Placements & Commissioning Officer

at  Leicester City Council

PLACEMENTS & COMMISSIONING OFFICER

Job description
Full Time / 37 Hours Per Week / Fixed Term for 2 years due to backfilling secondment
Are you an enthusiastic and resilient individual? Join our busy Placements & Commissioning Team to arrange and quality assure a wide range of foster, residential and semi-independent placements for children and young people in the care of Local Authority. The team consists of 3 Placements & Commissioning Officers, a Senior Placements & Commissioning Officer who are all overseen by a Team Manager.
We will consider this vacancy on a secondment basis for Leicester City Council employees. If you wish to apply for this post on a secondment basis, then please ensure you have your line manager’s approval before applying.
This is a full time, fixed term position working 37 hours per week. Typical working hours at 8.30am-5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am-4.30pm on a Friday. However, on occasion you may be required to work unsocial hours based on the needs of the service. You’ll have flexibility in hybrid working being both office based (usually Tuesday and Wednesdays), at other locations (e.g. visiting placements) or working remotely from home to suit your needs.

It’s not surprising that within this role you’ll be responsible for providing a range of high quality and safe living environments for young people in the care of the local authority. Receiving referrals of children/young people via the Placements Desk and through partnership with allocated Social Workers, you’ll arrange and co-ordinate the provision of placements for Children Looked After and Care Leavers, ensuring that their assessed needs are met. In addition, you’ll co-ordinate referrals of children/young people with relevant provider services including, but not limited to, in-house and external foster carers, children’s homes and semi-independent provision. In order to ensure that placements are safe and meet the required standards, you’ll visit them and act on any matters of concern that arise.
Your contribution to reports, statistics and budgetary information and analysis of quality care will take form in written and electronic records. As well as any reports on allegations against carers and care providers, both internally and externally. It will be your responsibility to ensure these are kept safe and in accordance with any required legislation.
You’ll maintain regular and appropriate liaison with Social Workers and other professionals to monitor progress, well-being and retain focus on the child’s needs. You will participate in supervision sessions with the Team Manager to ensure that your work remains focussed and effective, attending and contributing to team meetings and service events. In addition, you’ll regularly attend a range of meetings including reviews and quality assurance visits of placements alongside your managers, Social Workers and other professionals.