About us

This position is exclusively open to current fostering service staff working within our nine Foster4 Local Authorities: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington, and Wirral.

Foster4 is a pioneering foster carer recruitment service. Based at Warrington Borough Council’s offices, we are a collaborative Hub, recruiting and assessing foster carers on behalf of nine Cheshire and Merseyside Local Authorities: Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington and Wirral.

The role

 We are seeking a meticulous, motivated Team Manager to join Foster4, our highly regarded regional foster carer recruitment hub. As our Quality Assurance Manager, you will take direct responsibility for the oversight, compliance, and quality of all prospective foster carer assessments, ensuring every assessment is robust, evidence-based, and primed for panel approval.

What's needed?

You will play a key role to shape and be involved in an innovative, sector-leading assessment team. Day-to-day, you will lead the quality assurance framework for the assessment team, auditing fostering assessments, streamlining the regional assessment pipeline, and embedding best-practice benchmarks across the entire footprint. Your oversight will ensure excellent outcomes for children, young people, and foster families by maintaining flawless compliance with regulatory standards. While based primarily at Warrington Borough Council, you will work flexibly and travel throughout the broader Cheshire and Merseyside region as required. You will also manage a team of assessing social workers.

You must have a proven track record of motivated leadership alongside deep, specialised knowledge of fostering regulations, national minimum standards, and quality assurance frameworks within a Local Authority environment. Your analytical mindset, strong editing skills, and confident communication style will enable you to mentor assessing social workers, constructively challenge practice, and manage complex stakeholder relationships. Because this role covers a broad collaborative footprint, you must also possess a genuine passion for best practice and the flexibility to travel regionally across our nine Local Authority partners if required.

Benefits

As well as a competitive salary, working for us means you get:

• 26 days annual holiday - raising to 31 after 5 years of service (pro-rata)
• Access to our attractive and competitive benefits package
• Access to our Health & Wellbeing Programme

Further Information

The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.

DBS clearance is required.

If you are applying for the job internally, please ensure that you apply via the Careers Page on SAP, however if you are applying for an additional job you would need to apply externally.

If you are a permanent WBC employee you will need to apply for this fixed term position as an internal secondment opportunity and will need to discuss this with your current line manager prior to applying.

In accordance with Home Office guidance, successful candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK before commencement of employment. Sponsorship is not available for this role; therefore, you must have the right to work in the UK to be eligible for appointment.

Warrington Borough Council is a Disability Confident employer