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Build a stronger future

Start a rewarding career in children's social care at Portsmouth City Council

Join us at the Compass Jobs Fair London 2024

  • Monday 25 November 2024
  • 9:30am - 4:30pm
  • London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square

Come along to the Compass Jobs Fair London 2024, the leading event for social work professionals. We'll be exhibiting on stand 9, showcasing everything that makes us #ProudToBePortsmouth.

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Supporting Your Futures Week 2024

Celebrating the achievements of Portsmouth's care experienced young people

Supporting Your Futures Week is a chance for young people to make friends and build connections in a safe space through fun activities.

Personal advisors and social workers have organised a series of events that recognise and celebrate the achievements of care-experienced young people.

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Why Stronger Futures?

Take that next step into children's social care and create a brighter future for families, young people and children in Portsmouth.

We are looking for social workers who want to be part of a team that make a difference every day. We recognise that social work is a rewarding but challenging career. To support you, we will invest in your professional development and your wellbeing.

If you are looking for an opportunity to work in an innovative local authority, Portsmouth City Council will support you every step of the way. Regardless of where you are in your career, we can help you reach your potential in children's social care.

MAKE YOUR MOVE

Be part of Team Portsmouth

Our team work across different disciplines and areas of children's social care. Each team member brings their own experiences to support the city's children, young people and families.

Dean who has worked in Portsmouth since 2019

Dean

4 years +
I have worked in Portsmouth since the creation of the family safeguarding adult team in 2019. I started as a family recovery worker, focusing on substance and alcohol misuse needs. Through training, I now work in the areas of domestic abuse, unhealthy relationship behaviour and mental health. I am proud to work at Portsmouth City Council within the children and families service.
Lauren who has worked in Portsmouth since 2017

Lauren

6 years +
I started working in Portsmouth within the central one locality team as a Social Worker in 2017. I completed my ASYE in this team and progressed to a higher-grade social worker in 2019. I became a team leader in July 2023 and manage the family support and safeguarding south team.
Karley - team leader managing the Battenburg Family Centre.

Karley

20 years +
I started working at Portsmouth City Council in the youth offending team as a social worker. I progressed and became a team leader managing the Battenburg Family Centre. In 2016, I developed the Stronger Futures Academy for newly qualified social workers which has been adopted by the children and families workforce.
Adam - a member of the frontline child protection team.

Adam

30 years +
I initially worked in residential care for older people transitioning to children's residential care, where I qualified as a social worker. I joined the frontline child protection team at Portsmouth City Council where I was seconded to work on a harmful sexual behaviour project. Since then, I have progressed to a senior practitioner, team manager and now head of service.

Explore your options

Children's services at Portsmouth City Council covers many areas and disciplines. Your future team could be in fostering or residential care. Explore what's possible and take a look at some of the opportunities available.

Building your futures team

Building your futures

Work with children and young people in the building your futures team to support individuals through long term fostering or reunification at home. Help young people prepare for independence prior to becoming care leavers as well as support those most at need into adulthood.

Safeguarding team

Safeguarding

Help maintain quality assurance and improvement in delivering services associated with the safeguarding of young people. From independent reviewing officers to child protection experts, the safeguarding team's role is both varied and essential.

Foster carer

Fostering

Help children find their forever home by helping us build relationships with Portsmouth's caring community. From completing assessments of prospective carers to providing supervision and support, the role is both challenging and rewarding. Through training and support, we encourage carers to develop through the fostering and social work teams enabling us to form stronger ties and relationships.

Prospective adopters

Adoption

Make an impact by assessing, matching and supporting adoptive parents for Portsmouth's children. By working with other partners, this dynamic team links those who want to make a difference with prospective adopters. The team also offer support services to children/carers where special guardianship orders have been made.

Workers in residential care

Children's homes

Start a rewarding career in care at one of three children's homes. The service supports children and young people from ages 5 - 18 years old. Each location is managed by experienced co-ordinators who support the most vulnerable young people in the city.

Harm and exploitation prevention team

Harm and exploitation

Work with children aged 10 - 17 years old on reducing offending and re-offending in Portsmouth. Help deliver restorative justice to support victims which is the preferred model of working across all children's services at Portsmouth City Council. Make a difference and help turn around a young person's life.

News from Stronger Futures

Get the latest information from Portsmouth City Council

What do Portsmouth children & families say about us?

Every February, the participation team undertake a survey to gather the views of children, parents, young people, care experienced and foster carers on the support they receive from Portsmouth City Council.

Feedback included:

"Really attentive and actually knows what’s happening in my life in terms of education, independence etc and does not just assume"

"Really pleased with the support offered. … responsive to our child's needs and very helpful supporting us to make decisions."

" Supportive service from the admin team right through to FPSW and managers. Proactive team overall."

