Please see the two roles, Business Co-ordinator and Business Manager (please scroll down)
Adoption Business Co-ordinator, Adopt London North Regional Adoption Agency
Type Business Support Services Grade SO1 Salary £31,434 – £32,577 p.a.
Contract Permanent, Based, London Borough of Islington
Hours Full time, 35 hours per week
Location The Laycock Centre, Laycock Street, London, N1 1TH
Closing date 11/09/2019 at 11:59
Apply via http://jobs.islington.gov.uk/vacancy/1961981
Background
Adopt London North is a new Regional Adoption Agency for North London being launched on 1st October 2019 in Islington. The agency is a partnership between the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington and will provide local authority adoption services to children and families on behalf of the six boroughs.
Our role includes finding families for children in need of adoptive homes; recruiting, training and supporting new adoptive families; and providing lifelong adoption support and training to families within our area. Our social work teams and managers are made up of adoption staff from the six partner boroughs. We are a committed staff group, passionate about the benefits of adoption and determined to deliver excellent support to our families.
Your role
The service will consist of five social work teams offering specialist adoption services. Each team will consist of 5-6 practitioners working under the leadership of a Team Manager with support from a dedicated Adoption Business Co-ordinator. Adoption Business Co-ordinators will play a critical role supporting the work of their team and will have a wide-ranging and interesting role ensuring that business processes work smoothly and that the administrative tasks of social workers are minimised.
You will be based in one of the specialist teams, taking a lead in the relevant area of practice as well as supporting your team members. You will be an integral part of the team; being the first point of contact for clients, being part of weekly team supervisions and playing an active role in supporting the casework in your team. You will also work as part of the business support team to ensure the needs of the whole service are met and will be supported in your role by the Adoption Business Manager. Although you will specialise in one area, you will need to be flexible to respond to changing levels of demand across the service.
The five areas of specialism which form a part of each role are:
Adoption Support, leading on the Adoption Support Fund: You will specialise in managing the applications made by social workers to the government’s Adoption Support Fund, which provides crucial funding for families to access therapeutic services. You will manage applications through the online portal, invoices and contracts with therapeutic providers and liaise closely with Islington’s finance department to monitor income and expenditure.
Adoption Support, leading on letterbox contact: You will specialise in the setting up and managing of the letterbox system which is used to enable adopted children and their families to receive or exchange letters with members of their birth family. You will monitor and enable the secure and safe exchange of letters and work closely with social workers to support birth parents to engage in the service.
Family Finding: You will support the social workers in your team as they set up and run transitions for children moving into their adoptive families for the first time and will manage the inter-agency fee payments which are exchanged when children are placed between different adoption agencies. You will specialise in supporting the new systems being developed to track and progress plans for children who might be in need of adoptive placements from across the six boroughs and will work closely with colleagues in partner boroughs to achieve this.
Recruitment & Assessment: You will coordinate recruitment and training programmes being run for potential new adoptive parents and will specialise in managing and coordinating the statutory background checks which need to be completed for all potential adoptive parents. You will help us develop new systems for remaining in contact with potential adopters who have not proceeded with an adoption application and support our marketing activity across London.
Adoption Panel Coordinator: You will lead the coordination of our new Adoption Panel based within the service, which will be sitting twice per month to consider cases from all six of the partner boroughs. You will organise the attendance of panel members and collation and distribution of electronic paperwork. You will play a crucial role in supporting our plans to speed up decision making processes after Adoption panel. You will play a role in taking the minutes of Panel meetings, supported by colleagues.
In addition, you will undertake a wide variety of tasks as you support your team including coordinate and minute meetings, support team financial and travel processes, process documentation and updates to the children’s database, respond to contact by clients on the phone or by email. You will become part of a small and dedicated service, committed to the needs of adopted children and their families. We want our social workers to have as much time and support as possible to focus on the needs of adoptive families, and you will play an essential role in ensuring that we are able to deliver this ambition.
