Quality Assurance & Audit Manager

Job Title: Quality Assurance & Audit Manager
Starting Salary: £46,731 progressing to £51,802 per annum plus market enhanced payment
Hours: 37.0
Base Location: Farnham House - Stevenage*
Contract Type: Fixed Term End Date/Secondment for 1 year
Directorate: Childrens Services

*The role is a combination of hybrid and office working.
The applicant must be able to attend in-person meetings and events at Stevenage and other sites across Hertfordshire, as and when required in-line with the business need.

The applicant will be expected to be in the office all days during Inspection Periods.

About the team

Are you passionate about promoting best practice, strengthening services, and achieving positive outcomes for children, young people, and families?

We are looking for a Quality Assurance and Audit Manager to join the Social Care Quality Assurance & Practice Team. The team works in collaboration with a range of internal and external stakeholders. The team is well established, with all staff being in post for 2+ years. The successful applicant will help in shaping future social work practice, promoting best practice and ensuring positive outcomes for children and families.

About the role

Key fundamentals of this role will see the postholder deliver:

• Partnership working with teams, service areas, the Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and partner agencies
• Working with senior leaders
• Supporting to develop and deliver practice weeks and internal peer reviews
• Developing, reviewing and interpretating new and existing policies and practice guidance in accordance with national legislation, guidance and service requirements
• Supporting the delivery of the QA framework

Further details of this is as follows:

• Supporting the development and maintenance of the audit and quality assurance processes, ensuring that they meet external inspection requirements and enable Children's Services to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of its arrangements to safeguard children in Hertfordshire.
• Assisting the Quality Assurance, Audit, Policy, and Practice Development Team in maintaining and implementing an effective policy and practice framework to support staff in delivering effective interventions in children's social care services.
• Working in partnership with teams and service areas to complete audits, analyse findings, write reports, and make recommendations around how practice can be improved.
• Working with Senior Leaders, sharing findings from quality assurance activity and agreeing actions plans to address any areas of development.
• Supporting the management of Children's Services Quality Assurance Framework, supporting with developing and delivery of Practice Weeks and Internal Peer Reviews.
• Sharing learning from quality assurance activity with the workforce, through delivering presentations to the workforce.
• Close working with our Learning and Development Team and Participation Team to support delivery of the QA Framework.
• Through quality assurance activity to monitor and review the implementation of policy and practice guidance and ensure it is effective in supporting the department to meet its performance improvement targets and objectives.
• Use the learning from quality audits, reviews of children and young people's records, service user feedback and action research to develop effective practice.
• Work closely with the Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and partner agencies to develop joint working practices and complete multi-agency quality assurance activity.
• Support the Policy Manager as needed with developing and reviewing policy and practice guidance in accordance with national legislation, guidance, and service requirements.
• Provide an initial interpretation of new government initiatives, legislative changes, and guidance particularly around audit and quality assurance and their impact and/or implications for the work of CS/Local Authority.

About you

Essential:

• Hold Social Work qualification and SWE registration professionally qualified.
• Adhering to the Social Work England (SWE) standards of proficiency and meet the national professional social work capabilities.
• Proven post qualifying experience and a commitment to own continuous professional development and development of best practice.
• Experience of completing audits of children's records
• Sound knowledge of social work with children & families and capacity to develop in depth knowledge and lead on specialist areas.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft IT package
• Ability to travel to offices bases at short notice and for periods of time especially when an inspection is announced.

Desirable:

• Experience of project planning and management
• Experience of undertaking research and producing complex reports or documents
• Experience of developing user & stakeholder involvement in the development and planning of services
• Experience of interpreting and analysing the impact of legislation and policy on service delivery.
• Experience of working across organisational boundaries

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care Services, level HSC12 job profile. Please locate this via: Job profiles - Health and social care

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Sara Malik (sara.malik@hertfordshire.gov.uk) an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: 28/03/2025

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

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

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). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.