Children's Rights Officer - PO2

To support the resolution of issues primarily for looked after children, care leavers and children who return from missing.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
? To provide support to the child or young person to ensure that their wishes and feelings are heard and considered to all forums related to them
LONDON
BOROUGH
OF
HACKNEY
? To provide support to ensure that children and young people have a say about decisions which affect them.
? To provide information about other services or organisations which may be useful and support as required in accessing these.
? To attend meetings as requested by children and young people either with them or on their behalf to advocate their views
? To mediate any complaints children may have, and if not able to resolve this to then support children to make a formal complaint in a timely manner
? To provide children and young people with advice on their rights and entitlements
? To work in partnership with allocated Social Work Units to promote the child's views and experiences and reach compromise on any areas of conflict
? To be actively involved in promoting young people's participation, either in individual meeting forums or more widely for example with Hackney Children in Care Council
? To liaise with the Children's Legal Service, the Children's Commissioner or the Local Government Ombudsman on complex cases or cases that require specialist legal advice.
? To engage with elected Members where necessary
? To facilitate training around missing and exploited young people and advocacy, and awareness raising regarding the service
? To undertake return from missing interviews
? To support young people to understand risks and safety and to develop safety plans with them if they are at risk of going missing or being exploited
? To contribute to the personal and social development of children and young people supported by the post.
? To provide group work interventions as appropriate to the needs of young people known to the service
? To provide targeted one to one sessions in respect of keep safe work in respect of sexual relationships, exploitation, power and control, coercion, action and consequence, decision making, emotional well-being, substance use, and any other relevant topic as appropriate
DATA
? To maintain an effective recording system in line with internal processes to track and monitor support provided.
? To support the production of accurate and timely reports to demonstrate the efficacy of work done with children and young people.
? To lead on the development and provision of information about advocacy, return from missing interviews and other support systems, in a range of accessible formats and for a range of audiences.
? To be responsible for monitoring themes and trends and feeding them into CFS service development.
? To develop service feedback which leads service development
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
? To ensure any service expenditure is in line with agreed parameters and expenditure above this is firstly agreed by the budget holder.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES:
? To demonstrate, through personal and professional example, a commitment to equality of opportunity for all groups of staff and service users and to challenge discrimination, racism, sexism and other forms of unjust behaviour.
? To develop an understanding and have an awareness of the social and political context in which services for disabled children and young people operate in a diverse, multi-ethnic, inner city environment and to ensure that this is reflected in all work produced and in personal contact.
? The postholder is expected to be committed to the Council's core values of public service, quality, equality and empowerment and to demonstrate this commitment in the way they carry out their duties.
ADDITIONAL:
? To use necessary IT hardware and software to meet the requirements of the job.
? To ensure appropriate security and confidentiality of all information in relation to children, and any other business of the service.
? To ensure that Health and Safety standards are adhered to.
? To ensure that the Data Protection Act, Human Rights Act and related legislation informs all work.
? To undertake any other task that might reasonably be required within the grade and overall functions of the post.
? A satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure is required for this post., ? The post holder will be required to attend evening and out-of-hours meetings with young people and occasional events to promote the service.
Document Number: 21979834
Document Name: CRO JD - updated Jan 2019

As a Children's Rights Officer, you will be a lead advocate for children and young people
both in care and subject to Child Protection Plans, undertake Return Home Interviews,
and provide specific safety planning and input around sexual harm and exploitation.

Proactive and committed, you will bring a comprehensive knowledge and skill-base to
the challenge of advocating for the most vulnerable children and young people using
your skills, empathy and understanding. You will promote children's rights throughout
Hackney.

? Social work, or equivalent professional, qualification (e.g. youth work, teaching, health, Advocacy).
? Evidence of continuing professional development.
? Very high standards of literacy and numeracy.
EXPERIENCE
? Experience of providing advocacy to children and young people and of promoting their rights.
? Experience of working with people from a range of backgrounds and at different levels of seniority.
? Experience of producing in-depth reports and papers for senior children's services or social care audiences.
? Experience of collating, analysing and presenting information in a number of formats and for different audiences.
KNOWLEDGE
? Detailed knowledge of legislation in relation to children and young people.
? Detailed knowledge of legislation and good practice in relation to Children's Act complaints.
? Thorough understanding of the issues facing children and young people in Hackney.
? A strong working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and the
Internet.
? Detailed knowledge of the National Standards for the Provision of Children's Advocacy Services
? Detailed knowledge of the statutory Children's Act complaints regulations.
? Detailed knowledge of the issues facing young people who go missing and the role that independent return home interviews can play
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
? Ability to work in a child-centred and sensitive manner with children and young people and to capture their voice and integrate their perspective into service development and evaluation.
? Ability to creatively engage children and young people of all ages and abilities including children with disabilities.
? Ability and confidence to communicate in a clear, concise and informative way with people at all levels, including children and young people, parents, elected Members and senior management, and to be sensitive, diplomatic, discreet and courteous in all contact, internal and external.
? An ability to use initiative to work methodically through a high volume of different types of work to timescales.
? An ability to remain highly organised and focussed while working under pressure and to set deadlines recognising the need to adjust work priorities.
? IT literate with the ability to understand and quickly develop a working familiarity with a range of software packages and computer hardware to produce good quality information.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
? Satisfactory medical, sickness records and references.