Adoption Support Worker

Family Action

At Family Action we support people through change, challenge or crisis. It’s what we’ve done for over 150 years. We protect children, support young people and adults and offer direct, practical help to families and communities.

We see first-hand the power of family to shape lives, for better or worse, so we speak up for the
importance of family in national and local policymaking, amplify family voices and represent the changing needs of families in the UK today.

You will be a dedicated and enthusiastic professional who is committed to improving the outcomes for adoptive and birth families, adopted adults and relatives. You will also have strong verbal and written communications skills and be able to deliver the service to a high standard.

Main Requirements (for details check the job description and person specification):
Our adult adoption support service works primarily with adopted adults and birth families. Adopted adults can access their records and receive an intermediary service and be supported through a reunion. Birth families are supported at the time of losing children to adoption, helped to stay in touch through letterbox and can potentially also have an intermediary service towards reunion.
We are looking for a Social Worker or Counsellor, who has experience of working directly with those affected by adoption. You will have experience and knowledge of adoption law and practice and able to liaise with partner agencies to deliver the service in North and West Yorkshire.

• Appointments are subject to Family Action receiving a satisfactory disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities:
1. Embrace and implement Family Action’s Equality & Diversity Policy in every aspect of your
work and positively promote its principles amongst colleagues, service users and other
members of the community.
2. Comply with Family Action’s Health and Safety and Data Protection policies and protect your
own and others’ health, safety and welfare.
3. Work flexibly as may be required by the needs of the service and carry out any other
reasonable duties as required.
4. To provide advice, guidance and support to adult adoptees
5. Advice and support to deal with issues arising from their adoption.
6. Advice and information about Schedule 2 process and accessing adoption records.
7. Advice and information regarding Intermediary Services and contact registers.
8. To provide advice, guidance and support to contemporary and historic birth parents and
relatives
9. To set up and maintain accurate and factual written case records and contacts for all service
users using the PAC-UK database and ensure that mandatory forms are completed.
10. To take clear and concise referrals and ensure correct information is put onto the database.
11. To ensure that all referrals are processed according to correct procedures and passed to the
Adult Manager for action and allocation where appropriate.
12. To keep abreast of new developments in adoption legislation and practice.
13. To remain familiar with PAC-UK’s procedures and Family Action’s policies and procedures.
14. To participate in relevant training and development events and provide training internally
and externally where required.
15. To participate in both the evaluation and monitoring of the service, and in planning future
practice developments.
16. To participate regularly in supervision
17. To carry out or participate in all such other tasks and activities that will help develop and
promote the service.
18. To provide advice and appropriate information on PAC-UK’s services to local authorities and
other professionals, and to take referrals for counselling as necessary.
19. To participate in information giving or publicity activities as required in liaison with PAC-UK’s
operations staff.
20. To be able to evidence Family Action’s values at all times, which underpin Family Action’s
mission of ‘building stronger families’ by:
a. Being people focused
b. Reflecting a ‘can do’ approach
c. Striving for excellence in everything we do
d. Having mutual respect for everyone we work with, work for and support through
our services
21. To ensure you have an understanding (appropriate to your role) of, and comply with Family
Action’s procedures for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and vulnerable
adults.

Benefits:
- an annual paid leave entitlement that commences at 25 working days, rising each April by one day, subject to a maximum of 30 working days plus bank holidays
- up to 6% matched-pension contributions
- enhanced paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions
- eye care and winter flu jabs vouchers
- cycle to work scheme
- investing in your professional development with ongoing quality training and career development opportunities

We are forward looking, ambitious and committed to continuous improvement. We are a people focused, can-do organisation, which strives for excellence in all we do and operates with mutual respect.