Lewisham Council
Independent Reviewing Officer (Fostering)
🇬🇧London, England, United Kingdom3 days ago
£56,436 – £58,551Full Time
Discover yourself in Lewisham where what you do makes a difference to our vibrant and culturally diverse communities! We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.
It's an exciting time to join us - Lewisham is a wave 2 Pathfinder authority and is leading the way on national reforms to social work practice through the Families First for Children programme.
INTRODUCTION
We are seeking an experienced and skilled Independent Reviewing Officer to join our Fostering and Kinship Service. This pivotal role is focused on promoting high-quality practice, robust care planning, and positive outcomes for children looked after, particularly those placed in foster care.
You will bring independence, professional curiosity and confidence to support and challenge practice across the Fostering and Kinship Service.
The Fostering Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) will play a key role in ensuring high-quality, safe and effective fostering provision for Lewisham’s looked after children and young people. The postholder will provide independent oversight, professional challenge and quality assurance through the foster carer annual review process, contributing to continuous improvement across the fostering service.
Specifically, the role will:
We are looking for a senior, confident social work professional who:
Key Responsibilities
To chair foster carer annual reviews in accordance with the Children Act 1989, Fostering Regulations 2011, Care Act 2000 and the Fostering Services National Minimum Standards.
To provide high quality written review reports which are clear, concise and follow an agreed format.
Agree and implement an action plan with the social workers and foster carers and make recommendations to the agency decision maker regarding the carer(s) suitability to foster.
To ensure that children and young people are safeguarded and that foster carers operate in line with statutory requirements and adhere to child protection processes.
To develop positive relationships with social work managers and social work teams in order to promote and implement the review process.
To develop positive relationships with the Leaving Care service in relation to foster carers offering Staying Put in order to promote and implement the review process.
To contribute to the Fostering Panel Business meetings and any IRO partnership work on issues linked to the foster carer reviewing process.
To maintain accurate and timely data on all aspects of the reviewing process and provide written reports as required.
To apply a Quality Assurance system to ensure the Fostering National Minimum are being adhered to and that any issues arising from foster carer reviews are addressed with management in a timely manner.
To make suggestions for change to practice and contribute to policies and procedures in order to maintain high standards to the care given to our Looked After Children living with Lewisham foster carers.
About You
We’re looking for an experienced and confident social work professional who can bring independence, insight and challenge to fostering practice.
You’ll need to have:
Qualifications
What’s in it for you?
Our Vision - What Good Children’s Social Work Looks Like in Lewisham
In Lewisham Children’s Social Care, we know what good social work looks like and we are passionate about creating the right conditions and culture for good practice to thrive.
We have taken a whole system approach to improving our services to children and young people in our borough using Signs of Safety as our practice model. Ofsted recognised the progress we have made noting that:
In January 2024, Ofsted's report lauds significant improvements in our children's services. Praised areas include strong leadership, high-quality support for families and children, and positive outcomes across all criteria.
Why choose Lewisham?
“Lewisham has so much to offer any social worker. I feel supported, respected and valued every step of the way” (Social Worker).
Our social workers benefit from working in small, supportive teams with caseloads on average between 15-20 children. Our Signs of Safety family-led practice framework means we are committed to working in a relationship-based way with children and families, focussing on strengths in the family network to effect change. A positive learning culture which promotes opportunities for reflection and relationship-based practice is important to us. We are committed to developing our practice using reflective practice spaces such as case mapping, thinking spaces and group supervision.
Our permanent and stable senior management team are visible and approachable. Our dedicated workforce team supports professional development across the service so that you will;
What we’re looking for
If you want to work in a thriving borough and our social work vision connects with your professional values, then we are interested in hearing from you. We are looking for people to join our team who:
In return, we’ll offer excellent development opportunities, the opportunity to make a real difference to our local community plus a range of benefits including:
Location
The job is primarily based in Laurence House in Catford SE6. There are 2 local train stations 3-5 minutes’ walk from the office, and the train journey from London Bridge is approximately 15 minutes. There are also numerous bus routes that stop right by the office.
We operate a hybrid approach where you will be required to work both in the office and from home on a regular basis.
Creating an Inclusive Lewisham
A core value of Lewisham Council is to 'draw on the diversity of our communities to create a more inclusive Lewisham'. We believe that freedom from discrimination and equality of opportunity are fundamental rights, and that each person should be valued regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, or age. Social inclusion lies at the heart of everything we do as a Council in our roles as an employer, a provider of services and a community leader.
Diversity
Lewisham Council is a Disability Confident employer. We welcome and encourage job applications of all abilities. If you require any reasonable adjustments in the application or interview, please contact the lead contact on this advert. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure our disabled applicants and those with health conditions are supported throughout our recruitment process. We support the access to work scheme, further details are available at www.gov.uk/access-to-work/apply
Your Application
The recruitment process is anonymous and we don’t accept CV’s.
Applicant handbook- please read the guidance in this handbook when applying. It is essential that you complete the application fully and that your supporting statement covers how you meet each of the person specification criteria listed.
Special conditions
For an informal discussion about this job, please contact pathfinder@lewisham.gov.uk
Please click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification
Salary:
£56,436 -£58, 551 (SWLO/SCP 41-43)
Diversity
Lewisham Council is a Disability Confident employer. We welcome and encourage job applications of all abilities. If you require any reasonable adjustments in the application or interview, please contact the lead contact on this advert. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure our disabled applicants and those with health conditions are supported throughout our recruitment process. We support the access to work scheme, further details are available at www.gov.uk/access-to-work/apply
The Council reserves the right to close adverts early if there is a large response.
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