Adoption Agency Advisor

• Flexible working available, using a hybrid model - working from home and your contracted work base.
• 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Part time for 19.5 hours per week, alongside another experienced Agency Advisor.

This is an exciting and rare progression opportunity for a qualified and experienced Social Worker.

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset – and you’ll be a key part of that. Your day-to-day work will involve:

• Providing advice and support to the Operations Manager for CLA & LC with a lead role for Adoption and contribute towards the planning, delivery and performance of Somerset’s adoption service in relation to children.
• Undertaking a quality assurance role in reports presented to the Agency Decision Maker for Adoption.
• Providing advice and guidance on adoption matters to Social Workers and Team Managers and provide supervision on specialist aspects of adoption casework, as required.
• Providing expert advice and assistance as required to support the ADM to make the required adoption decisions on behalf of Somerset Council.

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. 

You Will:

• be educated to degree level in Social Work and registered as a Social Worker with Social Work England, and have significant post qualifying experience in child care social work, including direct experience of adoption work.
• have proven ability to supervise others, to give advice and feedback when required, as well as provide training.
• have proven ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of teams and other professionals.
• have excellent recording skills and good organisational and time management skills.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

The salary range for this role is £21,331 to £23,563 per annum for 19.5 hours per week.

Appointments are normally made at the bottom of the salary scale.

Whilst this role can involve some working from home, you will also need to live within travelling distance of an office base in Somerset (Shape Mendip, Brympton Way Yeovil, Bridgwater or County Hall in Taunton), in order to spend time working alongside the teams on a regular basis.

The ability to travel is necessary to carry out the role therefore you will need access to / use of a vehicle or the ability to travel countywide, and to areas that are not currently serviced by public transport.

For more information and an informal chat about the role, please contact the existing post holder: Jaana Burrows via email at jaana.burrows@somerset.gov.uk or Annabelle Sargeant, Operations Manager, on 01278 447736 or annabelle.sargeant@somerset.gov.uk.

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button - we can’t wait to hear from you.

This post requires a criminal background check via the Disclosure procedure.