more information and a confidential discussion please contact Fiona Hostler on Scott.Bennett@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

We look forward to hearing from you!

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18 months (maternity cover) post
Salary: £44,648 – £49,418 per annum, Includes £8,000 annual pro rata market supplement
Closing date: 3 April 2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0703

We currently have a vacancy for an additional experienced part time Paediatric Occupational Therapist within our Childrens Disability Service.

The OT team currently consists of 4 full time OTs and an OT Team Manager.  The team sits under the umbrella of the Childrens Disability Service and works closely with Social Workers and short breaks colleagues within the Childrens and Young People’s Disability Team (CYPDT).

For informal chat or query about the role, please contact hiring managers – Tracy Allen (Occupational Therapy Team Manager) at Tracy.Allen@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

We look forward to hearing from you!

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The Lodge Day Nursery – Southcote Children’s Centre Level 2 or Level 3 Early years practitioner
Term-time Only post
Salary:
£19,649 – £21,722 per annum
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 21 March 2024

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: Belinda South Belinda.south@brighterfuturesforchildren.org  0118 937 3849 or 07876 715 717.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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12-month fixed term, maternity cover, full time post
Salary: £53,630 – £60,004 per annum
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 26 March 2024
Job reference: BFC0701

The Team Manager has responsibility for the operational management of the Early Years SEND team including the Early Years SEND Advisory service and Portage, managing the direction, delivery and performance within service parameters.  The role involves the leadership and management of a team of staff and requires prudent allocation and oversight of resources (both financial and resources). The Team Manager will have strong strategic links with the early years sector including schools, maintained nursery schools, PVIs and Childminders.

For any query or informal discussion about the role, please contact Aimee Trimmer on Aimee.Trimmer@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Full time, Permanent post
Salary: £51,515 – £57,354 per annum
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 25 March 2024
Job reference: BFC0706

The Child Exploitation Team Manager has accountability for the overall operational management of the Team, including the supervision of specialist social workers who have statutory case holding responsibilities for children at risk of exploitation / extra-familial harm (including those children subject to Child in Need and Child Protection Plans). The post holder will ensure that through the ETAC (Exploitation Team Around the Child) process, timely trauma informed and engaged social work practice with young people and their families will be provided, and exploitation risks for such young people will be significantly minimised.

The post holder is responsible for ensuring that there is an effective response to all children who go missing in the Borough of Reading (including those Children Looked After placed outside of the Local Authority area), being responsible for the supervision of the Missing Children’s Co-ordinator.

For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact Dudley Foster on ollie.foxell@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Full Time, Fixed Term Contract until 31st March 2025
Salary: £41,418 – £47,420 pa
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 22 March 2024
Job reference: BFC0705

The post is open (internally) to a secondment opportunity with line managers agreement. The post is also open to consideration of part time hours.

You will have a qualification in Childcare, Education, Health, Youth Work, Social Work, Community Development or equivalent professional qualification related to work with children, young people and/or families.  You will be able to demonstrate your experience of working in a multi-agency environment to improve outcomes for families.  You will be responsible for the day-to-day operational management of the team, including providing supervision to ensure high standards of support and evaluation of impact. You will also be responsible for the weekly delivery of multidisciplinary hub meetings, and you be able to maintain and continue to develop positive working relationships with the front door for early help and safeguarding and the family help teams who deliver targeted support and intervention to families who require this support.

You will need to be proactive and lead the team to identify potential barriers and solutions with internal and external stakeholders whilst driving through change in a sensitive but tenacious manner.

For an informal discussion please contact Jackelyn Dance (Service Manager for Children’s Single Point of Access and Partnerships) on 07929874018

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Independent Fostering Service
Full-time, Permanent post
Salary: £44,648 – £49,418 per annum (includes £8,000 annual market supplement)
Closing date: 18 March 2024
Interview date: To be confirmed
Job reference: BFC0680

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, Steffi Roth, on Steffi.Roth@brighterfuturesforchildren.org or our Assistant Team Manager, Grace Amps, on Grace.Amps@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

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Information Advise and Support Service (IASS)
Part-time, 20 hours per week
All-year-round, Permanent post
Salary: £14,042 – £16,953 pa actual pro rata (£25,979 – £31,364 pa FTE)
Closing date: 26 March 2024
Interview date: 15-17 April 2024
Job reference: BFC0711

A rare opportunity has arisen for an advisor in Reading’s well regarded Information Advice and Support Service for SEND (IASS for SEND). This statutory service is based in Reading, Berkshire, but the team largely works remotely with occasional need to attend face to face meetings in and around Reading.

We are looking for a part-time (20 hours/week), all-year-round, IASS advisor to join the experienced team in supporting parent/carers in a balanced and impartial manner. You will need the ability to appreciate the needs of disadvantaged and excluded groups in society and be willing to work creatively with them in a non-judgemental way. 

You should be experienced in managing and prioritising your own workload and managing competing priorities to meet deadlines.

You will need to be able to understand the principles of impartiality and be able to build good relationships both internally within Brighter Futures for Children and Reading Borough Council and externally with local parent/carer groups and the voluntary sector.

For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact IASS Team Manager, Sarah Bamford: Sarah.Bamford@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

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Open adverts

Full Time, Permanent post
Salary:  £44,648 – £49,418 per annum (includes £8000 annual market supplement)
Welcome payment: £5000 (after successful 6-month probationary period)
Loyalty payments: £3000 at both 12 and 24 months


Open advert

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.

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 a limited time (until 31 March 2024) we are offering an additional welcome payment to eligible social workers joining one of our TfF teams and, from 1 April 2023, we are also offering loyalty payments at 12 and 24 months.

We are doing this to strengthen our teams and ensure children and young people get the continuity and stability they deserve. It’s testament to us, the way that we work and the supportive environment we encourage that our permanent social workers stay with us and some agency staff are converting, but we want more of our social workers to join us on a permanent basis.

If you think you might enjoy working at Brighter Futures for Children, you share our values, 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 more information and a confidential discussion about the role please contact us on recruitment@brighterfuturesforchildren.org

We look forward to hearing from you!

For full details including the job description, click the button below.

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Considering a career in childcare?

Click the button below to find out about childcare career pathways in Reading.

Careers in Childcare

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

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!

Enquire now!