Adoption Panel Vice Chair
| Posting date: | 05 February 2025 |
|---|---|
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 07 March 2025 |
| Location: | Leicester, LE3 8RA |
| Company: | Leicestershire County Council |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 4630 |
Summary
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: Adoption panel is held face-to-face at County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA
Worker Category: Field Based Worker
Salary: Set fee paid, £350 per panel
Contract Type: Permanent - One panel per month; panels are held on a Tuesday. Preparation time is also included within the above fee.
Closing Date: 18th February 2025
Interview Date(s): TBC
About the Role
Leicestershire FAL are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated vice chair to support the panel chair during adoption panel on a monthly basis. Adoption panel in Leicestershire is returning to in-person from April 2025 and therefore this opportunity has become available. Leicestershire has a full and well-established central list of independent panel members who work hard to achieve positive outcomes for our children.
The adoption panel makes recommendations on cases presented which includes adopter approvals, matches between children and adoptive families and plans of adoption for relinquished children. The panel has an important function in the quality assurance of reports and ensuring a degree of independent scrutiny over cases presented and reporting back to the agency.
We are committed to providing the best service for adoptive families, children and their birth families. We are determined to drive forward best practice across our region with creativity and innovation, the adoption panel has an important role in this.
The panel vice chair is paid a fee per panel which is set at £350. This includes all reading of papers and preparation for the panel as well as collating quality assurance feedback from panel members to share with the service. The vice chair works to support the chair, including chairing adoption panel on occasions where the chair is unable to do so.
Due to covering for the independent panel chair on occasion, there is a requirement for the vice chair to also be independent. A person is not independent if they are (in the case of a local authority); an elected member of that authority or employed by that authority in the adoption service or for the purposes of any of that local authority’s functions relating to the protection or placement of children.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
About You
To apply for this post, you must:
- Experience, either professionally or personally or both, of the placement of children in adoptive and foster families
- Some experience of chairing complex meetings and the ability to ensure the active participation of all panel members, including supporting panel members to formulate their recommendations
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including written and verbal information
- The ability to collate quality assurance feedback to the service
- An understanding of adoption processes, legislation and current practice issues
- The ability to analyse large amounts of written information and identify key issues, problems and solutions
- A strong commitment to achieving best outcomes for our children in Leicestershire
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.
Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Harriet Powell (Adoption Panel Advisor)
Telephone: 01163050642
Email: harriet.powell@leics.gov.uk
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home.
By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme