Family Support Worker - Keeping in Touch Team, Adoption Counts

Family Support Worker - Keeping in Touch Team, Adoption Counts
Scale 5 (£28,598 - £31,022)
37 Hours, Full Time
Temporary (12 months)
Hybrid: Etrop Court, Wythenshawe and homeworking

Application Deadline: 13th April 2026 11:59pm
Please be aware that we may close this vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Shortlisting Date: 14th April 2026
Interview Date: 20th/21st April 2026
Interview Type: In person

While we embrace the use of AI as an innovative tool to maximise our services at Stockport Council, we are looking for authenticity in applications we receive. We therefore ask you to think carefully if choosing to use AI when completing your application and ask that you ensure you read all instructions carefully and that your application is written by you and reflects your skills, knowledge and enthusiasm.

Join us at Stockport Council MJ Local Authority of the Year 2025

Your Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Adoption Support Team at Adoption Counts to support birth families and adopters to participate in direct / indirect contact through a Letterbox exchange as a way of promoting the child’s identity, across the Regional Adoption Agency area.

You will also have the opportunity to deliver family support to adoptive families living within our region to ensure the child’s needs are at the centre of our work. This will include undertaking some direct work sessions with children and parents.

Adoption Counts is a Regional Adoption Agency covering Manchester, Stockport, Cheshire East, Trafford and Salford.

About You

We are seeking to appoint someone who has a good understanding of the issues faced by children who have suffered trauma and the qualities needed in adoptive families to meet those needs. You should be a good communicator, a team player and be passionate about achieving positive outcomes for children.

About Us

Adoption Counts is a Regional Adoption agency, delivering adoption services in Cheshire East, Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Trafford local authorities. The agency was one of 5 national demonstrator projects and was the second agency to go “live” in July 2017 and continues to play a lead role in national developments and have strong links with the DFE. Covering a large geographical area, we function in a hub and spoke model. Hub functions such as recruitment, marketing, performance management, panel management and finance are based in Wythenshawe. The area is then covered from three geographical spokes - the northern spoke being in Salford, central in Wythenshawe, and south based in Wythenshawe and Middlewich.

Adoption Support social workers and family support workers are based in Wythenshawe at Etrop Court. We offer a high level of management support while challenging ourselves to provide services that strive to be the very best.

Stockport local authority is the host agency and employ staff, so employees therefore benefit from all Stockport terms and conditions.

If you are passionate about adoption, work to the highest standards and want to join a forward-thinking agency, then this is an exciting opportunity not to be missed.

At Stockport Council we are one ambitious team on a mission to create opportunities for everyone who lives, works and spends time in the borough. Working at Stockport Council means contributing to one of the most thriving towns in the North. We’re keen to recruit people with the right values and behaviours that can help us ensure our workplace values are at the heart of everything we do.

We are proud to be recognised under the Good Employment Charter as an organisation committed to the wellbeing of our colleagues. As members of the charter, we have been recognised as a great place to work for all colleagues and pledge to pay the real living wage, engage staff in key decisions and endorse fair and flexible working conditions.

If you would like to find out more about the role please contact Melissa Ruffy on melissa.ruffy@adoptioncounts.org.uk or Alice Taylor on alice.taylor@adoptioncounts.org.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

The successful applicant’s appointment will be subject to satisfactory pre-employment clearances including a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Stockport Council holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not currently qualify.

Please note that we have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers and ex-military personnel. As part of the Guaranteed Assessment Scheme you will therefore be guaranteed to be shortlisted for Assessment if you meet both the criteria for the scheme and the essential job role criteria.

Find out if you meet the criteria here: https://www.greater.jobs/our-guaranteed-assessment-scheme

Privacy Notice

Eligible at-risk employees are entitled to have their applications considered ahead of internal employees in line with the Council’s Recruitment and Selection Policy. At risk employees are either employees in the last three months of their fixed term contract, or those who have been notified in writing that they are at risk by Human Resources following an employee consultation meeting. Employees wishing to be considered as an at-risk applicant are requested to email recruitment@stockport.gov.uk to inform Human Resources. At risk applications are only permitted for opportunities at the employees’ current grade or grades below.