Team Manager - Fostering Team

Posted 2nd Oct, 2025
Location
Sutton
Salary/rate
£49,056 – £57,402
Working pattern
Full-time – 36 hours per week
Working arrangements
Blended
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
30th Oct, 2025
About the role

Children's Social Care has initiated a transformative journey to address the increasing demand for our services and to enhance our Fostering service. At Sutton, our objective is to ensure the safety, well-being, and development of children and young people requiring support or protection.

We have an exciting opportunity to join us as a Team Manager for the Fostering Team within Children Social Care. Reporting to the Service Manager, you will oversee the operations and management of the team of professional and experienced Senior Practitioners, and Social Workers to provide high quality supervision, support, and training to foster carers and their families to enable them to provide the best possible trauma informed care to our children and young people.

You will be expected to develop and motivate your team to fulfil the changing demands of the service through high quality social work supervision and compliance with the statutory requirements for Fostering, as well as having an interest and the capacity to contribute to the recruitment and retention of foster carers and service development. An understanding of children in care, foster carers and their families is essential to this role.

The team collaborates with external partners, including local authorities, child welfare organisations, healthcare professionals, and educational institutions, to coordinate support services and ensure comprehensive care for children and families. We invite applications from driven individuals with substantial supervisory experience to manage and lead a team of social care professionals. You will be an integral part of the Sutton Fostering Service; self-motivated, energetic, and confident, with a can-do and positive attitude.

This role presents an excellent opportunity for seasoned professionals such as experienced Team Managers or Deputy Team Managers seeking more responsibility based on significant experience in their current role. It's also ideal for experienced  Managers looking to embark on a new journey and share their wealth of knowledge and expertise with our service, while effectively delivering against our statutory objectives.

Whether you’re already experienced or aiming for promotion,  you will receive robust support through coaching, mentoring, and leadership from the Service Manager and Head of Service and our friendly and knowledgeable team of social care professionals. We're committed to ensuring that you're well-equipped to succeed in your new role and make a meaningful impact on the lives of those we serve.

About you

We would expect candidates to fulfil the competencies including (but not limited to): 

  • Relevant professional qualification and registration required. 
  • A minimum of 3 years post qualification with extensive, sophisticated and up to date working knowledge of relevant national and local policies, statutory guidance and legislation in relation to the provision of Health and Social Care services. 
  • Experience of Project Management in the Fostering field including developing recruitment strategies.
  • Familiar with Social Media Platforms required to promote fostering and increase visibility locally and across neighbouring boroughs. 
  • Ability to contribute to and provide professional leadership of organisational change and development and address performance management issues that arise. 
  • Ability to communicate effectively in challenging situations to a wide range of audience in different contexts. 

For more information about the role and/or an informal conversation, view the role profile or contact  Geeta Rath , Service Manager for Fostering on geeta.rath@sutton.gov.uk

About Sutton

Sutton combines a high quality of life, green and spacious, with distinctive town centres providing access to jobs and culture the capital has to offer.

Ofsted rated us as ‘Good’, with 'Outstanding' leadership, in December 2021. However, we have not rested but continue to strive to do more for families, strengthen practice and bring innovative ways of working across our systems.

Our offer to you

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

  • Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)

  • Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)

  • Comprehensive learning and development programme

  • Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities

  • Interest free season ticket loans

  • Local Government Pension Scheme

  • Car parking scheme

  • Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme

  • Zip car scheme

  • Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses

  • Confidential wellbeing and counselling support

  • Subsidised gym membership

Interested in working in Sutton? Hear from our staff below on why they think Sutton is a great place to be a Social Worker.

If you have any questions about applying for this role, please contact recruitment@sutton.gov.uk