Responsible Individual, ADM & Director
I am the Director of Beams Foster Care, establishing the fostering agency in 2013, I play an active daily part in Beams. I am the Responsible Individual and Agency Decision Maker. I qualified in 2005 and my social work career has been within areas where the focus is for children looked after.
I started my social work career for the local authority, having roles as social worker, assistant team manager and manager of Looked After Children teams.
I have a passion for ensuring children in foster care receive a high standard of care and can achieve their full potential, establishing Beams Foster Care enables me to put this into practice, working with the team at Beams to enable this to become a reality.
Team Manager
I am the Team Manager at Beams Foster Care, and recently joined the Team in February 2024. Prior to Beams, I worked as a Team Manager within a Child In Care Team for 5 years, and before that worked as an Assistant Team Manager, Practice Consultant and Senior Social Worker within a Local Authority, my career as a Social Worker having started in 2014.
I have always felt very passionate about supporting children and families and my focus for the past 5 years has been to ensure that children in foster care receive a high standard of care conducive to their individual need and circumstances.
I was very excited to join the team at Beams and whilst I have lots of different jobs that I do here, my priority is to make sure that our foster carers have everything they need to support the children and young people in their care, so that they can thrive and reach their full potential
When I’m not working I like to spend time with my children, go for long walks and have a good catch up with friends
Senior Supervising Social Worker
I have been employed by Beams since July 2023. My role includes recruitment, undertaking Form F Assessments, supervising foster carers, delivering training and vice chairing annual reviews. Previous to Beams, I worked for the Local Authority for 8 years, as a Social Worker, Practice Consultant and Team Manager of a Child In Care Team.
In my spare time, I enjoy making memories with my family, reading, swimming and going abroad!
Senior Supervising Social Worker
I have been employed by Beams as a Senior Social Worker since March 2022. Qualifying in 2014, I have devoted my social work career to fostering, post adoption and post SGO services. Prior to my current role, I worked for 8 years as an Experienced Social Worker within fostering and post adoption services at a Local Authority. My role with Beams includes recruitment, facilitating training, supervision of foster carers and vice-chair of Fostering Panel.
Supervising Social Worker
I qualified as a social worker in 2019 and have worked in the Looked After Children’s Team for 2 local authorities. I joined Beams in July 2021 as a Supervising Social Worker. My roles include supervising foster carers, undertaking Form F Assessments for potential carers, sitting on the fostering panel as a non-independent member and delivering training to carers. I enjoy working as part of a small, supportive team and supporting our carers in being able to provide a high standard of care to vulnerable children, helping them to achieve to their best abilities.
Child and Family Practitioner
I have been a Child and Family Practitioner with Beams for 5 years. I have experience in education working in schools and early years settings before moving onto social care working for the local authority in the looked after children, life beyond care and early help teams. My role with Beams is varied and ranges from organising creative club for the children to providing foster carers with tools and strategies to help them along the way. In my spare time I enjoy watching my sons play football and spending time with my family and friends.
Business and Panel administrator
I have been with Beams since September 2020 and my role is Panel and Business Administrator. I have 3.5 years’ experience working in admin, my previous role was working in an accountants and I have some experience within a finance role. I have also completed training on my role as a panel administrator. I co-ordinate all the administration for Beams which requires being able to multitask, be organised, plan ahead and be a good team player. In my spare time I love to be with my family and friends, long walks with my dog Obi and taking my little nephew on days out
Duty and Finance Co-Ordinator
My name is Emily Sims, I have over 20 years’ experience in the caring profession and more recently working in childcare.
I have been working at Beams for over two years taking on the finance role, duty work and health and safety. I have undertaken computer courses and this year I have completed an AAT course in bookkeeping and business skills.
In my spare time I like spending time with my daughter and family and taking our dog Ruby out for walks.