Organisation
Southampton City Council
Service Area
Pathways Through Care & Resources
Job Location
Civic Centre
Contract Length
Permanent
Work Hours
Full time - 37 hours per week
Salary
£36,124 - £39,513 per annum
Special Requirements
Enhanced DBS will be required
Closing Date
20/01/2025
Job Reference
15378
Job Description and Person Specification
We are the difference for Children in Care and Care Leavers.
Southampton City Council, Pathways Through Care Team is a service passionate and striving to achieve the best outcomes for our children we care for and our young people who are care experienced. Building relationships that enable our young people to feel and know that they are held in mind is important to us.
Working closely with partnership agencies to provide high challenge and high support, building strong relationships between practitioners and their families, enabling systemic and reflective work with our young people and their networks alongside these strong relationships is also a priority.
An exciting and rare opportunity has become available for a position as a Personal Advisor to support our young people in the next chapter of their lives and independence. The vacancy within this part of the service will be your chance to build meaningful and influential relationships with our care leavers. Striving to continually improve and show our children in care and care leavers that we are aspirational and ambitious for them in what they can achieve. Supporting independence and skills in their relationships, communities, education, training, and any other goals that they seek to improve on. The service is building on exciting developments, stronger links with partner agencies and cohesion in service relationships and interface with our colleagues in SCC. The main area of focus for any person wanting to join Pathways Through care must be an enhanced understanding of the importance of building trusting relationships with young people and being able to demonstrate in various ways that they are always held in mind.
In June 2023, Ofsted saw strong evidence that: “The experiences and progress of children in care are good. Improvements to the quality of support provided to children in care have accelerated recently. Careful and successful workforce recruitment, a comprehensive strategy to improve children’s placement stability and an impressive level of meaningful engagement by senior leaders with children in care all provide a firm foundation for further improvements”.
In the role as a Personal Advisor we are looking for genuine care, commitment and passion for young people and young adults who have experienced time in care. Our Personal Advisers have considerable energy and empathy to support those leaving our care to be the best people that they can be.
About the Service:
The service benefits from a permanent management team who have a wide range of experience from different service areas as well as two service managers who are visible and approachable. There are 6 teams within the one service – 2 of which are for young people who are care experienced, 1 team has specialisms of working with children who are unaccompanied in the UK and two other teams with respective managers where they support social workers who work with our children in care under the age of 18. There is a Staying Connected team who have work specifically with the young people (currently post 18) who are in a own supported accommodation.
The service prides itself on having a cohesive and friendly feel who offer support to team members.
About the Role:
* You will maintain regular contact with our care leavers, co-producing pathway plans with them to focus on their needs and goals.
* You will build meaningful and lasting relationships with them, which enable you to provide support which promote their independence, well-being, and educational or employment.
* You will demonstrate to our care leavers through the work that you do how much they are cared about them, showing them how important they are to you and Southampton City Council.
* You will work with a range of partner agencies advocating for your young people, and also ensuring that any risks and needs are recognised and addressed.
* You will also attend various social events with young people to build meaningful relationships, promote participation and help to develop their confidence and networks.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for a practitioner who is reflective and assured in their practice and ideally would have had some experience of direct intervention / support with young people who are care experienced.
You will build relationships through regular visits and our statutory intervention via care leaver contacts. You will nurture and develop meaningful relationships with young people; gain and interpret their views and help them expressing these, and advocate and support them to reach their full potential.
We want to continually improve and show our young people that we are aspirational for them and what they can achieve in their relationships, communities, education, training, and life’s adventures.
The work is varied and challenging, and there is a strong team approach ensuring good support for the successful applicant.
There maybe the opportunity to specialize with our increasing support and allocation of Unaccompanied Asylum seeking children and young people. This is a new strand to our service, which is being fully embraced and offers further developmental opportunities on top of the training and focus on learning that is offered service wide.
If you feel you have the care, commitment, skills, and experience to work in this rewarding role then we would be delighted to receive your application.
You will have experience of working with children and young people and ideally have some formal qualifications in related courses.
Please refer to the attached job description for the essential and desirable elements to apply for these roles.
Rewards:
* As Ofsted has stated in our inspection in June 2023 where we achieved a Good grading: ‘Practitioners are supported by energetic and responsive frontline managers who maintain clear, confident and close oversight of children’s progress’. You will be provided with regular good quality 1-1 case and personal supervision that align to restorative principles.
* Laptop and mobile phone will be provided to support with work.
* Robust induction period and personal development plan that meets your training and development needs. You will have membership to Research in Practice as well as access to an internal resource library.
* Ongoing training is important to us and professional development.
* Opportunities are also offered to flexible working arrangements. The 9 day fortnight is offered.
* Paid leave (up to 33 days excluding bank holidays dependent on length of service) and flexible arrangements).
* Discounted rail fares, paid parking and access to the Councils bicycle loan scheme.
* Opportunities to engage in work-based activities well-being and be recognised for the work that you do through our employment awards and recognition schemes.
Our Location:
You will be based within Southampton city centre in the Civic Centre, a historical building within easy reach of a range of colleagues also based in the building. Some flexible/remote/home working is available.
Our Organisation:
Southampton City Council is a unitary authority, as such you will have access to responsive leadership which is supportive at all management levels.
We are committed to the development of all our staff, whilst working in a highly supportive and highly challenging culture. All of which is at the ethos of our ambition to become a child friendly city.
Contact details for informal discussion:
For further information and details regarding the position please contact Service Manager Ellie Steel Ellie.Steel@southampton.gov.uk; or Team Manager Carolyn Driscoll. Carolyn.Driscoll@southampton.gov.uk and either one of the managers will be able to respond to your email and arrange a call if needed.
Additional information:
* This post requires an Enhanced DBS check.
* 37 hours per week.
* Flexible working and travel outside of the council will be part of the job requirements.
Recruitment contact details:
Email: recruitment@southampton.gov.uk
Tel: 023 8083 4033
For more information about SCC please visit Southampton City Council
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