Job Introduction
Together4Children is an innovative and forward-thinking Partnership of 4 Local Authorities, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council.
We are working together to improve outcomes for those children who enter care and are not able to return to their families of origin. We aim to ensure that our children achieve emotional, physical and legal permanence; growing up in loving homes with adults who provide them with a strong sense of security, continuity, commitment and identity.
We are seeking two regional adoption panel advisers, with experience and knowledge of adoption work, to provide high quality professional advice to our regional adoption panels and agency decision makers.
A key role in ensuring that adoption decisions are safe, timely, legally compliant and in the best interests of children, you will pay a critical part on maintaining robust panel processes, supporting panel members, and ensuring that all recommendations meet statutory guidance, regulations and best practice standards.
Currently the adoption panels across the region are held remotely through Microsoft Teams, but there is the opportunity to consider moving some panels to face to face. There is also the expectation that the panel adviser attends face to face regional meetings, training and development days.
Main Responsibility
You will:
- Have overall responsibility for the effective functioning of specific Adoption Panels across the Together4Children Regional Permanency Arrangement
- Ensure Regional Adoption Panels run smoothly and timely by coordinating with panel administrators.
- Lead the quality assurance of papers being prepared for Adoption Panels to ensure they meet the necessary standards with adherence to appropriate internal and external legislation.
- Provide professional social work advice and guidance to specific Together4Children Regional Adoption Panels, providing specialist complex, legal and ethical information in respect of internal and external legislation, policies and procedures.
- Lead the recruitment, training, annual appraisal processes and termination of Regional Panel Chairperson(s), Vice Panel Chairperson(s) and Panel Members in line with the Policies and Procedures of the Together4Children Regional Permanency Arrangement.
The Ideal Candidate
You'll be a highly experienced adoption professional, with a strong child centred approach to their work, confident in offering advice and constructive challenge, ensuring that adoption recommendations are in the best interests of children.
You'll also:
- Be a qualified social worker, registered with social work England
- Have substantial professional experience in adoption and children's social care
- Have an in depth knowledge of adoption legislation, regulations, statutory guidance and national minimum standards
- Possess a high level of interpersonal skills, including the ability to develop effective working relationships with Managers, Senior Managers and Legal Services
- Have excellent communication skills, both verbally and written. You'll need to liaise with staff and managers within and outside of the Agency at all levels and prepare high quality written work as evidence for performance data.
- Be able to analyse complex reports and evidence, identifying strengths, risks and gaps
- Have strong professional judgement and the ability to maintain objective and child focussed
- Be committed to continuous professional development
Interviews will be held during the week commencing 12th January 2026.
Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Sarah Havill, Head of Together4Children at: sarah.havill1@staffordshire.gov.uk
Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.
About Staffordshire County Council
We are no ordinary county council:
Our Values:
The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.
Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.
We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.
Our benefits:
We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire
Our recruitment process:
As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities
As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.
