Barnardo's Adoption Midlands and South West has an exciting vacancy for a Social Worker to join its Service covering work predominantly in the Midlands, East & West. You will be joining an experienced and stable staff group who embrace working in a creative, open and transparent manner with adopters, to provide children with permanence in a family who understand the lifelong nature of adoption and the impact of issues such as developmental trauma, attachment and neuroscience.
As a Social Worker you have the chance to make a real difference in the lives of Children, Young People and Families by:
- Recruiting, assessing and approving a diverse range of adoptive families to meet the needs of waiting children
- Matching the needs of children nationwide with the skills of appropriate adopters
- Ensuring all adopters have access to excellent training, guidance and support when they require it, including managing ongoing contact with birth family
- Working directly with adoptive families promoting a trauma informed approach and helping build and maintain family relationships
- Being part of Barnardo's undertaking to children, young people and adopters to continuously learn and improve
If you have a passion and drive to make a positive difference to children and adopters we would like to hear from you.
This vacancy is for a qualified Social Worker who is registered with SW England or is able to register with SW England.
The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK and have use of a car and business use insurance. Barnardo's is, however, willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.
The applicant will need to be able to participate in an "Helpline" rota Out of Office hours. There is additional remuneration for providing this service.
Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work life balance we therefore offer flexible working arrangements as the role involves some evening/weekend working and travel with occasional overnight stays.
When completing the application please refer to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the Service described.
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)
- Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's apply based on contract
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
- Reference number:23190
- Job Title:Adoption Social Worker
- Location:Adoption Central & SW
- Contract type:Permanent
- Hours:37
- Salary:37,156 - 42,244
- Closing Date:12 July 2026
- Interview Date:28/07/2026