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People from all backgrounds can become foster parents. In fact, most people do not realise how their backgrounds and professional experience qualify them to care for a child or young person. In particular, ex-military carers could have a substantial impact on a child’s life by utilising their transferable skills from their military service.

Compass understands how difficult it can be to transition from the armed forces to civilian life, especially when you are looking for a job. Even though armed forces leavers have many career options available to them, fostering may provide the mental stimulation and satisfaction that other jobs can’t.

Because of it’s drastic difference from life on the frontline, fostering often escapes the attention of many armed forces leavers, but making the transition to a foster carer can have an abundance of benefits for ex-military carers.

The benefits of fostering as an ex-military carer

Compared to other foster carers, ex-military carers are highly disciplined and adaptable, which are invaluable qualities when caring for children or young people who have experienced trauma and difficult upbringings. Armed forces leavers are also typically used to working under stressful conditions, which can be a huge advantage when it comes to fostering.

Our ex-military carer Sharon said her time in the armed forces made her extremely resilient, which she has found helpful throughout her time as a foster carer. Sharon also said that her time in the armed forces gave her crucial medical knowledge, which has also aided her on her fostering journey.

Armed forces families may also have a greater sense of teamwork than other families, with many ex-military carers having strong leadership skills that could help guide a vulnerable child or young person through the care system. In particular, many older children and teenagers in care could benefit massively within an armed forces family, as training and serving in the forces could be an ideal basis for being equipped to guide them through difficult life choices and preparing them for adulthood.

Ex-military carers may also find that fostering is a great way to continue to give back to their community, as it offers the opportunity to help and care for multiple children and young people, giving them the love and support they need to thrive. It is also a great way to establish roots in the local community, especially if ex-military carers are used to being deployed or stationed in different parts of the country.

We need ex-military carers now more than ever

In 2022, there were 82,000 children and young people in care, with the number of fostering applications dropping by over 2000. If more armed forces leavers became aware of fostering and how their skills are the perfect foundation for becoming a foster parent, we could slowly begin to see this number decline.

Sharon, one of our carers with experience in the armed forces, said she would definitely encourage other armed forces leavers to become foster carers. When talking about her journey, Sharon said that the most shocking thing was the number of children still looking for homes, saying: “Until you’re in the organisation, you don’t realise how many children there are that do need the help”.

Sharon has found that fostering has helped her to become more resilient, especially when moving children back with their families. However, she believes it is equally important to consider referrals and whether they are right for your family before making the decision to foster. As an ex-military carer, Sharon wanted to help every child she could, but it’s important to take your time during the process and evaluate clearly.

Foster carers are strong advocates for the children and young people they care for, constantly needing to be on their side and ensure that their voices are heard by authority figures. It’s not an easy task or one to be taken lightly, but it could be the perfect route for armed forces leavers to go down.

If you’re ex-military and feel like your skills would make you the perfect foster carer, please contact us to learn more about fostering. Our welcoming team of professionals will be happy to take you through any questions you may have.

Compass Fostering are looking for two knowledgeable Social Workers to join our team in the west of England. You’ll share our commitment to delivering high quality services for children and young people and support our foster parents to do this too.

You will manage a carer base across one of the following regions: Oxford / Somerset / Gloucestershire / Worcester.

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled Social Worker to influence and effect change within our dynamic organisation. We want you to be an active participant, looking to contribute to positive change within the organisation whilst developing your career.

Compass make sure to develop and tailor packages of care to each of our young people, giving you professional pride knowing that you’re making a positive difference every day.

Whether you’re an established SSW or looking for something more, our teams at Compass encourage and champion your drive to succeed

The benefits of joining Compass Fostering

• Career Development – We offer many career paths, recognising hard work & supporting you into senior roles.
• Low Caseloads – You will typically be responsilbe for up to 13 fostering families.
• Competitive Salary – using structured pay grades based on your training and experience.
• Car Allowance – £100 p/m car allowance to allow you to work flexibly from different locations.
• Wellbeing – Access to therapeutic wellbeing sessions with our Therapeutic Services team.
• Bonuses – receive £200 service award on your two-year anniversary, plus up to £500 special recognition service for outstanding practice.
• Medicash – Cashback for various medical appointments & treatments with MediCash.
• Life Assurance Scheme – 3 x annual salary after successful completion of your probation review.
• Increased Holiday – 27 days increasing gradually to 30 days after 4 years’ service.

