Adoption Family Finding and Matching Social Worker

 Grade 7/8- £42,324- £51,522pa -(Plus £4k Market Supplement)

Adopt London East is looking for an experienced social worker to join the family finding team.

Adopt London East is a Regional Adoption Agency made up of 4 Local Authorities; the host authority Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets.  

Adopt London East provide the following functions, recruitment, assessment and support of prospective and Adoptive parents, family finding for all children with a plan of adoption and adoption support provided to adoptive families, birth relatives and children and young people.  

Adopt London East work closely with our partner boroughs particularly in the area of permanency planning and family finding.  We have a strong emphasis upon building strong cross working between the Adopt London East Teams. We want to protect our high standards of social work practice and wherever possible innovate to improve the services we deliver.  

Adopt London East work closely with the 3 other Regional Adoption Agencies which make up Adopt London, providing services for 24 London Boroughs.  The partnership supports the development of practice across London.  Adopt London work in collaboration the National RAA leaders group in order to identify and implement practice standards.   

About this role 

For this role, you will need excellent communication skills and a comprehensive knowledge of attachment theory and the impact of developmental trauma on children. You must have experience of working within a children's social work team and developed an understanding of the importance of considering a child’s individual holistic needs to support in care planning decisions. An awareness of developmental uncertainties, child permanence reports, contact arrangements, sibling assessments, life story work, direct work and the preparation of a child for transitions are all advantageous.

As a family finding social worker, it is essential that you are able to work in partnership with all those involved in the care and planning for the child; this includes children’s social work colleagues, prospective adopters, foster carers and multi-agency partners. You need to be diligent and driven to securing a timely and carefully planned adoption placement for the child. 

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Ensure the child’s voice is central to planning, matching and placement. 
• Undertake visits to children and build meaningful relationships to support them on their permanence journey. 
• Attend permanency planning meetings and provide advice and guidance in relation to adoption, including the consideration of Early Permanence at the earliest opportunity. 
• Liaise and build strong relationships with Children’s Social Care, the Independent Reviewing Service, in house and independent fostering agencies.
• Understand children in the context of their life story and attachment history in order to accurately reflect their present and potential future needs and identify a family who are capable of meeting these. 
• Undertake visits to prospective adoptive families and be able to reflect on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the potential match. 
• Collate accurate and reflective information about the in order to effectively profile them and improve opportunities to promote positive placement choice and outcomes.
• Undertake direct work with children around their wishes and feelings regarding adoption and support them in their placement transition.
• Participate in matching meetings and produce high quality, analytical reports for panel. 
• Attend meetings, looked after reviews and all other case discussions relevant to the child’s permanence journey.
• Be responsible for co-ordinating, developing and delivering an innovative and creative family finding service. 
• Maintain accurate and reflective case recording. 
• Support with training and the development of the service. 

You will need:  

• A Social Work Qualification (degree or equivalent) and current registration with Social Work England (this is an essential requirement). 
• Adoption Experience is preferable; however, this should not deter applicants who have not worked within an adoption team more if they have transferrable experience related to the role of family finding. 
• An understanding of early life experiences such as trauma or abuse and the impact they can have on children and young people throughout their lives. 
• The ability to analyse complex information to make recommendations and informed decisions. 
• The ability to complete comprehensive reports in a timely manner. 
• The ability to as part of a team, sharing knowledge and managing cases, alongside the ability to use your own initiative and work independently. 
• To be competent in the use of IT and case management systems. 
• The ability to maintain case recordings on appropriate platforms.   

We promote a hybrid model of working for our social care staff, with a flexible approach involving working from our town hall campus/hubs. In this role, you are expected to work from our town hall campus on the Thursday of each week to encourage peer support communication and an opportunity for administrative tasks to be completed.   

Please view Job Profile here

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact by email Rosie.Pearce@havering.gov.uk.   This advert will close at 23:59 on the Sunday 22^nd December 2024 with short listing taking place on Monday 23^rd December 2024.  Interviews will take place on Monday 6^th January 2025 which will take the format of a presentation and a panel interview.  

Additional Information

We want everyone to choose Havering. When you apply for a job with us, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. Our residents and service users come from all walks of life, and so do our employees. Find out what it means to Choose Havering.

The London Borough of Havering has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

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