Kinship Care Support Officer (Placement Support)

Job role:

To provide support services to kinship carers to promote placement stability and positive outcomes for children in care, and subject to special guardianship.

The Kinship Care Support Officer role supports key functions of the Kinship Care team including;

Facilitating Kinship carer support groups (including for carers of children who are transracially placed) and in person training

Support to carers from a diverse range of backgrounds at their home or by phone 

Support to children and young people living with Kinship foster carers, including taking them out to promote well-being. 

Promote placement stability for children placed with Brighton and Hove kinship foster carers.

Working in a way that shows an understanding the impact of racism and intergenerational trauma

The Kinship Care Support Officer (Placement Support) has lead responsibility for providing direct support to kinship foster placements, carers and children to help Kinship Care Team meet its objectives. This may include working on the holiday activity programme for Children in Care.

The Kinship Care Support Officer (Placement Support) will be based within a large and supportive Kinship Care Team. You will be provided with regular supervision including group supervision and access to training. 

This is an exciting post working both with children in care and their kinship carers to support them to enhance placement stability. The job is varied and requires a high degree of flexibility. Successful applicants will need a good understanding of the issues facing children in care and their kinship carers including the impact of early trauma throughout the young persons childhood. A proven ability to relate well to children and adults is essential as well as an understanding safeguarding issues and trauma. The Kinship Care Support Officers play a key role in the support package offered to kinship carers and the children they look after.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to complete your education and work history and provide answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional information


Company information
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).