Head of Adoption and Kinship

Fusion People are actively recruiting for a Head of Adoption and Kinship to work for the Staffordshire County Council.

About the Role

The role will be responsible for the leadership, management, supervision and performance of a designated range of functions within regulated services, specialist interventions and provisions of effective support packages for foster carers, adopters and kinship care.

Perform a lead role in the delivery of Families and Communities performance in relation to inspection and successful delivery against the local and national performance indicators including statutory regulations and targets.

Provide technical expertise in relation to adoption regulations to develop effective and collaborative working with District Operations Leads to identify, support and provide stable placements for looked after children and with partner agencies.

To act as Agency Decision Maker and Registered Manager for Staffordshire County Council Fostering and Adoption Agencies as required

Payment terms:

£42.74 - £52.74 Umbrella per hour.

Base Location:

Staffordshire Place, Stafford

Key Accountabilities:

1. To lead and motivate operational managers and their staff teams in ensuring high standard of service across Staffordshire's Looked After Services. To ensure that children and families who require services are responded to in a timely and effective manner.

2. To work collaboratively across the Children System to ensure that children and families who require services are responded to in a timely and effective manner and support placement stability and rehabilitation back to families where appropriate.

3. Establish a coordinated and integrated approach to service provision within the framework of current legislation, regulation and guidance.

4. Ensuring that all staff members are aware of, and adhere to, the policy framework in which they are required to perform including statutory and regulatory inspection frameworks and feel empowered to act and make decisions within these parameters.

5. Deliver services within agreed budgets and establish mechanisms to monitor and manage budget pressures and identify any efficiencies across the service.

6. Ensure the County Council's Human Resources policies and procedures are adhered to including attendance management, whistle blowing, bullying and harassment, grievances, capability and disciplinary issues.

7. Ensuring that the area of service is underpinned by adherence to the County Councils and statutory equality policies and gives due attention to issues of diversity.

8. Develop and maintain effective and positive partnership arrangements with internal and external partners.

9. Ensure there are effective systems in place to transfer work between teams and support placement sufficiency team in identify appropriate matches to make placements in a timely manner avoiding drift, duplication and delay.

10. Ensure an outcome-based model of performance is adopted and that delivery plans are in line with appropriate national standards, targets and indicators and implement arrangements for monitoring, reporting, inspection, quality assurance and best value practices across fostering services and the children systems in conjunction with Performance and Intelligence colleagues.

11. In partnership with the Together 4 Children ensure recruitment and retention scheme for Adopters is sufficiently robust to meet current and future demands of the children system

12. Ensure that a thorough understanding of the service area is developed and that together with partners, a strategic needs analysis is drawn up which informs the service design and delivery based on service user's needs.

13. Handle disagreements and conflicts which may emerge between services and to manage complaints and compliments in line with the current procedure.

14. other reasonable duties commensurate with the grade and nature of the post and deputise for senior managers where appropriate.

Professional Accountabilities:

The post holder is required to contribute to the achievement of the Council objectives through:

Financial Management

Personal accountability for delivering services efficiently, effectively, within budget and to implement any approved savings and investment allocated to the service.

People Management

Engaging with People Management policies and processes Equalities Ensuring that all work is completed with a commitment to equality and anti-discriminatory practice, as a minimum to standards required by legislation.

Climate Change

Delivering energy conservation practices in line with the Council's climate change strategy.

Health and Safety

Ensuring a work environment that protects people's health and safety and that promotes welfare and which is in accordance with the Council's Health & Safety policy.

Safeguarding

Commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable groups.

The content of this Job Description and Person Specification will be reviewed on a regular basis.

Qualifications/Professional membership

* Degree level qualification or equivalent;

* CQSW/DipSW or equivalent;

* A relevant professional/management qualification or evidence of substantial management training;

* Registration with Social Work England.

Please apply or contact Sam Day from the Bristol Fusion People Bristol office for more details.

--- Fusion People are committed to promoting equal opportunities to people regardless of age, gender, religion, belief, race, sexuality or disability. We operate as an employment agency and employment business. You'll find a wide selection of vacancies on our website.