Kinship Care Support Officer

Package Description

This role is for a Kinship Care Support Officer, it is a part time post of 20 hours per week. 

You will be employed to join our team as a Kinship Care Support Officer.  Your role will be to work alongside social workers, Senior Social Workers, as well as the Pod Manager to assist in the Support Service section of our busy team. 

You do not need to be social work qualified to apply for this post, however experience of working within Children's Services and Kinship Care is beneficial.

Working with Kinship Carers you will provide support with Adoption Support Fund applications for therapeutic work for families and the carers post Court Order.  You will also work with the Senior Social Worker managing the Support Service to assist and respond to enquiries into the team. as well as open cases. 

You will provide support services to Kinship Carers to promote placement stability and enable positive outcomes for children subject to Special Guardianship Orders.

Interview Date: TBC

Should you wish to discuss the post then please contact Lucy George Pod Manager on lucy.george@brighton-hove.gov.uk or Karnjit Kandola Pod manager on karnjit.kandola@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Job Introduction

You will be involved in working with Kinship Carers who are looking after children under Special Guardianship Orders. You will assess the support needs of complex Kinship placements to determine the most appropriate intervention to enhance the quality of care provided to children previously in care.

You will deliver focussed and specialist interventions including direct work with children and their carers to promote placement stability and positive outcomes for children previously in care

You will assess and support Kinship Carers within this role, you will use the telephone, video conferencing as well as undertake home or office visits to talk with carers and professionals to provide this advice and guidance.

You will deliver training to Kinship Carers to enable them to better understand their role in Kinship Care to further facilitate and enable stable and robust placements for the children in their care.

Working with the professional network around a child you will have a good communication style and the ability to work with different people in different settings.  You will have good writing and analytical skills and able to write reports and assessments about carers within our IT systems.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to complete your education and work history and provide answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional Information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Work Permits: This role does not meet the requirement for UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Points-based Immigration System. Successful candidates will need to evidence that they have the Right to Work in the UK.

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk)

Company Information

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.