Personal Advisor

Southampton City Council; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent local government pension

Flexible working options

Generous holiday

Training and development

Health and wellbeing support

Job summary

Southampton City Council is seeking a Personal Advisor to support care leavers in Southampton, focusing on independence, housing, education and employment. The role emphasizes building trust, relational work and systemic practice with young people and their networks, backed by strong supervision and management support.

The position is based in Southampton city centre with hybrid working available, offering a substantial starting salary and a commitment to professional development within Pathways

Qualifications

• Experience and empathy for care leavers; strong relational practice and commitment to safeguarding.
• Understanding of systemic practice frameworks and how to build trust with young people.
• Strong communication and advocacy with partners and families.

Responsibilities

• Maintain regular contact with care leavers and co-produce pathway plans.
• Build meaningful relationships to support independence, wellbeing, education or employment.
• Demonstrate care for care leavers and show they are valued by SCC.
• Work with partner agencies to advocate for young people and address risks/needs.
• Attend social events to build confidence and networks.

Job description

Personal Advisor

Pathways Through Care Service – supporting Southampton’s children in care and care experienced young people.

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 and 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.

We have a strong corporate parenting strategy to give our care experienced young adults the best opportunities and support we can offer. You will need energy, commitment and empathy to offer the support our young people need to reach their potential and have aspirations for their futures.

You will have a good grasp of the relevant legislation for care leavers and experience of working with older children and young people, with a clear understanding of the impact of trauma and the need for high quality, committed relationships that provide security for young people at one of the most critical and vulnerable times in their lives. We are working within a Systemic Practice framework and you will benefit from reflective supervision and strong management support.

The Service

The service benefits from a permanent management team who have a wide range of experience from different service areas as well as a service manager who is visible and approachable. There are 4 teams within the care leavers 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 there is a Staying Connected team who have work specifically with the young people (currently post 18) who are in supported accommodation.

The service prides itself on having a cohesive and friendly feel who offer support to team members.

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, as well as a strong track record of relational work and experience of systemic frameworks would be an advantage.

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. You will be offered individual case and personal supervision as well as clinical guidance and review.

You will have experience of working with children and young people and ideally have some formal qualifications in related courses.

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. Hyrid working is available.

What we can offer you

The salary band for this role is Grade 8 - starting salary £38,510 (SCP 26)

You will have training and development opportunities according to your needs. You will be part of a supportive team and receive high quality, reflective supervision and management support from the team manager and service manager.

Rewards

SCC offers a range of different benefits, a few examples can be found below.

• Excellent local government pension with 15.2% employer contribution
• Death in service benefit of x3 salary, and optional salary sacrifice shared cost AVC (additional voluntary contribution)
• Generous holiday 25–31 days, based on role and service
• Flexible working options (role-dependent)
• Family-friendly policies - Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared/Unpaid Parental Leave, Time off for Dependents
• Training and development, including coaching and mentoring
• Health and wellbeing support - Employee Assistance Programme, Menopause Pledge, Mental Health First Aiders and access to a variety of staff networks
• Veteran-friendly employer with the Armed Forces Covenant
• Retail discounts and savings through the Southampton City Council benefits platform
• Discounted memberships at local sports and fitness centres
• Sustainable travel benefits - low emission car scheme, cycle to work, season ticket loans
• Employee volunteering scheme with 2 paid days leave to volunteer

For further information on our benefits package please visit: Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk)

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.

Contact details for informal discussion

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Toby Flight, Team Manager at [e-mail] or Carolyn Driscoll, Service Manager - Pathways Through Care at [e-mail]

Interview Information

Please note that interviews are provisionally scheduled for 9th November 2026.