About Us

Compass Fostering is a part of our wider community, providing fostering, residential, educational, and therapeutic services for the young people in our care.

We are a progressive child centred service, putting the wellbeing of our children and young people at the front and core of everything we do.

We are proud to offer good and outstanding services in many of our regions over England and Wales, championing our staff and teams who help us towards these outcomes.

We’re a values-based children’s service, meaning that everything we do is underpinned by our REACH approach. It stands for Resilience, Education, Acceptance, Child-centred and Holistic; it’s a framework based on resilience theory, attachment theory and aspects of social pedagogy. We believe that this helps us to provide bespoke, consistent therapeutic care for each child, whilst supporting our staff and foster carers to ensure every young person has the best possible future.

It is essential that you

• Have an approach that is reflective and creative when working with our foster carers and young people to inspire them to reach their full potential.
• Can manage your own caseload of typically 13 fostering families, giving support and guidance when necessary and help them to develop their skills.
• Are committed to provide wrap around support to our foster carers by participating in an out of hours on call service.
• Are passionate and want to actively contribute to the growth and development of the Fostering service.
• Have a relevant professional qualification in Social Work.
• Are Social Work England (SWE) registered.
• Have worked in a fostering related social work role and /or child social care, such as a looked after children’s team.
• Have experience and can demonstrate evidence of identifying the needs of young people.
• Have a good knowledge of fostering regulations, childcare law and safeguarding issues.
• Can make objective professional assessments of children and young people.
• Have access to a car and a valid driving licence.

Our recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be offered a role subject to satisfactory references and an enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

The Compass Community values equality and diversity across our workforce and aims to ensure our staff community is reflective of the diversity of the children and young people within our care. In support of this commitment, we welcome applications from individuals of Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.

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Are you passionate about making a positive and lasting difference to children and young people and do you want to work for a progressive independent fostering agency with ambitious plans for the future? Are an experienced Social Work Manager looking for a new challenge or social work practitioner who has lead and managed a team looking for career progression?

We are looking for an enthusiastic and passionate Fostering Operations/Social Work Manager to join our experienced and successful team who are responsible for leading an experienced team of Supervising Social Workers whom are reflective and creative in practice. Working collaboratively with all stakeholders, you will strive to ensure that the children and young people in our care reach their full potential.

Whilst based at our Newton Aycliffe office, regional travel is part of the role to support your team and national travel will be required to visit other Compass offices. A car and a valid driving licence are essential to the role.

In your role you will

• Contribute to the Fostering Service in delivering the overarching strategic plan for Compass.
• Work with the Head of Fostering in delivering operational excellence, continuous improvement and financial performance of the business whilst safeguarding children and young people.
• Lead, motivate and guide a team of social care practitioners in ensuring that we provide outstanding care and the best possible outcomes for our children and child protection and safeguarding principles are embedded in practice.
• Work within Compass Fostering Policy and legal and regulatory standards and requirements and ensure that the team’s practice is of a consistent high quality, reflective, evidence based, documented and quality assured.
• Achieve regional targets and KPI’s for placement growth and carer recruitment and retention whilst ensuring that the needs of the children and young people and the carers are met when making placements.
• Demonstrate a positive and dynamic leadership and management style, responsible for providing day to day operational support to your team of Supervising Social Workers, creating a highly skilled, trained and motivated team.
• Safeguard the children and young people in our care, including support to the Registered Manager within the monitoring of Schedule 6/7 matters and when appropriate, to have delegated responsibility for liaising with Ofsted on these matters.
• Demonstrate excellent communication and engagement skills in developing, managing and strengthening the customer relationship with key LA customers.
• Have a relevant professional qualification in social work and be Social Care England (or equivalent) registered.

The benefits of joining Compass Fostering

• Career Development – We offer many career paths, recognising hard work & supporting you into senior roles.
• Competitive Salary – using structured pay grades based on your training and experience.
• Car Allowance – £100 p/m car allowance to allow you to work flexibly from different locations.
• Wellbeing – Access to therapeutic wellbeing sessions with our Therapeutic Services team.
• Bonuses – receive £200 service award on your two-year anniversary, plus up to £500 special recognition service for outstanding practice.
• Medicash – Cashback for various medical appointments & treatments with MediCash.
• Life Assurance Scheme – 3 x annual salary after successful completion of your probation review.
• Increased Holiday – 27 days (including birthday and wellbeing day) increasing gradually to 30 hours after 4 years’ service.

The recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be appointed subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

The Compass Community values equality and diversity across our workforce and aims to ensure our staff community is reflective of the diversity of the children and young people within our care. In support of this commitment, we welcome applications from individuals of Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.

< Return to jobs

Are you passionate about making a positive and lasting difference to children and young people and do you want to work for a progressive independent fostering agency with ambitious plans for the future? Are an experienced Social Work Manager looking for a new challenge or social work practitioner who has lead and managed a team looking for career progression?

We are looking for an enthusiastic and passionate Fostering Operations/Social Work Manager to join our experienced and successful team who are responsible for leading an experienced team of Supervising Social Workers whom are reflective and creative in practice. Working collaboratively with all stakeholders, you will strive to ensure that the children and young people in our care reach their full potential.

Whilst based at our Fareham office, regional travel is part of the role to support your team and national travel will be required to visit other Compass offices. A car and a valid driving licence are essential to the role.

In your role you will

• Contribute to the Fostering Service in delivering the overarching strategic plan for Compass.
• Work with the Head of Fostering in delivering operational excellence, continuous improvement and financial performance of the business whilst safeguarding children and young people.
• Lead, motivate and guide a team of social care practitioners in ensuring that we provide outstanding care and the best possible outcomes for our children and child protection and safeguarding principles are embedded in practice.
• Work within Compass Fostering Policy and legal and regulatory standards and requirements and ensure that the team’s practice is of a consistent high quality, reflective, evidence based, documented and quality assured.
• Achieve regional targets and KPI’s for placement growth and carer recruitment and retention whilst ensuring that the needs of the children and young people and the carers are met when making placements.
• Demonstrate a positive and dynamic leadership and management style, responsible for providing day to day operational support to your team of Supervising Social Workers, creating a highly skilled, trained and motivated team.
• Safeguard the children and young people in our care, including support to the Registered Manager within the monitoring of Schedule 6/7 matters and when appropriate, to have delegated responsibility for liaising with Ofsted on these matters.
• Demonstrate excellent communication and engagement skills in developing, managing and strengthening the customer relationship with key LA customers.
• Have a relevant professional qualification in social work and be Social Care England (or equivalent) registered.

The benefits of joining Compass Fostering

• Career Development – We offer many career paths, recognising hard work & supporting you into senior roles.
• Competitive Salary – using structured pay grades based on your training and experience.
• Car Allowance – £100 p/m car allowance to allow you to work flexibly from different locations.
• Wellbeing – Access to therapeutic wellbeing sessions with our Therapeutic Services team.
• Bonuses – receive £200 service award on your two-year anniversary, plus up to £500 special recognition service for outstanding practice.
• Medicash – Cashback for various medical appointments & treatments with MediCash.
• Life Assurance Scheme – 3 x annual salary after successful completion of your probation review.
• Increased Holiday – 27 days (including birthday and wellbeing day) increasing gradually to 30 hours after 4 years’ service.

The recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be appointed subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

The Compass Community values equality and diversity across our workforce and aims to ensure our staff community is reflective of the diversity of the children and young people within our care. In support of this commitment, we welcome applications from individuals of Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.

< Return to jobs

Are you an experienced Social Work Manager looking for career progression and a new opportunity to progress to senior management?

Compass Fostering are recruiting for a Head of Fostering to join and lead our experienced and successful team of Operations Managers and Social Workers plus support staff to ensure that the children and young people in our care reach their full potential.

You will be based at our Leicester office and will be responsible for our Central region.

At Compass Fostering we strive to create a supportive and solution based environment which uses a therapeutic approach to operations and management. The successful candidate will share our commitment to making a positive and lasting difference to the lives of the children and young people, making Compass Fostering a progressive and ambitious working environment.

You will be responsible for leading the team of social workers, offering support and training to social workers with a focus on producing a high performing region, offering operational excellence, financial performance and to effectively deliver the organisational business plan.

You will be working closely with the Asst Director of Fostering who is focused on finding a real “people person” who is prepared to manage in a therapeutic and supportive manner with a focus on the potential and ability of the team in place.

