Job Introduction
About Together4Children:
Together4Children combines 4 Local Authorities, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council who have come together in an innovative and forward-thinking Partnership.
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.
Together4Children operates through a hub and spoke model enabling Local Authorities to benefit from core central functions and networked regional delivery, whilst retaining direct service delivery functions within their own borders. This ensures the Partnership reflects the local context, adapted to meet the needs of local children and families, and maintains clear links to local Children & Families Services.
The Together4Children partnership provides the Regional Adoption Agency for the partner Local Authorities. By working together, we aim to:
- Make best use of our collective resources to recruit, assess and support prospective adopters and foster carers across the region.
- Improve the quality and speed of matching for children through better planning and by having a wider choice of families.
- Provide high quality support to children and their families delivered through a combination of direct provision and effective partnerships.
- Provide all children and their families with the right support at the right time through a consistent permanency support offer available across the region.
- Respond to the regulatory requirements in respect of Adoption (including Non-Agency Adoptions and Intercountry Adoption).
Main Responsibility
You''ll provide full administrative support to our Social Work Team and be responsible for:
- Facilitating and administering funding applications to the Adoption & Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF)
- Securing identified therapeutic services for children and families from approved service partners
- Submitting applications on social work practitioners’ behalf to the ASGSF government online portal including tracking and monitoring applications,
- Payment of invoices, placing of orders and ensuring payment of accounts
The Ideal Candidate
With previous experience of providing administrative support you'll also have:
- Good communication skills and the ability to work with people at all levels
- Good time management skills with an ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines and on own initiative.
- Good level of IT skills using Office 365 together with the ability to advise and mentor other staff within the office on IT related issues.
- Sensitive and attentive listening skills.
- Ability to undertake a number of areas of work to ensure flexibility within the team demonstrating the ability to respond positively to changes at short notice
For further information about this role please contact Amy: amy.baddeley@staffordshire.gov.uk
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.
