Placement Officer

Budwood Limited provides support and accommodation to young people with complex needs. We are a family run business, with an expertise of delivering high quality care and support. We are a successful residential provider within the sector, having excellent Ofsted ratings and preferred provider status with a number of Local
Authorities. Our services operate across Bournemouth, Southampton and Dorchester, in registered children’s homes and supported shared houses for care leavers.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Placements Officer to join the team at
Budwood Limited. We are looking for an organised and driven individual to join our Core Services team at our Bournemouth office (home working available).

The Role As Placements Officer, you will be responding to placement requests and identifying placement and service solutions. You will be working closely with Local Authority Placement Teams to ensure the highest possible standard of appropriate placements for children and young people referred to Budwood. In consultation with the Area Managers, you will ensure that each child or young person placed with Budwood is carefully matched with a suitable residential home capable of meeting their needs.

You will be responsible for maintaining a database of information relating to referrals, including records of movements of children within the service. You will be responsible for providing statistical information on referral and placement trends to inform service development and ensuring that all relevant agreements are obtained and completed.

As Placement Officer, you will ensure that the protection of children and the promotion of their welfare is given absolute priority in all activities.

What we’re looking for
- Experience in sales, customer care or account management environment
- A proven track record in obtaining and maintaining clients, increasing sales or providing customer support solutions
- Demonstrate experience in producing clear, accurate and concise reports and correspondence using IT software packages
- Experience of utilising a range of IT programmes and maintaining database systems
- Experience of working in a health, social services or welfare environment (Desirable)
- Experience of working within an organisation regulated by legislation and a demonstrable ability to work within a policy and procedural framework (Desirable)
- Experience of delivering services within a contract environment

Why work for us?
- A signing bonus of £1000 following successful completion of probation
- A cohesive and dedicated team who enjoy delivering the best service possible to children
- Generous Annual Leave - 28 days (incudes Bank Holiday Entitlement)
- Auto Enrolment Pension
- Learning & Development Opportunities

**Responsibilities**:

- To respond positively and professionally to referrals from Local Authorities, ensuring the quality of information enables the identification of placements that meet the child's or young person's assessed needs.
- To receive and screen referrals, understanding a child's needs and the availability of resources to meet these, liaising with other colleagues, partners and external placement providers to ensure detailed assessment, matching and prioritising.
- To work with internal colleagues and external placement providers on a daily basis.
- To ensure that placements comply with the required national standards and appropriate regulatory bodies.
- To attend and contribute to single and multi-agency meetings relating to children's placements where required
- Ability to work in a fast paced, often pressured environment, working to tight deadlines and with competing demands
- Excellent written and communication skills with internal and external colleagues
- Ability to maintain a professional, positive and solution focussed approach
- Excellent communication skills with local authorities to influence decision making
- Ability to digest, analyse and process complex and often highly sensitive information regarding children and young people
- Ability to market the services of Budwood, including the skills and experience of our staff teams by gaining an in-depth knowledge of our services
- Ability to maintain and update home profiles as an effective marketing tool
- Ability to develop effective, positive relationships with house managers and senior management team
- Ability to be able to manage difficult and challenging conversations with stakeholders
- An ability to quickly develop an understanding of the needs of children who are referred to Budwood in order to managers with their decision making
- An ability to negotiate effectively with local authorities regarding complex finance and contractual arrangements
- A proven ability to work effectively as a team player, whilst also able to work unsupervised, using own initiative
- Proven ability to prioritise and manage own workload

You may come into contact with our young people, so it is essential that you maintain confiden