Practice Supervisor (Fostering Specialist Services Team)

Salary details: £ - £

About the role

Derbyshire County Council have an exciting opportunity for a caring and determined Practice Supervisor in the Fostering Specialist Services Team. This role offers progression and development, excellent benefits, and the opportunity to use your skills and experience to genuinely improve outcomes for children and young people.

This pivotal role oversees the work of the Fostering Duty and Family Finding Team and the Foster Family Support Team, reporting to the Team Manager of the wider Fostering Specialist Services Team.  This involves supervising the work of seven FTE Community Care Workers across both of these teams as well as our fostering Therapeutic Social Worker.  The Fostering Duty and Family Finding Team act as a point of contact for foster carers if they need urgent advice or support, as well as co-ordinating searches for homes for children who need to come into care or need a move from their current foster home or children’s home.  The Foster Family Support Team provide additional support and guidance when foster families are experiencing challenges, working intensively alongside foster carers, young people and the systems around the child to support families to achieve their goals and increase stability for young people.  A therapeutic approach and systemic practice guide the work that we do to support our foster carers and young people.

We’re proud of our social work practice and commitment to children and their families in Derbyshire, our excellent supervision, systemic practice, manageable caseloads, innovative working, training opportunities and high aspirations for the children we work with.

What will you be doing?

• Providing practice supervision on all case work (group and one to one)
• Undertaking a professional practice lead role within their designated area of service.
• Assisting the Team Manager in efficient and effective delivery of the Children’s Services (Fostering) Social Work Service.
• Demonstrating and championing systemic practice.
• Embedding Derbyshire’s operating model into all social work practice to improve outcomes for children, young people, and families.

What skills and experience do you need?

• Essential Qualifications (refer to job and person profile for more information).
• Experience of creating rapport and building effective relationships with families.
• Experience in enabling flexible and thoughtful social work practice and positive change.
• Experience working within Fostering and/or with Children in Care would be highly beneficial.

Our Practice Supervisor Role attracts a starting salary of £44,433, with annual increments to £47,925 pro rata.

We believe that hard work and commitment to your role should be rewarded, so we offer a package that will ensure you always feel supported and valued:

• Diverse range of cases providing an exciting, challenging and rewarding career
• Effective leadership and management which helps to reduce risk for our social workers and the children and families they support
• Excellent supervision and a supportive peer network
• Systemic training – for supervision and management
• A development programme (specific to your role) – to enable you to gain confidence and competence in your role and regularly network with your peers across the department
• Access to an excellent range of training and development opportunities, worth over £5000, including leadership and management development.
• Corporate membership with Research in Practice – allowing access to reputable, evidence-based research, training, and resources
• Fantastic opportunities to undertake further formal qualifications and career progression through our career pathways
• DBS check undertaken and paid for by us
• Social Work England registration fee reimbursed

For more information on Children and Family services and becoming a social worker in Derbyshire please visit https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/social-health/children-and-families/social-worker-recruitment/be-a-social-worker-for-derbyshire.aspx 

What benefits do we offer you?

• Local Government Pension Scheme
• generous annual leave and flexi-time scheme
• travel expenses
• discount on leisure centre memberships
• free car parking at most sites
• an in-house counselling service
• occupational health service
• access to sessions with a trained physiotherapist
• cycle to work scheme

Provisional Interview Date: 18 June 2026

Please note that the Team Manager is on annual leave until 2nd June 2026 any enquiries regarding the role can be directed to Philippa Michael, Fostering Independent Reviewing Officer by contacting Philippa.Michael@derbyshire.gov.uk .

Due to this post having access to children and/or vulnerable adults, the successful candidate will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily prevent an applicant from obtaining this post, as all cases are judged individually according to the nature of the role and information provided. Click here to see our policy on criminal background checks.

Apply now and take the first step towards a fulfilling career with us! By joining Derbyshire County Council you will have access to a range of amazing rewards and employee benefits, including our generous annual leave scheme, excellent local government pension and fantastic employee discounts. To discover more detail about the rewards and benefits available to you, click here

CS1

We welcome applications from individuals who share our values — being Collaborative, Innovative, Empowered and Accountable. These values describe who we are and what we stand for as a council. They help shape our culture, encourage consistent behaviour and guide how we work together to make a positive difference for both our employees and the residents we serve.