Children's Independent Chair

The starting salary for this position is £50,942 - £55,125 per annum based on a 36-hour working week. We are also able to consider part time working on a 3-4 day basis.

Are you looking for a fresh opportunity to use your social care management skills and experience?

Are you ready for a pivotal role that safeguards continuity of quality care for children and young people where their current feelings and wishes are considered?

If that sounds interesting to you then we'd invite you to consider our Child Protection (CP) Chair/ Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) role within the Quality Performance service at Surrey Count Council.

As a combined CP Chair/ IRO role this provides a unique opportunity and benefit of being able to build trust and safety with the children and young people you support as they progress on their journey.

You'd be joining our team of established CP Chairs/ IRO's where you will have the chance to share your knowledge and expertise gained as a social work practitioner and manager, to provide invaluable insight and accountability for monitoring the progress of outcome focused plans for our children and young people, which are effective and reflective of their needs and wishes and timely; in line with our statutory requirements.

Through your work with case auditing, service reviews and reviewing the quality of practice you'll use the breadth and depth of your experience to support not just children, young people and their families, but staff too, making recommendations for improvements both in conference meetings, in between them and in relation to child protection plans, helping to have a positive influence and impact on how we do things at Surrey. At present we are seeing increased demand within Looked After Reviews, meaning this would be the greater focus of the role for now.

Your Development:

Supporting your career development is a top priority for us. We have a comprehensive training programme and an "Academy" which supports the multi-agency partnership. The Council is invested in training staff in the Family Safeguarding model, Motivational Interviewing, as well as investing in support to develop systems thinking in practice in Surrey. As an Independent Chair you will be supported to ensure that you are competently able to deliver in your role for both CP conferences and Looked After Reviews. Your development will also be supported by regular supervision and performance conversations as well as a range of coaching, e-learning and other reflection and learning opportunities.

Key skills and experience we are looking for:

If you have a passion for social work and a broad knowledge of practice and legislation, including safeguarding; are registered with Social Work England, hold a Social Work degree or equivalent qualification, and have a track record of improving outcomes for children and young people, then this role with us at Surrey could be the next step for you.

You will ned to be able to work flexibly and travel extensively across Surrey and surrounding areas.

Your Benefits:

We offer many great benefits for staff depending on what is important to you. A selection of these include:

• Agile and flexible work options: We recognise the importance of striking a good work life balance and are open to considering work patterns shaped around the principles of trust, accountability and a strong team and work ethic,
• Professional support from experienced and qualified members of the team to help you grow and develop your career,
• A generous local government pension scheme to provide you with a secure and guaranteed future income. Tax relief on your contributions is available whilst we pay significant amounts into the Surrey Pension Fund,
• Access to a range of health and wellbeing tools and information to support your mental and emotional wellbeing including our confidential Employee Assistance Programme, a range of mental health apps that have been assessed against NHS standards, support for staff in crisis and much more,
• Lifestyle benefits: access to a huge range of discounted vouchers and memberships covering the gym, retail, cinema and holidays,
• Travel and Transport benefits: including salary sacrifice, purchase of additional annual leave, cycle and car schemes as well as discounted travel on season tickets.

We are striving to be an inclusive and welcoming employer providing you with access to opportunities that support you professionally and fulfil you personally.

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.