Therapeutic Fostering Practitioner

Therapeutic Fostering Practitioner

• Salary: £14,263 - £14,910 per annum, depending on qualifications

Maximum full time job rate potential is £15,556 per annum, performance related

• Hours: Part time (15 hours per week)

• Location: Flexible working across East Anglia - currently Norwich based- however hybrid working opportunities are promoted

Why Break?

At Break we invest in the future of our staff just as we do for the young people in our services. We strive to provide the highest quality of care, so whether you’re just starting your career in children’s social care or are already qualified, you’ll be supported, recognised and rewarded for your essential part in our vital work.

About us:

We are a small, values-led therapeutic fostering agency committed to providing long-term, stable homes for children and young people. Everything we do is grounded in trauma-informed care and built on the principles of DDP and PACE. We work systemically — not just with children, but with their families, foster carers, and wider support networks — to create meaningful, lasting change.

We care deeply about outcomes, relationships, and creating a safe, connected environment for everyone involved in a child’s journey.
 

About the Wider Organisation:

You’ll be joining an organisation that is deeply rooted in values and relationship-based practice. We support children and young people on the edge of care, in care, and leaving care, walking alongside them for as long as they need us — often into adulthood and beyond. We believe in a lifelong offer of support, not just short-term intervention.

Our values are central to everything we do:

• We are all about relationships – we put connection at the heart of our work.
• We are here when it matters most – we show up, stay present, and offer consistency.
• We are curious about the world around us – we listen deeply, reflect, and seek to understand.
• We challenge to encourage change – we speak up, advocate, and push for better when it’s needed.

These values guide how we work with children, families, carers, professionals — and each other.
 

About the Role:

As our Therapeutic Practitioner, you’ll be the emotional anchor of our fostering community. You’ll bring clinical insight, relational depth, and trauma-informed understanding to a team committed to healing and growth. Your role is to nurture the nurturers — supporting staff to embed therapeutic principles in their work with foster carers, and offering carers dedicated 1:1 spaces for reflection, guidance, and emotional containment.

You’ll help foster carers make sense of the fostering task through a trauma lens — exploring the impact of early adversity on children’s behaviours, and empowering carers to respond with empathy, consistency, and attuned care. You’ll also be a reflective partner to staff, helping them hold complexity, manage emotional labour, and stay grounded in the values of therapeutic fostering.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the emotional climate of a service, influence how therapeutic care is delivered, and cultivate a culture where relationships are central, carers feel truly supported, and children’s healing is possible. If you lead with curiosity, compassion, and clinical clarity — this role will speak to your heart.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Working with Foster Parents

• Facilitate individual therapeutic parenting sessions in carers’ homes and at our offices
• Lead a monthly therapeutic support group for foster carers
• Co-facilitate services for children who foster, supporting their emotional wellbeing
• Deliver trauma-nurture timeline sessions with multi-disciplinary teams
• Provide therapeutic input during Form F assessments, helping assess emotional readiness and relational capacity
• Attend agency events to build trust and connection with carers and families

Working with Staff

• Offer 1:1 case consultation to staff, supporting therapeutic thinking and emotional resilience
• Participate in weekly team reflection sessions, helping embed trauma-informed practice across the service
• Support staff during assessments and attend key meetings such as care reviews and Team Around the Family discussions

Working in the System

• Deliver training workshops to carers and staff on trauma, attachment, and therapeutic parenting
• Contribute to service development groups, shaping policy and practice
• Help embed children and young people’s voice and participation into the service, including wishes and feelings work
• Design and deliver needs-led training, responding to emerging themes and challenges

What We’re Looking For:

• A qualification in psychotherapy, counselling, social work, psychology, or related field

• Experience working with children and families impacted by trauma
• A strong understanding of attachment, developmental trauma, and therapeutic parenting approaches
• Confidence in facilitating groups and reflective spaces
• A collaborative spirit and commitment to relational practice
• Flexibility to travel across the service area

It would be great if you also have:

• Registration with Social Work England as a qualified social worker.
• Training or certification in DDP, PACE, or other therapeutic models.
• Experience in leading or working within a therapeutic fostering or specialist service.

In your role, you’ll have access to the following benefits:

• Free, career-enhancing qualifications

• A “golden hello” scheme welcoming you to our services, with £500 paid to you one month after your start date and a second £500 at the six-month mark.  (Not available to candidates referred by recruitment agencies) (Subject to conditions)

• A referral scheme offering the same two payments as the golden hello if you recommend a contact who goes on to be employed by Break in care services. (subject to conditions)

• Annual leave purchase

• Additional service-related holiday from 2 years

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Company funded medical cash plan

• Enhanced sick pay and family friendly leave

• Pension salary sacrifice

• Life assurance to the value of 3x your annual salary

• Access to the Blue Light benefits platform enabling you to access discounts across a range of shops, venues and services (your membership fee will be reimbursed)

• Access to multiple Wellbeing initiatives

• The opportunity to influence Break’s strategy and direction through our Staff Consultation Forum

• Cycle to Work and Tech scheme

• And more

Full details of the role, including a job description and person specification can be found within the ‘documents’ section.

If you would like to develop your career and make a real difference in a child or young person’s life, use the ‘apply now’ button to be taken to our application site.

We reserve the right to interview suitable candidates as they apply. This means the role may close at short notice and without prior warning.

Additional Information

People are our biggest asset in our organisation. We recognise that the key to providing the highest quality of care is to ensure we have a diverse workforce using their life experiences to give the children and young people a well-rounded right start in life. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.

The first interview will be a Safe Care/ Warner style interview. If successful after the first interview, candidates will then be expected to attend a formal interview.

An enhanced DBS check is required for the role.  This will be funded by Break.

To comply with OFSTED requirements, you will be asked to provide details of your full employment history. 

We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that candidates may need during the application or recruitment process.  If there are adjustments you would like to request, please contact contactrecruitment@break-charity.org.  We also offer reasonable adjustments in the workplace.

To comply with the Immigration Asylum & Nationality Act 2006 and additional amendments, and UKVI requirements, all prospective employees will be asked to supply evidence of eligibility to work in the UK. We will ask to see and take a copy of an appropriate official document as set out in the UKVI guidelines. Do not send anything now, further information will be sent to you should you be invited to interview.

For more information on this job opportunity, please initially email the Recruitment Team via contactrecruitment@break-charity.org

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