Adoption Support Senior Practitioner

Our children come first. Their needs and wishes, welfare and safety are at the centre of everything we do - and we are dedicated to support our families.

Adoption Partnership South East is a new regional adoption agency, delivering adoption services for the London Borough of Bexley, Kent County Council, and Medway Council.

Bringing together our expertise, we are committed to achieving the best for all our children across the region. Our agency launched in November 2020.

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to remain in the care of their parents and birth families wherever possible. However, where it is not possible to achieve stability for the child within the birth family, we work to achieve alternative permanent arrangements for the child within a family setting and these include adoption.

The adoption service abides by equal opportunities legislation and the policies of each Partner. The service works positively and respectfully with all service users and partner agencies regardless of race, colour, religion, language, culture, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or age. Every attempt is made to secure an adoptive family which meets a child's emotional and developmental needs considering their ethnicity, religion, language, culture, gender, and disability considering the need to avoid undue delay., This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

As a senior practitioner working within the Adoption Support Team, you will be working within a multidisciplinary team to ensure that our families receive support tailored to their changing needs as the children grow and develop into adulthood. Our social work teams assess the support needs of our adoptive families, provide supportive interventions, work alongside multi-professional networks including education, social care, health and early help teams. You will also co-facilitate therapeutic workshops and courses delivered to our parents. We are a busy service and the role is varied to support the differing needs of our adoptive families.

For this role, you will need to have excellent assessment skills, an ability to work with parents and children who may be in distress and an understanding of the complex needs of children and families throughout a child's life. It would also be an advantage if you have experience working with adopters and have an understanding of their journey through adoption.

As a Social Worker registered with Social Work England, you will have an understanding of adoption legislation and practices plus children & family's legal proceedings. You will also be an effective communicator with a high standard of interpersonal skills and ability to deal with a wide range of people. It is also important that you demonstrate awareness and understanding of equal opportunities and other people's physical, social and cultural needs. You must have sufficient post qualifying experience and newly qualified social workers will, therefore, not be considered for this post at this time.

This is an exciting opportunity to become part of Adoption Partnership South East regional adoption agency and help to make a positive difference for children and families across the South East., Work that works for you and us - let's talk flexibility!

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note - if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.