Whilst based at our Leicester office, regional travel is part of the role to support your team and national travel will be required to visit other Compass offices. A car and a valid driving licence are essential to the role. You will be paid an annual car allowance to facilitate this.

Your new role will involve you working towards KPI’s focused on growth and carer recruitment and retention, all the time offering outstanding care with the best possible outcomes for the children as the main priority, ensuring that the child protection and safeguarding practices and fully embedded.

You are required to have a relevant Social Work Degree.

Benefits Include

• Competitive Salary, 55-67k pa, plus car allowance
• Contributory pension scheme
• Performance bonus
• Medicash
• Employee Assistance programme
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, and an additional day for your birthday!
• Variety of opportunities for career development.

The recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be appointed subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

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We are currently hiring 2 Supervising Social Workers to join our Bolton team

Are you passionate about making a positive, lasting difference to children and young people’s lives?

Do you want to work for a leading and progressive national independent fostering agency? Or perhaps you’re a social worker looking for their next challenge. If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!

We have a brilliant opportunity for 2 knowledgeable and experienced social workers to join our Compass Fostering family in Bolton. You’ll share our commitment to delivering high quality focussed services for children, young people and support our foster parents to do this too.

About us: Compass Fostering
Compass Fostering is a part of our wider community, providing fostering, residential, educational and therapeutic services for the young people in our care.

We are a child centred service, putting the wellbeing of our children and young people at the front and centre of everything we do. Compass adopts a REACH (Resilience, Education, Acceptance, Child-centred and Holistically) approach that is a framework based on resilience theory, attachment theory and aspects of social pedagogy. We believe that this helps us to provide bespoke, consistent and therapeutic care for all the children whilst supporting our staff and foster carers to ensure each individual child has the best possible outcome.

Supervising Social Worker Role Requirements and Responsibilities
You will be a registered social worker seeking to apply and expand your existing skills and knowledge in our child centred organisation. It is essential that you:
• Have an approach that is reflective and creative when working with our foster carers and young people to inspire them to reach their full potential
• Can manage your own caseload of typically 13 fostering families, giving support and guidance when necessary and help them to develop their skills.
• Committed to provide wrap around support to our foster carers by participating in an out of hours on call service.
• Passionate and want to actively contribute to the growth and development of the Fostering service.
• Have a Diploma in Social Work (DipSW) or equivalent.
• Be Social Work England (SWE) registered.
• Have worked in a fostering related social work role and /or child social care, such as a looked after children’s team.
• Have experience and can demonstrate evidence of identifying the needs of young people.
• Have a good knowledge of fostering regulations, childcare law and safeguarding issues.
• Have the ability to make objective professional assessments of children and young people.
• Have access to a car and a valid driving licence.

Travelling for the role is required so you can support your foster carers across . South/SE/East London and Surrey Travelling times will vary, and you will be expected to travel up to 1.5 hrs in your area. You will work from home but will also be required to attend meetings at other Compass offices.

The benefits of joining Compass Fostering
We are looking for applicants who share our vision and values and who truly believe in the principles of excellent social work and inclusivity.
In return for this, we offer:
• A competitive salary.
• A contributory pension scheme.
• 26 days holiday (including your birthday day), and Bank holidays.
• Excellent opportunities for career development in our growing service.
• Team days out and staff engagement activity days.
• Access to Perkbox, including exclusive perks, freebies and discounts.
• Wellbeing of our staff is vital; you will have access to the Employee Assist Programme.

Our recruitment process aims to create and maintain a safe workforce and contains robust vetting procedures. The successful applicants will be offered a role subject to satisfactory references and an enhanced DBS check. Please note that Compass reserves the right to close this vacancy early upon receipt of sufficient applications.

< Return to jobs

At Families Fostering we have several weekly fostering blogs running, from a writers that come from a variety of different backgrounds to show you what it’s like to be a foster carer, including the highs and the lows.

Parenting, Identity & Race – by Brad
A Week In The Life Of A Male Foster Carer – by Batch
A Day In The Life Of A Female Foster Carer – by Tabatha
A Single Male Foster Carer’s Blog – by Col

We also have several one-off fostering blogs:

Every Journey Starts With A Single Step – Paul’s Story
Diary Of A Daughter Whose Family Foster – by Alicia, age 9