Quality Assurance Officer

We're embarking on an ambitious transformation of Children’s and Families services and our vision is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do[MT1] :

• Families first – network and community always
• Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co-produced with children and families
• Whole-system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
• Permanence as belonging from day one

To achieve our ambition, we are looking for talented, values-driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children's and Families services in Staffordshire.

We want to create a more resilient, child-centred and future-focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.

Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high-quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.

As a Quality Assurance Officer, you will play a key role in driving practice excellence across Children's Social Care. Working closely with the Principal Social Worker Team and Quality Assurance colleagues, you will use audit findings, performance information and professional expertise to identify improvement opportunities, influence practice and help achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families.

You will:

• Lead and support quality assurance activities, analysing findings and developing improvement plans that strengthen social work practice and service delivery.
• Analyse complex qualitative and quantitative information from multiple sources to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to design, implement and evaluate practice improvement initiatives.
• Promote co-production and ensure the voices of children, families, practitioners and partners influence service development and auditing activity.
• Coach, mentor and support managers, social workers and auditors to strengthen practice, auditing standards and continuous learning.
• Present audit findings, influence policy and procedural development, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement across Children's Social Care.

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

• Substantial post-qualifying social work experience within children’s social care.
• A qualified and registered Social Worker status, supported by strong knowledge of legislation, statutory frameworks and best practice relating to Public Law proceedings.
• Experience of quality assuring assessments, reports and court documentation, providing constructive feedback and driving practice improvement.
• Experience of coaching, mentoring and supporting social workers to improve practice, analysis and decision-making.
• Excellent analytical, organisational and performance management skills, with the ability to monitor quality, manage competing priorities and drive improvement.

Need more information? If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach us at Maria Tenny, maria.tenny@staffordshire.gov.uk or Emma Lightfoot, emma.lightfoot@staffordshire.gov.uk

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 23 October and 5 November

“We’re happy to talk flexible working”

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 essential 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.