Brokerage Officer

Salary £25,979-£29,777 Per annum | Fixed Term, Full Time, until 10/04/2026, 37 hours per week | Access to Resources Team (ART) - Preston |

**International Sponsorship **- this role is **not **open to international sponsorship

The Access to Resources Team (ART) at Lancashire County Council was established to source best value placements for Lancashire's children in care; managing the provider market to meet placement need; and providing quality data/analysis to identify trends and gaps in provision.

ART sits in Start Well, Policy, Commissioning and Children's Health and its key roles are to:
Find fostering, residential and supported accommodation/independent living placements.

Take ownership of the 'business side' of children's social care by acting as a broker between professionals and the market to find the right placement for vulnerable CYP.

Finding creative solutions to source more complex placements.

Obtaining the best quality and value for money placements for children in care - ensuring the best possible match and the optimum use of Local Authority resources.

Providing an effective ‘knowledge hub’ for a range of professionals and managers working with children and families, about the market for support services.

Ensure effective management of the market by shaping the market to better meet need.

Ensuring effective contract monitoring and reporting arrangements are in place to provide best outcomes and value for money.

Support the Local Authority to establish a more effective strategic overview of demand and meet its sufficiency duty by providing quality data/ analysis on the current and likely needs of our CLA.

Providing intelligence to inform effective commissioning arrangements to ensure the right range of placements are available at the right price to meet need.

ART is now seeking to appoint to the following role within the team: Brokerage Officer

The Brokerage Officer role involves:

- Working with Children's Social Care and Providers to make residential and fostering placements.
- Screening and quality assuring individual placement requests, with a focus on ensuring requests are anonymised, up-to-date, accurate, and balanced, with an accurate description of the strengths of the young person, to maximise choice of placements.
- Ensuring that all placements are made according to current agreed processes.
- Ensuring that placement searches are prioritised based on the need.
- Communicating with providers when placement offers are not received and thinking creatively to identify and source appropriate placements.
- Ensuring that all information relating to placement searches is appropriately recorded in the relevant spreadsheets and folders.

Skills required.
- Attention to detail.
- IT skills using Word, Outlook, Excel and LCS
- Communication with a range of stakeholders, including Children's Social Care and Providers.
- Problem solving skills, including finding creative solutions.
- Negotiating skills to achieve positive outcomes when searching for placements.
- Able to manage a busy workload and balance conflicting demands.
- Being able to work under pressure and prioritise well.
- Being the key link between providers and CSC to broker placements.
- Working well as a team to assist with each other's caseloads when needed.
- Dealing with difficult situations Reflective thinking and continuous learning.

**Please ensure you have uploaded and attached your supporting statement to evidence how you meet the criteria for the role. The panel may be unable to shortlist you for interview without this evidence.
In return Lancashire County Council offers a range of benefits, which can be found on LCC Vacancies website.

Job Description & Person Specification