You are in the North East Click here if you need Yorkshire & East Midlands Team Fostering - A not for profit company Putting children's futures first.

• Salary We offer generous salary rates which are regularly reviewed by ourselves and bench-marked with other employers to ensure that we remain competitive. The salary includes an allowance for working on the out of hours duty rota.
• Car Allowance and Mileage (Where applicable) We pay £100 per month Car allowance and 0.35p per mile, up to 10,000 miles, for any mileage incurred for business reasons. Mileage after 10,000 miles is paid at a rate of 0.30p per mile.  For those staff who are not essential car users they will receive 0.45p per mile, for any mileage incurred for business reasons.
• Hours 37.5 hours per week, with some flexible working as required by the post.  We also offer the opportunity to work a 9 day fortnight, and TOIL for additional hours worked, in agreement with Line Managers.
  
  Team Fostering is committed to our employees maintaining a work life balance and this is regularly discussed during supervision to ensure that staff feel supported in achieving this.
• Out of Hours Duty All the Social Workers and Team Managers employed by Team Fostering participate in the Out of Hours Duty rota. The Director and Assistant Directors also provide a Senior duty rota, to be contactable for consultation as and when necessary.  
• Holidays We offer all staff 30 days annual leave each year, plus 8 Bank Holidays (pro-rata if part-time).
• Additional Benefits In addition to the statutory entitlements for Maternity Leave, Paternity leave and Adoption Leave, Team Fostering also provides Special Leave for those employees who have to look after dependents in an emergency eg a child or an elderly relative. You are allowed ‘reasonable’ time to deal with the emergency, and if longer time is required would be expected to agree this with a Line Manager.
• Pension We have a Contributory Pension Scheme in place for all employees, most employers contribute 5% to their pension which is matched by a 5% contribution from the Company. You can of course pay higher than 5% to secure yourself a better pension, but the Company contribution would remain as 5%.
  
  In the event of an employees death, the value of the pension fund is paid to the employees nominated beneficiary.
• Death in Service Also, in the event of an employees death, Team Fostering will pay the nominated beneficiary a sum equivalent to twice the deceased employees annual salary.
• Loyalty Bonus A payment of £250 is made to every employee on the 5^th anniversary of them joining Team Fostering and every five years thereafter.
• Sick PayTeam Fostering offers a generous company sick pay scheme for staff who are unable to attend work due to unavoidable sickness absence, and who follow the set down notification and certification procedure.
• Childcare Vouchers This voucher scheme is available to all employees. Under the scheme, parents can take advantage of reduced Tax and National Insurance and make savings when they purchase vouchers to pay for registered childcare for children under 16 years of age.
• Eye Care Team Fostering will fund the cost of an eye test for those members of staff who use display screen equipment. This may be claimed every 2 years. If you require glasses in order to use display screen equipment, Team Fostering will provide up to £50 towards the cost of glasses.
• Team Fostering is an ‘Investors in People’ Employer Team Fostering retained its ‘Investors in People’ Award when it was received in March 2009. The Inspector wrote that:
  
  “There is excellent team working and collaboration amongst staff within teams, and all of those interviewed spoke positively about the support, help and advice they receive from colleagues and managers, both within their own team and from across other parts of the organisation.
  
  Support for training and development is excellent, and the programme of training offered to Foster Carers is well structured and planned to provide sufficient guidance, training and advice to newly recruited carers and these with significant experience.
  
  Communication and consultation processes are very effective, and many examples were provided of the opportunities available to suggest ideas for improvement or new practice through meetings and ongoing contact with the Senior Management Team.
  
  The HR Manager has established effective processes for training and development, and records are accurately maintained and updated to ensure all staff has access to relevant training and development as identified within the supervision and appraisal processes.
  
  All of those interviewed had an excellent understanding of the aims and vision of Team Fostering and were able to express, in their own words, how they contributed to the success of the organisation”.
  
  Team Fostering is now working towards the ‘Gold Investors in People’ award for 2012.
• Learning & Development Team Fostering is keen to develop its own staff to a high standard, and many of our employees have been with us for many years. As we have grown as a company we have encouraged existing employee’s development to enable them to fill more senior positions.  We have a strong culture of:
  
  - Accessing a wide range of internal and external training courses, to promote learning and development, including professional qualifications
  
  - Annual appraisals and reviews to assist and enable personal development, and to form individual development plans
  
  - Team building events and annual planning days
• Positive about Disability Team Fostering has been awarded the ‘Disability’ symbol. It’s recognition from the Job Centre Plus to employers in Great Britain who have agreed to take action to meet the five commitments regarding the employment retention, training and career development of disabled employees.
  
  We agree to:
  
  - Interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities
  
  - Ensure there is a mechanism in place to discuss, at any time, but at least once a year, with disabled employees what can be done to make sure they can develop and use their abilities
  
  - To make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure that they stay in employment
  
  - To take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make these commitments work
  
  - We will review, on a yearly basis, how these 5 commitments have been achieved, plan ways to improve and inform employees and the Job Centre Plus about our progress and future plans.

If you require any further information about any of the above points, or would like to discuss any other queries, please phone the relevant office in your area where someone will be available to speak to you.

We look forward to hearing from you.