Service Provision Officer

Hertfordshire County Council; Stevenage; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Hertfordshire County Council’s Children & Young People’s SEND Brokerage Team seeks a highly motivated coordinator to broker and monitor care packages for disabled children and young people. You will work with families, social care professionals and providers to arrange suitable support, ensuring value for money and quality assurance.

Role involves DBS checks, driving to various locations in Hertfordshire, and supporting inclusion through signposting to local activities.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience of working with disabled children and families social care services.
• Highly organised with ability to prioritise workload.
• Ability to use own initiative.
• Good ICT skills.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience of dealing with a high level of confidentiality.
• Full driving licence and access to transport.

Responsibilities

• Broker effective packages of support to improve outcomes for children and families.
• Research and propose alternative care solutions when needed.
• Influence providers and stakeholders through proactive communication.
• Build positive relationships with children, families, carers and partners.
• Work flexibly in a changing environment and maintain accurate records.
• Organise work processes to promote team effectiveness and respond to day‑to‑day issues.
• Manage multiple demands and coordinate duty responsibilities as required.

Skills

Communication skills

Organisation

ICT skills

Problem solving

Teamwork

Job description

The Children & Young People's SEND Brokerage Team located within Specialist and Safeguarding Services in Hertfordshire is looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic person to join our busy team. We work in partnership with children/young people and their families to identify, broker, procure and monitor all packages of care for disabled children and young people as identified by an assessment of need carried out by the social work teams. We ensure services brokered are needs led, represent value for money and are appropriately quality assured. We work in partnership with other agencies to maximise positive outcomes for children and young people. We assist in identifying gaps in service provision and working with strategic commissioning we develop a more varied pool of resources in line with needs.

About the role

• Do you like making a positive difference to the lives of children and their families?
• Do you like a fast pace and rewarding role?
• Are you organised and diligent with excellent communication skills?

As part of this role, you will be involved in brokering & securing support for families with disabled children, from a diverse range of valued care provider organisations. Responsibilities in the role include arranging packages of support which are needs led and deliver positive outcomes. You'll be working in partnership with families, social care professionals and care providers, to identify and arrange the right support, therefore suitable candidates will have effective and proactive communication skills. You will also have the opportunity to promote inclusion for disabled children and young people, through signposting to local community-based activities and resources.

This role is open to secondments for eligible employees who work for HCC. If you wish to apply on a secondment basis, you must have your line manager's approval before submitting your application. You will be asked to confirm this within your application form. If you are not eligible for a secondment (e.g., you are currently on a fixed-term contract that would end before this positions ends) or you indicate that your manager cannot support a secondment, your application will be considered on a fixed-term contract basis instead.

We are changing Hertfordshire County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of Employment) principles. LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit Disability Confident.

We are proud to be a and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding

This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required

Key responsibilities

• The ability to analyse, understand and utilise information, in order to broker effective packages, to ensure improved outcomes for children.
• Ability to research and propose alternative solutions.
• Ability to influence providers and stakeholders, through effective and proactive communication. Ability to seek solutions and work proactively with partners.
• Ability to build positive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders to support effective collaborations. Stakeholders include the child / young person; parents / carers and wider parties.
• Ability to work flexibly in a changing and learning context.
• Ability to demonstrate use of ICT and maintain accurate records.
• Ability to organise your work and follow a range of processes consistently to promote an effective team working approach.
• Ability to manage and prioritise a number of different demands, engaging the support of colleagues where necessary.

This is a fast-paced environment; sourcing care packages that make a real difference to families with disabled children, providing personalised support from homecare to short breaks and direct payments. Therefore, you'll need to be able to work under pressure and be extremely well organised, taking a pro-active approach to your workload. To identify effective services, you will be flexible and adaptable, a creative problem-solver, and deliver person-centred solutions. You will be a strong team worker, committed to ensuring the team maintains its good reputation for being responsive and family focused. This includes covering 'duty' responsibilities on a rota for responding to day-to-day issues as well as your allocated care package tasks.

You'll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency

The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required).

About you - Essential

• Demonstrable experience of working with disabled children and young people and/or providing children and families social care services.
• Highly organised and ability to prioritise your workload.
• Ability to use own initiative.
• Good ICT skills
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Experience of dealing with a high level of confidentiality
• Full driving licence and access to transport