Social Worker

Adopt London East is looking for an experienced social worker to join the Recruitment & Assessment Team.

Adopt London East is a Regional Adoption Agency made up of 4 Local Authorities; the host authority Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets.  
 
Adopt London East provide the following functions, recruitment, assessment and support of prospective and Adoptive parents, family finding for all children with a plan of adoption and adoption support provided to adoptive families, birth relatives and children and young people.  
 
Adopt London East work closely with our partner boroughs particularly in the area of permanency planning and family finding.  We have a strong emphasis upon building strong cross working between the Adopt London East Teams. We want to protect our high standards of social work practice and wherever possible innovate to improve the services we deliver.  
 
Adopt London East work closely with the 3 other Regional Adoption Agencies which make up Adopt London, providing services for 24 London Boroughs.  The partnership supports the development of practice across London.  Adopt London work in collaboration the National RAA leaders group in order to identify and implement practice standards.   

For this role, you will need excellent communication skills and a well-rounded knowledge of key influential factors associated to adoption including attachment theory, developmental trauma and loss/grief.

Applicants must have experience of working within a children's social work team, alongside experience of completing complex and analytical assessments.
As a recruitment & Assessment social worker, it is essential that you are able to work in partnership with all those involved in the adoption and care planning process for children and families. This includes family finding social Workers, Adoption Support Social Workers, children’s social work colleagues, prospective adopters, foster carers and multi-agency partners.

Main duties

• Recruiting, preparing and assessing prospective adopters.
• Linking and matching approved adopters with children.
• Supporting prospective adopters following the placement of children & up until the point an Adoption Order is granted.
• Preparing reports for adoption panel and court.
• Co-presenting training and events to prospective adopters and professionals
• Assessing non-agency adopters (previously step-parent approvals).

You will need:

• A Social Work Qualification (degree or equivalent) and current registration with Social Work England (this is an essential requirement).
• Adoption Experience is a preference, however, it is essential that applicants can evidence experience of completing complex assessments associated to children and families.
• An understanding of early life experiences such as trauma or abuse and the impact they can have on children and young people throughout their lives.
• The ability to analyse complex information to make recommendations and informed decisions.
• The ability to complete comprehensive assessments in a timely manner.
• The ability to work both as part of a team, sharing knowledge and managing cases.
• The ability to use your own initiative and work independently.
• Experience of managing your own caseload and working to specific deadlines.
• To be competent in the use of IT and case management systems.
• The ability to maintain case recordings on appropriate platforms.

We promote a hybrid model of working for our social care staff, with a flexible approach involving working from our town hall campus/hubs. In this role, you are expected to work from our town hall campus on the Thursday of each week to encourage peer support communication and an opportunity for administrative tasks to be completed.

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact by email luke.scillitoe@havering.gov.uk.

Additional Information

We want everyone to choose Havering. When you apply for a job with us, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. Our residents and service users come from all walks of life, and so do our employees.

The London Borough of Havering has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.