Placements & Commissioning Officer

**Job details**:
Job reference

REQ4630

Date posted

18/10/2024

Application closing date

03/11/2024

Location

Halford House

Salary

£29,777- £32,076 Per Year

Package

Total benefit value (includes pension contribution and full holiday entitlement): £43,738.59

Contractual hours

37

Basis

Full time

Job category/type

Childrens Social Care

Attachments

Job Specification Placements & Commissioning Officer.pdf

**Placements & Commissioning Officer**:
Job description

Full Time / 37 Hours Per Week / Fixed Term for 2 years due to backfilling secondment

Are you an enthusiastic and resilient individual? Join our busy Placements & Commissioning Team to arrange and quality assure a wide range of foster, residential and semi-independent placements for children and young people in the care of Local Authority. The team consists of 3 Placements & Commissioning Officers, a Senior Placements & Commissioning Officer who are all overseen by a Team Manager.

This is a full time, fixed term position working 37 hours per week. Typical working hours at 8.30am-5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am-4.30pm on a Friday. However, on occasion you may be required to work unsocial hours based on the needs of the service. You’ll have flexibility in hybrid working being both office based (usually Tuesday and Wednesdays), at other locations (e.g. visiting placements) or working remotely from home to suit your needs.

**What you’ll be doing**

It’s not surprising that within this role you’ll be responsible for providing a range of high quality and safe living environments for young people in the care of the local authority. Receiving referrals of children/young people via the Placements Desk and through partnership with allocated Social Workers, you’ll arrange and co-ordinate the provision of placements for Children Looked After and Care Leavers, ensuring that their assessed needs are met. In addition, you’ll co-ordinate referrals of children/young people with relevant provider services including, but not limited to, in-house and external foster carers, children’s homes and semi-independent provision. In order to ensure that placements are safe and meet the required standards, you’ll visit them and act on any matters of concern that arise.

Your contribution to reports, statistics and budgetary information and analysis of quality care will take form in written and electronic records. As well as any reports on allegations against carers and care providers, both internally and externally. It will be your responsibility to ensure these are kept safe and in accordance with any required legislation.

You’ll maintain regular and appropriate liaison with Social Workers and other professionals to monitor progress, well-being and retain focus on the child’s needs. You will participate in supervision sessions with the Team Manager to ensure that your work remains focussed and effective, attending and contributing to team meetings and service events. In addition, you’ll regularly attend a range of meetings including reviews and quality assurance visits of placements alongside your managers, Social Workers and other professionals.

**What you’ll need**:
You’ll be expected to demonstrate previous experience in providing services directly to children and/or families and knowledge of the development and needs of children/young people. In order to succeed in this role, you must be able to work constructively with other professionals and agencies in the statutory and independent sectors. You’ll be a good team player with a mature and calm approach who can show an enthusiasm for working in a challenging and busy environment. Your ability to problem solve and work well under pressure will aid you in this busy working environment. With good interpersonal skills you’ll be able to effectively communicate in both written and verbal means. In addition, you’ll possess basic IT skills including knowledge of using a variety of software packages such as, Word, Excel and databases.

Appointment to this role will be based on a full driving license check, access to a vehicle and an Enhanced DBS check.

**What we can offer you**

As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. You’ll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. We’ll also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including discounts on city buses and trains. For an illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at our benefits calculator.

**Join us**

Interview/Assessments will take week commencing 11th of November