Placement Officer - Lewisham

Placement Officer – Lewisham Council

Lewisham SE6 4RU – On going contract

£25ph- Full time

Lewisham Placement Officer

An exciting opportunity for a temporary Placement Officer’s roles, within Lewisham Placement and Procurement Team. We are looking for individuals with experience and knowledge of children’s placements and commissioning. The post will be within the Children and & Young People’s Directorate & is based in Placements Service for children and young people.
We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic Placements Officers with knowledge of children and young people services. The roles will deliver efficient and effective commissioning for individual children and young people to meet their individual needs. This will include the commissioning of looked after children placements. The applicants will also have contract management and quality assurance experience within children’s social care. The individuals will be joining a stable, vibrant, welcoming and supportive team of placement officers, support staff and Managers. You will have regular supervision, support to access training.

The role

The post will involve working collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders within children social care, a range of placement providers, the wider Council, health, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), third sector providers and a range of service user groups.
Location
Laurence House, Catford

What we’re looking for

People who are passionate, motivated, determined and enthusiastic about achieving the best outcomes for children and young people.
You will need:
• excellent communication skills including the ability to write clearly to a wide range of audiences.
• skills for successful inter agency working
• excellent negotiations skills required
• significant knowledge of contract management and managing providers expectations/and contractual agreements.
• substantial experience of working within children’s services
• significant experience of undertaking placement searches/and good understanding of current market/and challenges.
• experience of undertaking quality assurance monitoring visits and managing the performance of external providers.
• experience of working within a structured framework, that is governed by legislation, Local Authority requirements and other external agencies.
• ability to problem solve and to bring appropriate challenge where required.
experience of working in a highly pressurised environment, covering duty, dealing with emergencies and occasional late working

Candidates need to have had experience of working as a placement officer or a similar type of role, in children or adult's placement or brokerage team