Practical information
We have five vacancies available as permanent Islington positions, which are ring-fenced for existing staff in the six partner boroughs within North London. You do not need to have direct experience of working within adoption services but when you apply please tell us about how your experience and knowledge is transferable to this role.
We would like new staff to have the opportunity to start as close to our launch date as possible and there is agreement in principle for partner boroughs to release staff early from their current roles where this is possible.
The service is based at the Laycock Centre, Laycock Street, N1 1TH. The centre is 2 minutes’ walk from Highbury & Islington station. You will be office based most of the time.
We are able to consider requests for flexible working or part time working but cannot guarantee that these can be accommodated. We will consider specialist role preferences and try to honour these, but appointment will be to the generic job description, not to a specialist role and therefore you should be expected to work across the service as needed.
Interviews
Shortlisting will take place on 12th September and you will be notified of the outcome by 13th September. Interviews are due to take place in Islington on 17th and 18th September – details to be confirmed. The interview process will consist of an administrative test followed by a panel interview.
For further information or an informal discussion
Please contact Sarah Lyons, Project Support Officer to request a call back from the project team, Sarah.lyons@islington.gov.uk
Adoption Business Manager, Adopt London North Regional Adoption Agency
Business Support Management
Grade PO1 Salary £34,986 – £36,486 p.a.
Contract Permanent, based London Borough of Islington
Hours Full time, 35 hours per week
Location The Laycock Centre, Laycock Street, London, N1 1TH
Closing date 11/09/2019 at 11:59. Apply via http://jobs.islington.gov.uk/vacancy/1962486
Your role
The service will consist of five social work teams offering specialist adoption services. Each team will consist of 5-6 practitioners working under the leadership of a Team Manager with support from a dedicated Adoption Business Co-ordinator. Adoption Business Co-ordinators will play a critical role supporting the work of their team and will have a wide-ranging and interesting role ensuring that business processes work smoothly and that the administrative tasks of social workers are minimised.
You will sit within the management team and will have responsibility for the line management of the five Adoption Business Co-ordinators and oversight of the provision of administrative support across the service. You will be responsible for ensuring the development of business processes which meet the needs of the new service and for overseeing their implementation. You will work closely with senior business managers in Islington to align systems and ensure the service is meeting statutory, financial and quality assurance standards in relation to business processes. You will ensure that the Adoption Business Co-ordinators are motivated and supported in their work and will have oversight of the level of customer service they provide to our clients and the public.
You will work closely with the Head of Service and Service Manager, providing direct personal support particularly in the coordination and minute taking of senior meetings, and with responsibility for supporting the monitoring of financial spend across the service. As part of the management team, you will identify key priorities for the development and improvement of business systems within the service and will lead projects to improve efficiency and performance.
You will become part of a small and dedicated service, committed to the needs of adopted children and their families. We want our social workers to have as much time and support as possible to focus on the needs of adoptive families, and you will play an essential role in ensuring that we are able to deliver this ambition.
Practical information
We have one vacancy available as a permanent Islington position, which is ring-fenced for existing staff in the six partner boroughs within North London. You do not need to have direct experience of working within adoption services, although an understanding of this area of work is desirable. When you apply please tell us about how your experience and knowledge is transferable to this role.
We would like new staff to have the opportunity to start as close to our launch date as possible and there is agreement in principle for partner boroughs to release staff early from their current roles where this is possible. The service is based at the Laycock Centre, Laycock Street, N1 1TH. The centre is 2 minutes’ walk from Highbury & Islington station. You will be office based most of the time. We are able to consider requests for flexible working or part time working but cannot guarantee that these can be accommodated.
Interviews
Shortlisting will take place on 12th September and you will be notified of the outcome by 13th September. Interviews are due to take place in Islington on 17th and 18th September – details to be confirmed. The interview process will consist of an administrative test followed by a panel interview.
For further information or an informal discussion
Please contact Rebecca Nicholson, Strategy and Policy Manager, to request a call back from the project team, Rebecca.Nicholson@islington.gov.uk