Managing Practitioner – Early Permanence

About The Role
Job Title: Managing Practitioner – Early Permanence
Hours: 37
Salary: HC10 £48,421 - £52,420 (including £5,000 market rate supplement per year)
Welcome payment £5,000 after 6 months completion in post
Relocation package of up to £10,000 available
Contract: Permanent
Closing date: 07/04/2024 
The Role
Passionate about giving children and young people a great start in life?
Our priority in Herefordshire is to keep children safe and give them a great start in life.  It’s the priority for the council, our partners and for all of us who work in Children’s Wellbeing.
How do we do this?  By having dynamic, dedicated, passionate and professional staff who work in a culture that focuses on what we can achieve with children, what they can achieve themselves, and the relationship we build with families and partners to enable this. We have invested heavily in training and developing staff in our single practice approach which is Signs of Safety and it's is an exciting time to join Herefordshire – we believe in investing in you so you can be the best you can be!
Herefordshire has a really strong team ethos.  Our teams are passionate about the work they do and the positive difference they and the teams they are in make to people’s lives.  This is all underpinned by the focus and support from their managers and the council as a whole.
An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Childrens Wellbeing Safeguarding and Family Support Service for these new roles.
The Early Permanence Hub is a small, friendly team now based in the CP/Court service, consisting of a Managing Practitioner, Family Finding Social Worker and Family Support Worker. The team was set up to coordinate and facilitate adoption family finding and robust matching for Herefordshire children.
We are responsible for supporting social workers to identify suitable adoptive families with the appropriate therapeutic skills to meet the individual needs of Herefordshire children with care plans of adoption, now and across their life course.
We work closely with Child ADM, prospective adopters and their social workers, the children’s teams and fostering, and also support the whole service with drop in sessions and advice on all matters relating to adoption.
We offer guidance in relation to maintaining relationships with birth family post adoption, we diarise timelines to reduce drift or delay for children, and complete adoption matching panel paperwork.
We support children’s social workers through the adoption process from start to finish and mentor newly qualified workers, and those inexperienced in the field of adoption.
We create bespoke transition plans for children, facilitate and chair a number of meetings for prospective adopters with professionals and coordinate all matching tasks to ensure children do not spend a day longer in care than necessary.
We work out of hours to oversee the transition plan with daily check ins’ to ensure we continue to meet the needs of the child at every stage. We are responsible for collating all pertinent information to produce adoption data and have had positive feedback from Ofsted and partners about the quality of work we do and the impact upon children in achieving permanence.
We Offer
A competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:

• Basic Salary £48,421 - £52,420 (including £5,000 market rate supplement per year)
• Welcome payment£5,000 for experienced social workers joining our children’s teams
• Relocation packages: support of up to £10,000
• Pension Scheme Enrolment in the Local Government (LGPS)
• Professional development: protected time and budget to support social workers develop themselves and their careers. We have a diverse and comprehensive training offer in place to support you in your role.
• Career progression: clear pathways to progress and supported by the Social Care Academy to be a work based supervisor with the potential to become a Practice Educator as a development pathway.
• Generous Annual Leave: 31 days’ annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum
• Flexible working: flexi-time, job-share, part-time hours and, in some instances, home working
• Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling
• Payment of professional membership fees
• Pick your perks – our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts. 

About Us
Herefordshire is a beautiful, historic county located in the heart of the Marches on the border with Wales. We are one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England with a wealth of unspoilt countryside, distinctive heritage, and lively and attractive market towns.
Our priority in Herefordshire is to keep children safe and give them a great start in life. It’s the priority for the council, our partners and for all of us who work with Children & Young People. 
How do we do this? By having dynamic, dedicated, passionate and professional staff who work in a culture that focuses on what we can achieve with children, what they can achieve themselves, and the relationship we build with families and partners to enable this. We have invested heavily in training and developing staff in our relational practice approach with our improvement partner Leeds City Council, so it's an exciting time to join Herefordshire – we believe in investing in you so you can be the best you can be!
Herefordshire has a really strong team ethos. Our teams are passionate about the work they do and the positive difference they and the teams they are in make to people’s lives. This is all underpinned by the focus and support from their managers and the council as a whole. 
We will deliver better support to our most vulnerable children and their families, develop stronger relationships with partners across the region, and beyond.
Therefore, we take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment.
Come to Herefordshire and join the journey.
Herefordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and vulnerable adults. If you are offered this position, it will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service enhanced check and further pre-employment checks.
We welcome applicants whatever their personal characteristics or social identity. All requests for flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments will be considered.
The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:

• Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme;
• Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are an Armed Forces Veteran or Reservist. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant; and
• Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care. 

Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details of this role.
To apply, please submit your CV and complete the supporting statement within the application form, referring to the job description & person specification, detailing how you meet the specific requirements of the role.