Social Care Assessor- Young Carers

Job Introduction
The First Contact and All Age Carers Team are responsible for identifying and caring out assessments for Young Carers. The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act to make it easier for young carers to get an assessment of their needs and to introduce ‘whole family’ approaches to assessment and support.

The young carers’ needs assessment should consider the strengths of a family, as well as identifying any challenges faced by its members. This involves identifying factors that protect the child from an inappropriate care-giving role alongside their vulnerabilities.

A whole family approach involves the professionals concerned being able to recognise how the child’s wellbeing and development is affected by their caring role; and understanding the extent to which this care is (or will be) relied upon by the family, including the wider family, to maintain the wellbeing of the person cared for. Local authority adult and children’s services may have overlapping responsibilities in arranging to assess and, if appropriate, support young carers and the person they care for.

Main Responsibilities
- Asset based assessments under the Care Act and Children and Families Act inclusive of all statutory functions.
- participation on the inter-agency best interest assessor rota for adults and All age carers
- using person centred thinking tools to inform the assessment
- Develop a collaborative relationship with adults and their circles of support in order to promote positive expectations of what they can achieve, understanding their talents, wishes and feelings.
- As part of the assessment process, undertake purposeful interaction with individuals, families and other professionals to understand the needs and strengths of the individual, their network of relationships and their capacity to consent.
- Analyse information to understand risks and develop strategies to explain, avoid or manage risk appropriately.
- Negotiate and agree appropriate, tangible and realistic outcomes with individuals and families.
- Collaborate with other professionals, within Adult Social Care and Childrens Services or other organisations, in order to fully understand need and enable individuals to achieve their outcomes and to be as independent as possible
- Maintain appropriate professional records of all key discussions, findings, assessments, opinions (including factual basis) and decisions, including electronic client records and necessary performance data, in line with policies and procedures.

1. Someone with relevant experience of working with young carers and their families.

2. Some who can demonstrate an understanding of the legal context that underpins the work carried out with young carers and their families.

3. Someone who is able to travel across Staffordshire to undertake direct work with young carers and their families.

4. Someone who has experience of using information technology to create documents, data records, communication and reports.

5. Someone with experience in assessing needs, identifying risks and producing support plans to meet desired outcomes.

About Staffordshire County Council
**We are no ordinary county council**:
**Our Values**:
The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

**Our benefits**:
We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to a range of benefits.

**Our recruitment process**:
As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.