Placement Officer

Placement Officer

Kensington and Chelsea

255/day

Start date: ASAP

Full time: Mon - Fri - 36/hrs a week

Hatched Recruitment is working closely with the local authorities and we are looking for a Placement Officer.

JOB PURPOSE:

* Work in a small team serving 2 councils sourcing private and voluntary placements for children & young people age 0-25, in a range of settings including foster care, residential children's homes, residential family assessment centre, and Semi-Independent Living accommodation.

* To manage all aspects of the placement finding - responding to duty enquires; managing the duty inbox; receiving and managing referral forms; ensuring the profile of the child/young person provides a balanced portrait that reflects their needs, etc; make recommendations to Responsible to: Strategic Placements and Planning Manager Employees directly supervised (if applicable): None Family Tree Director of Operations and Programmes Head of Service - Placements, Travel Care & Customer Relations Strategic Placements & Planning Manager Placements Officers Placements Support Officer 1.0 - July 202 2 our staff regarding suitability and availability of placements; ensuring GDPR compliance; management of the correct distribution list; managing matching and shortlisting offers; chairing matching meetings; summarising offers in terms of best match against agreed criteria; negotiate costs; and ensuring a contract is in place for the placement.

* To assist the team and managers to: manage the children's placement budget; meet performance targets relating to the placement of LAC; utilising management information as required.

Essential:

* Educated to degree level or equivalent evidence of continuing professional development

* Sound knowledge of Children's Services either within a local authority setting or the private and voluntary sector

* Sound knowledge of the market of Children's care placements

* Ideally be a qualified and UK registered social worker

Skills; Experience and Attitude

Essential:

* Recent experience, ideally within a local authority, commissioning a range of placements for looked after children & care leavers (ages 0-25).

* Proven experience of managing a placement duty function on a day-to-day basis.

* Pursues creative and new ideas to provide solutions to complex problems i.e. able to commission emergency placements for children with challenging behaviours