Independent Review & Conference Officer

What's involved with this role:
Interim Independent Review & Conference Officer
Reference no: NCT (HQ) NCT16038
Pay rate: £32.31 per hour PAYE
Hours per week: 37 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
This opening assignment is for 4 months
City: NORTHAMPTON
Hybrid working
An Independent Review & Conference Officer is required to fulfil the statutory role of independent oversight of care planning for looked after children; promoting better outcomes for the children and young people of Northamptonshire. To undertake Independent Reviewing Officer duties to monitor and review care planning and case work are set out in the IRO Handbook. The successful applicant must be passionate about children, tenacious, knowledgeable and driven to pursue the best outcomes for the vulnerable group. Initial Child Protection Conferences which are held face to face, will require visits to young people and placement.
Key responsibilities:
Independent oversight and quality assurance of child protection planning (including chairing of child protection conferences), ensuring that the child’s interests are promoted throughout.
Monitor the Trust’s performance about child protection practice, identifying areas of poor practice and reporting deficits and recommending actions to senior managers, working with senior managers on remedial action where necessary.
Contribute towards the delivery of high-quality service in line with the service’s action plan and scorecard. The post holder is responsible for ensuring good outcomes for children looked after within their caseload, through working independently but supportively of colleagues and partner agencies.
Initial Child Protection Conferences which are held face to face, will require visits to young people and placement.
Maintain good working relationships with colleagues across Children’s Services and other agencies to ensure practice concerns are communicated and necessary actions taken when issues are highlighted.
Deliver and chair timely, high quality Looked After Child reviews and improve practice in line with local and national policy developments to ensure children, young people, their families and carers have appropriate actions identified alongside transparent decision making.
Maintain good quality timely case recordings to ensure the Independent Reviewing Officer footprint is well reflected on children and young people’s case files.
Participate in audits of care planning as part of the Looked After Child reviewing process and those undertaken by the Local Authority as part of the Quality Assurance Framework.
Conduct standards as set out in the IRO Handbook and other local policies and procedures, including the use of legislative powers to escalate concerns to senior management level and external agencies in regards to failure to meet the needs of individual children in an appropriate and timely manner.
Provide advice and challenge to operational team and service managers and practitioners in relation to Looked After Children to ensure needs are met in an appropriate and timely manner.
NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and job title exactly.
To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF
If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items:
Qualifications:
A registered Social worker holding a CQSW, Dip SW, B.A. or M.A. Social Work of equivalent.
Social Work England Registration.
Experience:
Significant experience within children social care service areas and/or extensive court proceedings experience as a Children Guardian.
Management experience as a Team Manager, experienced Practice Manager, or other relevant management experience and bring proven experience of outcomes.
Experience and skill in dealing with conflict management.
Experience of creating and delivering presentations to a range of audiences desirable.
Experience of writing reports to include robust data, analysis, conclusions and recommendations.
Knowledge:
A demonstrable knowledge of statutes, case law and practice guidance that underpins the Children’s Services agenda relating to services for Looked After Children, young people and their parents / carers.
A thorough understanding of practice standards and role responsibilities / expectations of the Independent Reviewing Officer.
Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the IRO Handbook.
Skills & Abilities:
Passionate about children, tenacious, knowledgeable and driven to pursue the best outcomes for the vulnerable group.
Ability to work with operational and strategic managers, and partner agencies in a child focused manner.
Ability to be a team member of experienced Independent Reviewing Officers, whilst acknowledging the independent status of the role.
Ability to apply negotiation skills with colleagues and partner agencies during potential conflicting debates and discussion
Able to demonstrate good communication skills, both written and verbal.
Able to demonstrate an understanding and experience of presentation skills.
Ability to write informative, timely and qualitative reports.
Good analytical skills in reports and discussions.
Logical, analytical, proactive and responsive approach to tasks with accuracy and attention to detail.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).
***Qualification details and any other experience/skills relevant to the job role to help support your application (and help us to help you!) – please give full details within your CV document.
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Job Ref: NCT (HQ) NCT16038
Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.
Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates.
We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed.
Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs.
Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.