Agency and Panel Adviser

Job description

We are currently seeking to recruit to a full time temporary Agency Adviser for One Adoption South Yorkshire (OASY), a partnership regional adoption agency providing adoption services for Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.

Initially the post will be for 3 months with the possibility of it being extended for a further period of up to 6 months. This post is open to employees from Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham only as part of the One Adoption South Yorkshire Partnership.

The person appointed should be a qualified social worker with at least 5 years post qualifying experience, preferably with some management experience.

You will be employed by Sheffield but will be based both in Moorfoot Building, Sheffield and Westgate, Barnsley. You will spend a minimum of one day a week based in each of those offices.

You will act as Agency Adviser to the Adoption Panels in both Sheffield and Barnsley, but on occasion may need to cover panels in Doncaster and Rotherham. You will provide advice to the adoption panel in relation to specific cases and more generally in terms of the agencies policies and procedures, raise any pertinent issues and provide regular updates to panel in relation to any cases it has considered.

You will work closely with your counterpart (who is based in Doncaster but covers Rotherham and Doncaster), to help ensure that consistent standards are met.

In addition to providing advice to panels you will provide advice to Agency Decision Makers (ADM) for OASY in relation to approvals recommended by panel.

The role involves quality assurance of all paperwork submitted to the ADM in respect of plans for children and all paperwork submitted to panel in respect of prospective matches. This will include liaising with social workers and team managers in respect of that paperwork to quality assure child permanence reports and adoption placement reports. You will also facilitate workshops on writing good quality CPRs and other relevant topics.

You will be responsible for the overall administration of Panels to ensure they run smoothly. This will include maintain the central list of Panel Members.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

Under the Disability Confident Scheme, disabled applicants, who meet the essential criteria of this job, are guaranteed an interview.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

**Job details**:
Job reference

REQ002697

Date posted

12/09/2024

Application closing date

24/09/2024

Location

Sheffield

Salary

Grade 9 (£44,428 to £48,474)

Package

Temporary to 07/02/2025 - (37 hours : split as 15 in Barnsley and 22 in Sheffield).

Contractual hours

37

Job category/type

Children's Social Work