Social Worker - Permanency and Adoption Support Team (PAST)

Role: Social Worker (Fixed Term - Until July 2025)

Division: Supporting Families Division

Team- Permanency, Assessment & Support Team

Salary: Grade I-K - £45,852 - £57,495 plus travel allowance of £1,340 per annum

Location: LBTH Town Hall, 106 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BJ

About Us

We believe that the best place for children is to be raised within their own families, immediate or wider, wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so.​ In Tower Hamlets, we are committed to building relationships and strengthening families by working with people in a compassionate and understanding way. ​

We are ambitious for Tower Hamlets children and families and endeavour for every child and young person to be healthy, safe and successful.

Tower Hamlets is a progressive, ambitious and diverse place to work. We place children and families at the heart of everything that we do and are relentless in our pursuit of positive outcomes for all.

Our Better Together Practice Framework is based on the ideas and concepts which underpin Restorative Practice and draws from other strength-based approaches, such as Systemic and Trauma Informed Practice

Our C-Change approach: Connect, Curious, Community, Co-Produce, Collaborate, Check sets out “6 Cs ” for our work with children, young people, their parents and carers, and each other.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced, qualified social worker to join our very enthusiastic and dedicated kinship team on a permanent basis. The main duties of the team is to undertake Viability Assessments, Special Guardianship/Kinship Assessments and Support Plans to court. The role will also require ongoing support of special guardians/kinship carers pre and post final order as well as present prospective kinship foster carers and the assessment to a permanency panel. This will include supporting children and families through transitions and providing post special guardianship order support.

This vital work enables children to remain safely in the family network free from significant harm to sustain their family and friends links and relationships. The service is committed to ‘child first’ principles, an approach for which collaboration with children, families and multi-agency partners is at the heart of everything we do. This is an exciting time for Kinship Care on both a local and national level.

About You

• Have working knowledge of the framework within which social care operates, inclusive of legislation and national guidance and procedures specific to this post
• A nationally recognised or other social work England recognised social work qualification
• Have at least 1 year of post-qualifying experience in a statutory Children’s Social Care setting
• Experience undertaking kinship assessments and providing support

You will have a strong vision, be self-motivated with the ability to work individually and as part of a team of assessing social workers. Suitable candidates will also be skilled interpersonally while delivering high quality, analytical assessments. You will have knowledge of:

Children Act 1989 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/section/14A

Special Guardianship Regulation https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1109/contents/made

Care Planning Regulations 2010 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/959/contents/made

Championing Kinship Care Strategy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/championing-kinship-care-national-kinship-care-strategy

Kinship Care Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities October 2024

Kinship care: statutory guidance for local authorities

Our Offer

We've been working hard to make Tower Hamlets a great place to practice social work. We will help you to develop excellent social work practice, leading to career advancement at your own pace. We are committed to developing excellent practitioners and making Tower Hamlets an employer of choice.

We offer a competitive salary - £45,852 - £57,495 plus travel allowance of £1,340 per annum and season ticket loan. We are committed to developing excellent Social Work practitioners and if you choose to work with us you will benefit from:

• Up to 29 days annual leave rising to 33 days with 5 years continual service and 8 bank holidays
• A manageable and diverse caseload and good quality reflective supervision
• Coaching and support from our well-established Learning Academy, and the opportunity to practice within our bespoke practice model Better Together, which encompasses restorative, systemic and trauma informed practice principles Core, elective, flexible and specialist learning pathways, as well as clear development pathways for every stage of your social work career
• Opportunities to develop your practice, with a clear framework for career development/leadership programme
• Opportunities for agile/flexible working
• Discounted gym/Costco membership, access to free eye test, Cycle to work scheme, Rent deposit scheme and & You at Work discounts and many other benefits

How to Apply

Please complete application via our recruitment portal

Closing date: 9th October 2025

Shortlisting: 10th October 2025

Interview: Wednesday 22nd October (all day) and Thursday 23rd October (morning)

Should you wish to have an informal discussion regarding this opportunity you are welcome to contact Silvius Brasville (Team Manager) or Casey Guilbeau (Team Manager) at silvius.brasivlle@towerhamlets.gov.uk or lucinda.ansah@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Additional Details

Tower Hamlets vision for our borough is that: people are aspirational, independent and have equal access to opportunities; we are a borough that our residents are proud of and love to live in; and we are a dynamic, outcomes-based council using digital innovation and partnership working to respond to the changing needs of our borough. We want people who aspire to our TOWER values: Together; Open; Willing; Excellent; Respect.

Tower Hamlets has a zero-tolerance approach to, and works to eradicate, all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status, status as a civil partner, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and maternity and looks to employ a diverse workforce representative of those groups. We recognise that people can also be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class.

We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means applicants who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the post are guaranteed an interview. Care experience has also been adopted by the Council as an additional protected characteristic.

We welcome applicants interested in flexible working arrangements and also applicants who live in the borough.

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This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

Tower Hamlets Councils are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.