About the role
Are you a qualified Social Worker with experience of building excellent relationships with children and families? Do you work with the child’s voice at the centre of everything you do?
We’re looking for an Independent Reviewing Officer to join our Children’s Quality Assurance and Practice Improvement service on a 9-12 month contract, covering maternity leave. This is a senior position on the same scale as a Team Manager
Our Independent Reviewing Officers are responsible for chairing statutory Child in Care Reviews. You’ll need the knowledge and skills to identify areas of drift or delay for children, communicate effectively with the multi-agency network, and escalate any issues of drift or delay directly to senior managers where necessary.
Supported through regular Our Conversations (our approach to supervision) and monthly team meetings, you’ll work across the county with offices based in each area to support collaborative working. Your work-base is negotiable to support with mileage calculations.
If this sounds like a role that suits your skill set, we would love to hear from you! For more information, please contact Olly Grant on olly.grant@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or 07787837944.
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to reflect this diversity, which we believe is beneficial for our employees, the organisation, and the communities we serve.
What will you be doing?
Your work will involve developing relationships with children and their families, ensuring that the child’s voice is central to their care planning. You will chair multi-agency statutory child in care reviews, ensuring that the plans for children are aspirational, child-focussed and SMART. Between reviews you will monitor the progress of the plans while you continue to build your direct relationships with children.
You will be managing a caseload of children ranging from newborn babies in care proceedings to young adults preparing to leave care. The needs of the children and young people will vary, and your caseload will include some children with disabilities and some young people seeking asylum in the UK. The ability to be able to see situations from different perspectives, and to understand the child’s view is critical.
About you
We're looking for a confident and dynamic individual who believes in making a difference and advocating for disadvantaged children.
You need to be curious and able to spot things that others might not see. You need to enjoy building relationships with children and young people, and be committed to trying to see the world from their perspective. You also need to be sensitive in your approach where there are tensions within the system of adults around the child, and to support the network to maintain the child’s need for love, safety and permanence as the focus of their work.
You must:
- Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
- Have at least five years post-qualifying experience of social work with children
- Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel both in and outside of the county’s borders independently
The job description for this post is that of ‘Independent Chair’. Sometimes the position can include undertaking the combined role of Independent Reviewing Officer and Child Protection Chair, but for this specific post the position will just be that of Independent Reviewing Officer working with children in care.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
