Sanctuary Social Care has a permanent job vacancy for an experienced and dedicated Independent Reviewing Officer to work in Wandsworth. The ideal candidate will possess highly developed specialist knowledge of social work practice in children's services and be registered with the HCPC.
The salary for this permanent Independent Reviewing Officer job is £42,656 to £50,184 per annum.
Main Duties:
- To work as an independent reviewing officer for children looked after, carrying out the role in accordance with statutory guidance (IRO Handbook, Care Planning Regulations, Working Together to Safeguard Children and departmental practice standards).
- To monitor the performance by the Local Authority of their functions in relation to a child's case.
- To facilitate and promote the participation of a child within their review and ensure that any ascertained wishes and feelings of the child are given due consideration in the planning and review process.
- To raise Dispute Resolution alerts where threshold is met and challenges can't be resolved informally.
- To chair the reviews of children looked after and monitor the child's case on an on-going basis.
- To chair Child Protection conferences ensuring that these meet the quality standards laid down by the department and conform to expectation of WTSC and London Child Protection procedures.
- To provide consultation and advice on key safeguarding thresholds to Managers and Practitioners 3 Official.
- To undertake mid ways reviews of all children looked after or those subject to child protection plans and retain quality assurance oversight of the plans for children.
- To work in conjunction with the operational managers and all other staff to ensure that child protection and looked after children systems are fully and effectively implemented within the service.
- To provide consultation to professionals across the children's partnership about child protection allegations against trusted adults in a paid or unpaid capacity.
- To convene and chair strategy meetings about complex child abuse and allegations against trusted adults.
- To chair and/or be a member of the secure accommodation review panel (under section 25 of Children's Act).
- To chair adoption and permanent fostering disruption meetings in relation to permanent placements.
- To provide advice and guidance to colleagues about legislation, government guidance, learning from audit/Serious Case Reviews and research.
- To be responsible for ensuring that child protection conferences and LAC review meetings conform to statutory timescales and are carried out to a high standard.
- To ensure the effective and active participation of children, young people and their parents and wider families in child protection conferences and review meetings for children looked after.
- To promote access to advocacy services for children and families involved in the service.
- To input and maintain records of child protection conferences and LAC reviews and other quality assurance oversight including midway reviews relating to children on their electronic case records.
- To work with operational managers to ensure that quality standards are met in relation to staff performance through support and challenge.
- To develop, quality assure and apply policies and procedures about Looked after Children and Child Protection in conjunction with internal teams, senior managers and external partner agencies.
- To promote and deliver a link relationship with an identified team or service.
- To carry out audits, surveys and research initiatives to support the quality assurance remit of the service.
- To monitor performance indicators and practice standards; to contribute to the production of quarterly reports for the Children's Services Department, the children's Safeguarding Board and Corporate Parenting Panel.
- To recognise health and safety is a responsibility of every employee to take reasonable care of self and others and to comply with the Wandsworth and Richmond Councils Health and Safety Policy and any service specific procedures / rules that apply to this role.
Requirements of the Independent Reviewing Officer:
- Degree or equivalent in social work
- Current HCPC registration
- Significant senior level frontline experience within children's services
Contact:
This Independent Reviewing Officer job is advertised by Jamie Bartlett; if you are interested in this position please click above to apply now.
Due to the high volume of applications we receive, regretfully we are only able to respond to candidates who meet our clients' requirements.
Reasonable Adjustments:
If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement.
