Social Worker - Adoption

Job details:

Salary: Higher Grade:  £38,295 - £42,503 p.a. (depending on experience)

Hours: 37 hours per week - Part time hours will be considered

Contract: Permanent

Closing date: 30th September 2023

Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. It is also committed to promoting quality childcare across the city that works to improve outcomes for children. 

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. 

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children’s Board safer recruitment procedures.

The Role:

As an adoption service we are part of the Regional Adoption Agency with three neighbouring agencies- Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Southampton. It is named Adopt South and all prospective adoptive families assessed by Portsmouth will become Adopt South Adoptive Families to be potentially matched with each of the local authority children.

As a service we are very flexible, we often offer training, assessment visits and support visits in the evenings and at weekends.

As a team we also provide a duty service through a staff rota system during office hours.

This is an exciting opportunity as Portsmouth Adoption Service is also working closely with Hampshire, Southampton and the Isle of Wight and have developed a Regional Adoption Agency which is increasing the number of potential adoptive families available for children and has improved the support available to those families across the region.

You will be involved in  training, assessing and supporting prospective adopters. As well as having allocated cases of adopters for assessment and family finding and progressing adoption order applications, the role includes delivery of adopter preparation training and development workshops.

What you'll need to succeed

You need to have:

•   A diploma in social work or equivalent, be registered with Social Work England and have post-qualifying experience in working with substitute families and in permanence planning.

•   A sound understanding of the needs of Looked After Children and permanence, particularly in relation to adoption.

•   A good understanding of the effects of early life experiences, particularly trauma on a child’s attachment, emotional and physical development.

•   A clear understanding of legislation around children, adoption and safeguarding.

•   Have excellent assessment skills to enable you to identify suitable adopters to make recommendations regarding matches with children.

•   Be flexible, to accommodate the needs of the service and adoption community in offering training and visits at evenings and weekends?  

Please read the job profile for the full details of this role  

What you'll get in return

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

•   Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
•   A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
•   Flexible working hours. 
•   Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
•   Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme 
•   Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
•   Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.

Staff rewards: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/

Additional Information:

The full job profile is attached here

Contact Details for an Informal Discussion:

Please contact  Tricia Daniell -  tricia.daniell@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Application process:

We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

Applicants will be shortlisted based on their ability to use good examples that meet the criteria of this role. 

Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job 

Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. 

Please ensure you provide your full education history from secondary school, include name/address of establishment, details of relevant qualifications & awarding body. Please explain any gaps - this is essential for all safeguarding children's roles.

You may wish to attach an additional letter or document to supplement you application.

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.