Team Leader Home Finding

Salary: Band 12, £50,787 to £54,999 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time (37 hours per week)

Closing date: Sunday 1 December 2024, 23:59

Interview date: Thursday 12 December 2024

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. It is also committed to promoting quality childcare across the city that works to improve outcomes for children.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children’s Board safer recruitment procedures.

Why come to live and work in Portsmouth?

Portsmouth is a great waterfront city and a vibrant place to live and work. It is an island city with an “inner city” feel, a seaside location packed with attractions and events, and the advantage of fantastic countryside on its doorstep. With fast road and rail links to London, Brighton and major airports, and ferry links to Europe, it is the perfect place to live and work. Portsmouth has a strong history of partnership working and has successfully integrated several local services. 

The Service:

Children's Social Care provides social work interventions to children in need (including children with disabilities and those subject to protection plans) and children looked after and care leavers. It is the responsibility of Children's Social Care to offer a range of options for children who need placements outside their families, including fostering and residential care alongside adoption, special guardianship, and kinship arrangements. The Home Finding Team is responsible for identifying suitable care for children we care for, including foster care, semi-independent provision, and children's homes.

Your New Role:

You will have responsibility for managing the work related to finding homes for children which provide warm, kind, and safe care, where they feel loved and can flourish. You will manage a team, offering scrutiny and challenge to promote a creative and dynamic team, committed to ever improving outcomes. You will lead by example having integrity, promoting equal access, and being aspirational in the work.   You will create positive working relationships across the team, with other professionals, foster carers and provider agencies, to promote good outcomes for children and their families. You will play a significant role in the development, implementation, and monitoring of contracts for the placement of children in the local authority's care.

Please read the job profile for the full details of this role. 

What you'll need to succeed:

You have a recognised professional qualification in social work (Social Work Diploma/Degree/MSc or equivalent) and be registered with Social Work England. You are curious, creative and solution focused, and passionate about making a difference for young people. You have experience of managing staff or students and can support staff to grow and learn through reflective supervision. You have good organisational, leadership and communication skills, can organise your own time and prioritise conflicting demands, and want to be part of a team. You have a robust understanding of the care market and know how to broker effectively within this, and are committed to the delivery of positive outcomes for children, young people and families.

Please read the job profile for the full details of this role. 

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

What you'll get in return:

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
• Flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of three days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to two days at home every week. Hybrid working is dependent on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
• Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme 
• Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
• Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.

Staff rewards: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/

Additional Information:

The full job profile is attached here.

Contact Details for an Informal Discussion:

Mark Jowett, Head of Service: Children We Care For, mark.jowett@portsmouthcc.gov.uk, 023 92 437 593

A commitment to our values:

We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours.

Application process:

How to complete your application: https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/how-to-apply/

We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

Please submit both a CV and a cover letter/personal statement. Remember to demonstrate in your cover letter/personal statement why you are suitable against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' section of the full Job Profile, using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.

If you upload a CV without a cover letter/personal statement, it is unlikely that your application will be successful.

Please ensure you provide your full education history from secondary school, include name/address of establishment, details of relevant qualifications & awarding