Personal Advisor

Our Unaccompanied Asylum‑Seeking Children (UASC) Team sits within our Children in Care and Care Leavers service.

We provide practical support, advice and guidance to young people leaving our care, and work closely with Personal Advisor (PA) and Social Work colleagues to deliver high‑quality, trauma‑informed support that helps care‑experienced young people to be safe, achieve, and live well in their communities.

Our service is committed to positive outcomes and strong partnership working across Staffordshire.

This is a fixed term role for 12 months.

You will:

• work alongside professionals across social care, accommodation and supported housing, welfare benefits, education and training providers, health, the Home Office and employability services. day‑to‑day,
• hold a varied caseload of care‑experienced young people (typically 17–21, with some support up to 25), building trusted relationships and coordinating multi‑agency plans that promote independence.
• offer practical, consistent support across key life areas—education, training and employment; housing and tenancy readiness; health and wellbeing; finances and benefits; identity and immigration/asylum pathways—ensuring timely referrals and advocacy.
• contribute to robust, trauma‑informed planning and reviews, keeping clear, timely case records and using reflective supervision to continuously improve practice.
• work primarily from our Stafford base (Staffordshire Place 1) with regular travel across the county and, at times, beyond where our young people are placed. Our smart‑working culture supports flexibility to agree how and where work is best delivered

You will:

• bring significant experience of working with children and/or young people,
• have excellent communication, cultural humility, and a solution‑focused approach.
• the ability to collaborate confidently with a wide range of professionals and are skilled at balancing empathy with clear, practical action.
• a working knowledge (or readiness to develop knowledge) of the Children Leaving Care Act 2000 and related regulations and guidance.

Additional language skills are welcomed.

For further information about this role please contact David Atherton on david.atherton@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.