Child & Family Worker - Adoption South East

**About Us**
Adoption South East (ASE) is a regional adoption agency comprised of West Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council and Surrey County Council all working together to find families for children across the region. We offer the best support to new families to ensure a brighter future for our children.

By joining our adoption services together, we bring the best practice and experience from each of the four local authorities. This means that it is easier to match a child with an adopter household from any of the ASE teams. It also means adopters, adoptive children and their birth/first families can use the combined services of the four ASE teams. To find out more please visit the **Adoption South East** website.

For further information about us and about working in Children’s Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit **Careers in children's social work in West Sussex**.

**About The Job** Job title**: Child & Family Worker
**Team**: Adoption South East, Horsham Team
**Salary**: Grade 7 £25,409 to £27,852
**Contract**: Permanent, full-time

**Location**: Horsham
- and post
- Adoption Order.

ASE Horsham works with prospective adoptive families, from adoption recruitment to support pre-adoption order, and offers support to families post-adoption order. We work in partnership with colleagues from across Children’s Services as part of Adoption South East. ASE Horsham_ is a supportive environment with plenty of opportunity for learning and reflective practice. You will receive formal and informal training in areas such as attachment and trauma._

The role will include:

- Direct work with children and young families
- Providing breaks to families by offering activities and time out to adopted children and young people. This may involve working some evenings and weekends.
- Events and activities for adoptive families
- Supporting adoptive families with direct contact with birth relatives. This may involve working some evenings and weekends.
- Assisting the Keeping in Touch Co-ordinator with letter exchange between adoptive families and birth relatives.

**Experience and Skills** What you need to succeed**:

- Knowledge of recent research in adoption, safeguarding and practical experience of working with children and their families is desirable.
- An understanding of the meaning of adoption for children and their families, including the impact of early trauma, attachment difficulties and therapeutic parenting is desirable.
- An ability to work creatively and flexibly with a variety of other agencies and professionals is essential.
- Excellent communication skills and IT literacy is essential.
- The ability to work under pressure whilst remaining calm to be able to make good decisions is essential.

**Rewards and Benefits**
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

In addition to working within a great team and a brilliant opportunity you will receive:

- A competitive salary
- A generous pension scheme
- Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
- Flexible working
- A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers with the opportunity to save over £1,000 (Including: Argos, Samsung, Asos, B&Q and many more)
- Free access to employee assistance programmes
- Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres
- A range of commuting and business travel discounts and initiatives

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

**Further Information**

EC

Job Reference: CAFHE04512