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Our mission is to create brighter futures for children and young people. We do this by providing fostering, residential and support services where children and young people can feel safe and cared for. We support them to make positive relationships which give them the confidence to succeed.
This Foster Care Fortnight #FCF2024 – Find out about Jennie’s role as a Fostering Recruitment Lead for St Christopher’s and our ambition to support even more children and young people
Why did you want to work at St Christopher’s?
I wanted to work for an organisation where I felt I could make an impact, the fact that St Christopher’s is also not-for-profit was also a real bonus. I think the values that the organisation holds are similar to my own and I believe that we are making a difference to children’s lives.
What do you enjoy about your job?
As one of the new recruitment leads I have so far really enjoyed learning some new skills, working with new people within the organisation and the opportunity that the role entails. I love to share my passion for fostering and I love to assess people, this role is allowing me to do both. I am bursting with ideas, which I am being able to express and some of them being implemented which is really exciting. Being a social worker means every day is different and that for me is one of the things I love the most.
What other development opportunities have you had?
I have continued to maintain my own Continuous Professional Development (CPD) as a social worker by attending briefings and training courses relevant to fostering recruitment and assessment. I have been able to spend time with our Marketing team to learn more about communications, which has been really rewarding and definitely an area I wish to continue to develop. As a fostering service we have development days where we can spend the whole day focusing on an aspect of social work, these are really great because both the Eastern Region and West Midlands team meet together to discuss developing our service and ourselves.
What is next in your career?
I really enjoy assessing families so I am hopeful to be able to continue with that. I think that the fostering recruitment role is great at St Christopher’s, so I hope I can help shape the role and be part of helping St Christopher’s to continue to develop a strong and robust fostering service with a lasting legacy.
What would you say to someone interested/ looking to join the profession?
Social work is a hard profession. I qualified in 2009 and prior to that I was working in youth offending. I love being a social worker and I have been really fortunate to have had a really varied and rewarding career so far. I started working for a local authority, supporting young people leaving care and then I worked with children in care from 0 to 18. After that I have specialised into fostering over the last 5 years and I feel I have definitely found a passion. Social work is a great profession and I definitely recommend it.
Find out more about job roles with us or reach out if you are inspired to find out more about fostering and making a real difference to young people in need.