Personal Advisor (Children’s Services)

Job Purpose

To ensure that the diverse population of care leavers are provided with the necessary support to successfully make the transition to adulthood. To provide a high quality service to care leavers, working in partnership where possible with families, and other statutory and third sector organisations

To participate in team and other service meetings and activities as appropriate

Key responsibilities/activities

1. Deliver a high quality service to care leavers aimed at ensuring best outcomes and enabling the young person to succeed as they make their transition to adulthood.

2. Regularly prepare, update, review and implement pathway plans in conjunction with the supervising manager and ensure parallel planning where applicable..

3. Undertake human rights assessments and ensure that the rights of young people are observed.

3. Co-ordinate the provision of services and take reasonable steps so that care leavers make use of services available

4. Keep informed about care leavers’ progress and wellbeing, ensuring plans are progressed to meet assessed need.

5. Keep full, accurate and up to date records of contacts with care leavers and services provided, accurately and in a timely manner on the care leavers electronic case file.

6. Work holistically with care leavers and families around times of transition and transfer to additional services where appropriate.

7. Seek active partnership with parents, carers and other professionals to promote and safeguard the welfare of young people.

8. Support care leavers to enter and sustain education, training and employment.

9. Work with other organisations to overcome barriers to learning and employment faced by young people.

10. Support care leavers in all aspects of the process required to access accommodation and to ensure they are supported to maintain their tenancy and there resettlement needs are met.

11. Ensure care leavers have accessed welfare benefits where eligible.

12. Contribute to workshops/training sessions for care leavers to provide independence skills and other identified skills.

13. Work with care leavers who have additional needs such as complex mental health, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, young parents (possibly subject to CP/Proceedings), immigration issues which also includes those who have a adult services lead worker

14. Undertake assessment of need following re-referral post age 21 for those wishing to resume education or training where eligible.

15. Ensure young people obtain legal advice as required in order to progress their immigration status and to carefully monitor and support this process whilst maintaining active links with the Boarder and Immigration Agency and legal advisors. Ensure parallel planning for possible return to country of origin.

16. Ensure that all expenditure on cases is properly authorised and recorded, and that cases with financial packages are regularly monitored and reviewed.

17. Promote the welfare of care leavers with particular regard for their age, sex, health, race, religion, culture and life experiences.

18. Maintain and develop up to date relevant skills and knowledge of current legislation, policy and practice, through training and development opportunities as required or agreed by Team Manager,.

19. Take responsibility for managing an individual caseload, having regard to the relative needs of all service users and ensuring an effective use of time and resources.

20. Bring any issues of concern regarding a Young Person/adult or a placement to the immediate attention of the supervising or duty manager where there is reason to believe that the young person/adult may be at risk of harm or have been harmed.

21. Attend and make use of supervision and staff appraisals.

22. Contribute through team meetings and organisational events to the development of the service.

23. Use information technology systems to carry out duties.

24. Act as duty officer on a rota basis and as required by the Team Manager. The duty worker is responsible for dealing with emergencies, which arise on cases when the allocated worker is unavailable.

25. Report any concerns about abuse or malpractice by colleagues, in line with the Council’s Whistle Blowing Policy.

26. Work flexibly in line with needs of the service which will entail working outside of normal office hours, and out of borough visits.

27. Ensure that all legislation and local council policies and procedures, including Health and Safety are adhered to.

28. These activities may be varied from time to time to meet the changing needs of the service.

Children and Families – Person Specification

POST: Personal Advisor

GRADE: PO1

These are the qualities we believe to be necessary to do this job. You should clearly show in your application how your skills/experience potential meet some or all of them, as the short listing decision will be based on our assessment of you against these criteria.

The final assessment processes will also seek to assess these characteristics.

Education/Qualifications

1. Possess or be working towards a professional qualification

Work/Other Experience

1. A minimum of 2 years experience of social care work including assessment of young people’s needs in a voluntary or statutory setting.
2. Direct experience of working with people from different racial and cultural backgrounds

3. Experience of writing reports and other record keeping.

4. Proven ability to engage positively with young people, command their trust and respect and empower them to make decisions

Communication, Skills Written and Verbal

5. Ability to initiate, draft and produce reports.

6. Ability to deal with general correspondence and record casework.

7. Ability to form a working relationship with the young person.

8. Ability to communicate effectively with parents, carer’s and professionals in order to assess young people’s needs in formal settings.

9. Ability to maintain a professional response with service users who may be feeling distressed or angry.

Admin/Organisational Skills

10. Ability to work as part of a team.

11. Ability to undertake work independently.

12. Ability to plan and prioritise work.

13. Ability to use I T systems

14. Ability to plan, prioritise, design, review and implement pathway plans.

15. Ability to develop young people’s independence skills

16. Knowledge of the legal framework affecting care leavers particularly 1989 Act and Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and related regulations.

17. Knowledge of asylum and immigration and human rights legislation

Essential

18. Understanding of issues relating to the education, emotional and physical/social well-being of children from diverse backgrounds.

19. Knowledge and awareness of issues relating to discrimination, disadvantage and the practical application of equalities legislation and policy.

20. Knowledge of Human growth and development.

21. Knowledge of difficulties and range of issues faced by looked after children as they make their transition to adulthood.

22. Understanding of the barriers young people face in accessing and sustaining education, training and employment

23. Understanding the difficulties care leavers face accessing permanent housing, and maintaining tenancies.

24. Demonstrative commitment to equalities in employment and service provision. Understanding of Council policy on equalities

Other Requirements

25. Ability to undertake travel, often at short notice both in and outside of London.

26. Ability to work flexibly with occasional early morning starts / late p.m. finishes, possibly without notice.

27. Sufficient maturity and resilience to cope with working in stressful and demanding situations.

28. Commitment to develop own skills through professional development and training