Recruitment & Social Work Administrator - Kent Office - England - Fostering Together Ltd

Description

Job Vacancy: Recruitment & Social Work Administrator (full-time)

Due to the growth of our community, we are looking to recruit an Administrator to join our family-focused specialist service. This role is ideally suited to someone at the start of their career, or looking to gain experience in social care or HR administration within an organisation dedicated to supporting children with disabilities and complex medical needs.

Don't just take our word for it - one of our foster carers recently said:

"The Fostering Together Family is a wonderful team of like minded people who come together to change children's lives. They genuinely change lives every single day with the direct and indirect work carried out."

We have a new opportunity within our Operations team for a motivated and organised Administrator to join our fostering service.

This role plays a key part in ensuring that everyone working with and alongside our fostering families is safely recruited, properly checked and well supported. The successful candidate will coordinate recruitment and compliance processes for wider members of our foster family community, including Support Workers, Panel members and Independent Social Workers, ensuring that all required checks, references and documentation are completed, verified and recorded accurately on FosterKit, our internal case management system.

Alongside recruitment activity, this role will also provide general social work administration support to our frontline Social Work teams, and contribute to the smooth running of the Support Work service. This includes maintaining accurate records on FosterKit, supporting supervision and monitoring processes of support workers, and ensuring reports and documentation are submitted in line with agency policy.

You will work closely with colleagues across the Operations and Social Work teams to learn and implement processes to ensure safe, compliant and well‑organised services for children with disabilities and their foster families.

You will be part of an aspirational fostering team where you will uphold the core values and beliefs of the organisation and contribute to the growth and development of the agency. This includes ensuring that children and young people with disabilities are supported to live in safe, nurturing and stable family homes.

The ideal candidate will be confident, highly organised, and comfortable working with sensitive information, external stakeholders and competing priorities in a fast‑paced, office‑based environment.

This role will suit an administrator at the early stages of their career who is interested in developing experience in administration, HR, data management or social care. They will also be someone who has a genuine interest in working within a social work and fostering environment.

Key responsibilities

• Support the recruitment and onboarding of Support Workers, Panel members and Independent Social Workers, including providing regular updates to the prospective staff as well as our Managers and Social Workers.
• Coordinate safer recruitment processes including DBS checks, Local Authority social care database enquiries, references and identity verification.
• Request, verify and file references and statutory documentation accurately on FosterKit.
• Maintain up-to-date, compliant records for all sessional and independent staff.
• Provide general administrative and office support to the team.
• Support social work administration duties, ensuring compliance with fostering regulations, standards, guidance and best practice.
• Assist with the ongoing audit, chasing and filing of statutory documentation required for children and foster families.
• Maintain confidentiality and data protection principles.
• Provide cover for colleagues where required to ensure continuity of service.
• Provide general office support, including answering phone calls, greeting visitors, and assisting with day‑to‑day office maintenance and organisation, to ensure the smooth running of the Operations team.

The ideal candidate will have

• A good level of ICT skills, including experience of Microsoft Office applications.
• A willingness to learn and understand the statutory requirements for Safe Recruitment in Children's Services.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• A high level of attention to detail and accuracy.
• An understanding of the importance of confidentiality and data protection.

The ideal candidate will also be

• Organised and able to manage their workload.
• Reliable, conscientious and understanding of confidentiality.
• Flexible and adaptable.
• A positive team worker.
• Willing to continue learning about disabilities and inclusive communication.
• Skills
  • Strong administrative and organisational skills.
  • High attention to detail and accuracy in data handling.
  • Good written and verbal communication skills.
  • Confident ICT skills, including Microsoft Office and online systems.
  • Able to multitask with administration and work at high pace.
  • Professional telephone manner and confidence in chasing information sensitively.
  • Friendly, professional presence when representing Fostering Together at community and family events.
  • Comfortable engaging with children with disabilities in informal and structured settings (e.g. events, activities, groups).
• Knowledge
  • Understanding of confidentiality, GDPR and handling sensitive data.
  • Awareness of safeguarding principles and professional boundaries.
  • Basic understanding of safer recruitment processes in the social care sector.
• Experience
  • Educated to Level 2 / Level 3 standard (e.g. GCSEs / Functional Skills / A-Levels or equivalent), including English & Maths at Grade 4/C or above.
  • Some experience in an office, administrative, customer service, data entry role or other relevant transferrable experience.
  • Experience handling sensitive or personal information that requires confidentiality.
  • Experience using typical IT systems including Microsoft Office, databases or case management / HR systems.

Location, hours and remuneration

• Office based role - in the outskirts of Ashford, Kent.
• 37.5 hours per week.
• £24, £25,784.50* per annum with 25 days of paid holiday plus bank holidays, increasing to 30 days based on length of service.
• Private healthcare following a successful probation period.

*For candidates under 21, starting salary will align with the relevant National Minimum Wage rate.

Safeguarding statement

Fostering Together is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children and young people in our care. Successful candidates will be subject to pre‑employment checks including a Disclosure and Barring Service check, references, identity checks and qualification verification.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding means making sure children are safe, healthy and well cared for. It involves:

• Protecting children from abuse and neglect.
• Making sure their health and development are not harmed.
• Helping them grow up in safe, stable and caring families.
• Taking action when there are concerns about a child's welfare

Under the Children Act 1989, every organisation and professional working with children has a legal duty to put the child's welfare first and to take reasonable steps to protect them from harm.

Find out more

Please contact us today for more details, including a full job description and link to apply. Please outline your relevant experience and why you might be interested in joining the team

We reserve the right to interview and appoint prior to the closing date should a suitable candidate be identified. Early applications are therefore encouraged.