Placement & Resources Officer - Worcestershire Council

Worcestershire County Council - Placement and Resources Officer

Location: County Hall, Spottily Road, Worcester, WR5 2NP

Contract: Initial contract to 26th February 2021

Hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm – Monday to Friday

Payrate: £10.91 an Hour

Description:

We are looking to recruit to a temporary Support Officer post to join the Placements Team. 

Your principal duties will be to support placements searches processes from start to finish by collaborating  with social workers to identify suitable placements for vulnerable children in care to enable the best outcome for children, young people and their families. 

You will be expected to follow up placement offers with providers to ensure that the placement requested matches the placement being provided and actively challenge when anomalies exist and

to undertake cost negotiations with providers to ensure optimum value for money and as a result, reducing the overall expenditure for placements within the service.

Additionally, the job will include quality assuring forms, setting up finance packages for placements, setting up contracts and assisting with other key placement related duties as required.

Part of the role will involve covering duty at least 1 day per week which involves dealing with same day placement searches until they are resolved.

Main activities & Responsibilities:

To use knowledge and collaborate with social workers to identify suitable placements for vulnerable children in care to enable the best outcome for children, young people and their families

To liaise with and provide advice to social workers in the production of documentation related to placements for children and young people.

Provide immediate response to information or situations concerning risk to vulnerable children, in relation to placement services.

To follow up placement offers with providers to ensure that the placement requested matches the placement being provided and actively challenge when anomalies exist.

To undertake cost negotiations with providers to ensure optimum value for money and as a result, reducing the overall expenditure for placements.

To ensure that any variations to the agreed placement which have a financial impact are communicated to all as necessary in order for action to be taken

To assist in the monitoring of placements, identifying and following up on concerns and compliance issues.

Act as the first point of contact for social workers, partner organisations and external providers, to agree appropriate actions.

Provide weekly duty cover, often working in a pressurised environment, dealing with same day placement searches until resolved.

To facilitate and lead in the coordination development and delivery of new and existing projects, in line with the team development plan to contribute to the effectiveness of the service.

Collate and share information relating to the placing of children, to support the best use of resources and support the development of systems to track placement sourcing.

Work closely with the in-house fostering team, supported living and residential managers to enable the sourcing of in-house placements / resources.

Liaise with other Local Authority Placements Teams, to gather information when sourcing placements outside of Worcestershire to identify any potential risk or vulnerabilities.

Undertake specific service projects/tasks including investigation, identification and research.

Collate and prepare information to reflect quality assurance and performance data relating to providers. Compile presentations where appropriate. 

To ensure relevant contracts are either in place or are completed in a timely manner.

Initiate, organise, attend and contribute to partnership and public events, conferences, seminars and other awareness raising activities, as required.

To ensure that opportunities to access national funding are maximised for Worcestershire.

Recruitment is done in line with safe recruitment practices. 4Recruitment Services is an equal opportunities employer.

To discuss this vacancy or other vacancies in your area please contact Nana Kyeremeh on 0208 514 9137 or Email nanayawk@4recruitmentservices.com