Current jobs related to Adoption Agency Advisor - Shefford - Central Bedfordshire Council

**Team**:COP - Adoption Panels

**Job Family**: Enabling (M) CBG13
**Salary**:£46,660 - £50,584 per annum, pro rata
**Hours**:25 Hours per week

**Base Location**:Working from home and any CBC offices, including Priory House, Shefford. You will be expected to attend a CBC office location on a monthly basis, and as needed to carry out your role

**Contract Type**:Hybrid
- Permanent
**Closing Date**:3rd April 2023
**Interview Date**:To be confirmed

**About Us**

Central Bedfordshire is an ambitious authority, determined to be an exemplary one. Our strategic location and high quality of life mean we are one of the fastest growing areas in the country.

As a council we face the same challenges every business does - investing in the right places and delivering great results. Except for us, it’s all about our 289,000 residents. We’re totally focussed on helping to improve their lives and making Central Bedfordshire a great place to live and work.

We have set values and principles to represent the way we work and how we operate as an organisation. You can view a list of these in detail on our website.

This is a great time to join us on our journey

**More about the role**:
In Children’s Services and Adoption Connects, we’re determined to safeguard and protect vulnerable children and achieve great outcomes. Adoption Connects is the regional adoption agency for Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes City Councils. The agency role is to recruit, assess, prepare and support prospective adopters who are able to provide placement choice and high quality care to children who require adoption. The service provides adoption support to families and adults to enable them to live well and have positive, healthy realtionships. It’s all about creating better outcomes and a bright new generation for our community. Help children to thrive by supporting adoptive families, and you could find your greatness.

The Panel Advisor has a key quality assurance role in the adoption service, with overall responsibility for quality assurance and management of the adoption panel and process.

Together with the Adoption Panel Chair, they have responsibility for ensuring that appropriately experienced and qualified panel members are recruited, inducted and receive adequate training and appraisals.

They also work alongside managers of social work teams to advise on quality assurance, and act as a influebcers of good and well informed adoption practice. Leading on the delivery of good practice they undertake audits so that best practice is delivered consistently across teams and continuously improved.

We are looking for a registered and qualified social worker who is passionate about improving outcomes for looked after children coupled with a sound understanding of the regulatory/statutory framework for adoption and substantial post qualification adoption experience.

To succeed in this role you should be well organised, able to challenge constructively in order to achieve and retain outstanding standards at all times, have excellent communication skills and able to demonstrate effective partnership working with a variety of stakeholders.

A good understanding of safeguarding is also required.

**What we can offer you**

As well as joining a friendly, dedicated, and hardworking team you will have access to numerous benefits, including:

- A hybrid working arrangement giving you the option to work from home and access any CBC office location. We recognise and value the importance of supporting our employees to balance their home and work life and to be able to work in the most efficient way.
- A £250 one-off hybrid worker payment to help you adapt your home for safe and suitable working conditions
- A comprehensive IT package to support you to work safely and effectively
- The ability to work abroad for up to a month a year
- Generous family friendly policies and practices
- A welcoming and inclusive environment that empowers differences
- Friendly and supportive staff networks
- Annual leave allowance 24 days + statutory holidays rising to 31 days with length of service.
- Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This is a valuable part of our rewards package for employees and includes Life Assurance. You can find out more on the Bedfordshire Pension Fund website.
- An exceptional Employee Assistance Programme which helps support employees with workplace changes as well as other work, family and personal issues
- A huge variety of courses and role-specific training and learning to help you succeed and develop
- Access to discounts on top UK retailers and local retailers

Central Bedfordshire Council has its own vision and values that are integral to everything we do. Our area vision is to make Central Bedfordshire 'A great place to live and work’.

Sustainability matters to us. We aim to lead by example in tackling climate change. Read more about the action we’re taking on our website: Climate change - tackling it and our str