Personal Advisor

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Children in Care and Care Leavers Team covering Stafford and South Staffs, supporting care leavers aged 16 – 25 years old.

Our dedicated leaving care service includes Social Workers and Personal Advisors who provide vital support and advice to our Care Leavers during their transition from living in care to adult life.

You'll work alongside other professionals from a range of disciplines including, social workers, accommodation providers, housing, welfare benefits, mental health professionals, substance misuse services and employment support.

Through these multiple relationships you will help prepare young adults to ensure they are supported within their journey to independence. Working within the corporate parenting principles you will empower young adults to develop skills to prepare them for their futures.

There are 2 x full time permanent positions available:

Monday - Friday (37 Hours)

For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team’s ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

You'll be passionate about ensuring this cohort of care leavers are offered the best opportunities possible to:

• Engage in education, training and employment opportunities
• Acquire budgeting and key life skills
• Secure and maintain their accommodation and housing options
• Live a healthy lifestyle and access all health services they require
• Make good and positive use of community and leisure services
• Promote their family and friendship links
• Be aware of their responsibilities as citizens

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• NVQ Level 3 Caring for Children and Young People or equivalent such as; Health and Social Care Level 3.
• Experience of working with teenagers/young adults or experience with Care Leavers.
• Knowledge of working with other agencies such as; housing, welfare benefits, social care, health and education.

Don't feel you meet the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Rebecca Metcalfe, Leaving Care Lead at rebecca.metcalfe@staffordshire.gov.uk

Interviews will take place on Friday 9th October.

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.

Please note: The minimum criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

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.