" Whenever I need her, she’s available. Always listens to me and is a great support"

"It’s has completely changed my life the work I do with my safe guarding worker , she has improved my family in so many ways with the tools she has given us and we are now confident to challenge anything life throws at us and dealing with it the correct way"

Our partners

Portsmouth City Council works with different partners to support families across the city collaboratively to improve outcomes and build stronger communities.

Portsmouth City Council Logo
Diocese of Portsmouth Logo
Hampshire Constabulary Logo
Home Start Logo
NHS England Logo
NHS Solent NHS Trust Logo
Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust Logo
Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group NHS Logo
South Central Ambulance Service Logo
Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership Logo
National Probation Service Logo
Hampshire And Isle Of Wight Community Rehabilition Company Logo
Motiv 8 South Logo
Portsmouth Childrens Trust Logo

Making a stronger future together

Hear from our social workers who share their experiences supporting Portsmouth's children.

What makes Portsmouth such a great place to live and work

What makes Portsmouth such a great place to live and work.

  • I am an advocate for Portsmouth as a place to live as well as to work.
  • City's a very vibrant, busy city. There's lots to do. It's a small island, but there's a lot going on all the time.
  • Portsmouth has a lot to offer for young families, for children, for education, for recreation activities. So there's a lot as a young family that we enjoy doing in the city.
  • I hang out in Southsea mostly. Yeah, Southsea is my favourite place. I think it's really quirky. I think it's got a lot of different things in it. It feels like you're just in a different place when you enter Southsea. It's quite relaxed atmosphere. And being down on the green in the common. And I absolutely love going to the bandstand.
  • I think we've got a real good mixture of culture, but you know, we've got old Portsmouth, so we've got lots of things going on there but we've got Gunwharf, so we've got great shopping. And I think the best bit of it is, is living by the sea.
  • So there's lots of attractions in Portsmouth. There's lots of history. I like walking along the beach, along the sea front. There's Southsea Common, which has lots of events and things that you can attend. Just a vibrant city.
  • You've got places like All Saints, Foyer. You've got a lot of places that help care leavers in Portsmouth. And I think everyone's quite close together and it's quite tight run, do you know what I mean? So you sort of know everyone. I think that's why it's nice to work here.

Training and development opportunities in Portsmouth

Training and development opportunities available to social workers in Portsmouth.

  • We have access to research and practice which is a really useful tool to get current research in order to inform practice. There's lots of training available through Portsmouth City Council.
  • In Portsmouth, they have the Stronger Futures Academy. We're for all newly qualified social workers coming in. I remember doing it myself, I think it was the first year that it happened. It's a year's worth of training in everything to do with social work. So in university, you very much learn the theory, but it's about supporting theory into practice. So you get real knowledge on practically how to write, how to do a visit, how to act, how to communicate.
  • We post on, we have experts that come into the academy. So we would have somebody come in maybe from like Barnardo's. We have young people come in who are care leavers which is absolutely crucial to be informing social workers about what's their life been like having a social worker and actually, how can we improve our service to, because of their feedback. And their feedback is absolutely key to shaping our services and making things better for children and young families.
  • We do stay current, so we look at new models around the country, we develop our own, and we give social workers the opportunity to get involved in that and I think that makes it exciting.

Why social work is such a rewarding career

Why social work is such a rewarding career.

  • Because we want to make a difference. We, you know, we. It's challenging. It's, but it is rewarding. When you see families start to flourish and care leavers start to flourish, you get a sense of pride.
  • You work with a plethora of different areas of issues and concerns, and you can work with families in order to improve outcomes, and improve outcomes for children.
  • Working with the family as a whole and working with the network around the family. I think is really rewarding.
  • Getting to see the positive work has made a difference in reunifying that family and seeing the child then back with their parent and being safe and so happy. And, and looking at that situation after that work had happened, was one of the most rewarding things that I've been able to achieve. And that's what we strive to achieve.
  • Working with the families that we do, that, you know, they experienced some really tough times and it's really rewarding helping those families.
  • To form relationships with families and with colleagues. And that's a rewarding way to work. You know, that's, it's a holistic, rewarding way to spend my day.

The best thing about being a social worker

The best thing about being a social worker

  • So the best thing about being a social worker is supporting children and young people. And seeing change, even small change.
  • For me, it's working with children, it's working with families, it's working with professionals in the community. So it's that contact with people that I enjoy and value in my work.
  • You get to meet lots of different people. You get lots of different families, children. You get to work with them, provide interventions and support them in order to make positive change.
  • Because I did want to spend my time doing something that makes a difference, you know, that does motivate me. I want to feel that I matter and that I can be helpful and that I'm adding value.
  • I think the best thing about being a social worker is knowing that you actually make a real difference, whether that's for one or two people, but you are making a difference. I think you have to be very good at delayed gratification. So, you won't always see what you've done, but the knowledge that you might have made some child's life at least okay for a bit, and that as an adult, they will have a period to look back on and think, "I was helped then."

Start your journey with Stronger Futures

Our teams are passionate about what they do, ensuring Portsmouth's children, young people and families are supported. Explore your options at Portsmouth City Council.

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