Independent Reviewing Officer WMF2073e

Westmorland and Furness Council; England; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading Local Authority as an Independent Reviewing Officer, where you'll play a central role in safeguarding vulnerable children. In this influential position, you will oversee the development of protection plans, chair essential meetings, and ensure that children's voices are heard. We offer competitive pay, flexible working, career development opportunities, and additional benefits.

Benefits

Competitive rates of pay

Excellent training and career development opportunities

Flexible working

Local Government Pension Scheme

Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contributions

Discounts on phone contracts and local gyms

Qualifications

• Must have Social Work Qualification and registration with Social Work England.
• Ideally have experience at Team Manager or Advanced Practitioner level.
• Up to date with relevant research in child protection.

Responsibilities

• Ensure Cared For Children have right protection plans in place.
• Chair Cared For Children’s Reviews and Child Protection Conferences.
• Scrutinise Local Authority performance for quality assurance.

Skills

Expert knowledge of child protection procedures

Childcare practice

Care planning legislation

Ability to chair challenging meetings

Knowledge of the Signs of Safety framework

Education

Social Work Qualification

Job description

All children in Westmorland and Furness deserve the best start in life and we're looking for the right people to help us make that happen.

We are looking for an experienced personto join us as an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO).

As an Independent Reviewing Officer, you will have a key role within Children’s Services.

The Independent Reviewing Officer is at the centre of safeguarding children, the role is highly visible and influential; this position is foremost in providing a leadership role to improve outcomes and provide quality assurance for Westmorland and Furness’ most vulnerable children.

The Role

In this role, you will be ensuring that children in need of protection and those children Cared For by the Local Authority have the right plans in place to meet their identified needs. The role will involve visiting Cared For Children and recording their views, chairing Cared For Children’s Reviews, chairing Child Protection Conferences, chairing Missing from Home Stage 2 meetings and leading complex strategy meetings, (such as suspected Fabricated or Induced Illness) in addition to other duties.

You will also be providing continuity and effective oversight of individual children’s plans, whilst ensuring the child’s views and wishes are being heard and acted on, ensuring children’s assessed needs are being met in a timely manner.

One of the key and critical aspects of the role is quality assurance, the IRO scrutinises and holds to account the performance of the Local Authority; this may result in either informal or formal challenge in the child’s best interests.

Who we are looking for!

We are looking for someone who has expert knowledge of child protection procedures, childcare practice, and care planning legislation, as well as being up to date with relevant research. Applicants will need to have the ability to chair difficult and challenging meetings and influence others to ensure the best outcomes are achieved for children.

A Social Work Qualification and registration with Social Work England is essential, as is the ability to work independently whilst delivering service priorities. Applicants should ideally have worked at either Team Manager or Advanced Practitioner level.

In addition, knowledge and experience of using the Signs of Safety framework would be an advantage, as we use this practice model as a way of empowering families to identify their strengths, manage their support and protect their children.

We encourage you to contact the recruiting manager Richard Lofthouse for an informal chat about this role [e-mail]

What can we offer you.

• Opportunity to work for an Ofsted rated ‘Good’ Local Authority
• Competitive rates of pay
• Excellent training and career development opportunities.
• Flexible working.
• Opportunity to join the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Boost your pension with Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contributions (facilitated by AVC Wise)
• Various perks and discounts schemes, including money off your phone contract and local gyms.

To apply please click theApply Nowlink below.