JOB DESCRIPTION

Post Title: Connected Persons Coordinator

Department / Service: Looked After Children

Hours: 37 hrs Level: G06

Location: Coed Pella Job Evaluation Number: SL2305

Responsible to: Team Manager for the Connected Person Team

Responsible For: (Staff) n/a

Job Purpose:

The Fostering service supports a range of placements including a growing cohort of Connected Persons who require a bespoke and creative support network.

The post holder will manage a case load of Connected Persons that include Special Guardians, Child Arrangement orders, and Foster Carers converting to Special Guardians. As well as become an integral part of the Connected persons team to develop and maintain this resource base by assisting in the recruitment, assessment, coordinating support and training of Connected Persons.

Duties and Responsibilities - Job Specific

1. Ensuring that we meet our duties with Special Guardians in line with regulations.

2.Assess the ongoing needs of the special guardians and support and direct them to the appropriate universal services and promote the use of the community family centre as well as transferring case responsibility to the relevant ordinary resident.

3. To be the named case coordinator / allocated worker for children that are not subject to Care Orders

4. Explore and access local support in line with the Connected Persons local residence to maximise their individual needs.

5. Working in partnership with the Connected Persons Assessing Social Worker to front load assessments including all checks.

6. Supervise and support the needs of the Regulation 26 Foster Carer.

7. Attending Family group conferencing and promoting the needs of Connected Persons to others in the Local Authority.

8. Highlighting and raising any issues or developments regarding possible Connected Persons

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9. Coordinate the financial reviews for the Connected Person’s and liaise closely with the lead finance officer

10. Liaise with the judiciary, family group conferencing and the guardian, regarding promoting and evidencing a robust Connected Persons support service.

11.Contribute to the development of services, policies, practices which optimise life chances for children and young people through the medium of involvement in teams and working with colleagues in other Departments/Agencies.

12.The Connected Persons coordinator will assist in the development and delivery of Skills to Connected Persons training and additional training in line with the Conwy’s learning pathway and the National Fostering Framework.

13. Quality assure any Special Guardianship support plans to ensure the support is sufficiently targeted.

14. Arrange outreach support to the Special Guardians as required and record details of contact in line with policy.

15. Record and review outcome based plans for Connected Persons ensuring all our recorded on the system.

16. Develop and support the data analysis system to investigate the trends, strengths, weaknesses and outcomes of the Connected Person’s.

17. Lead and develop contact with the local community and work in partnership with voluntary organisations and neighbouring authorities.

18. Participate and contribute to team meetings.

19. Take responsibility for personal development and participate in regular supervision and actively engage in the Professional development process.

20. Act at all times in accordance with the Authorities and Department’s policies and procedures.

21. Promote anti-discriminatory practices and act in a non-oppressive way toward colleagues and service users.

22. Exercise responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act and respond appropriately in relation to fire regulations.

23.To assist in a variety of tasks, including implementation of a team Quality

Assurance System, ability to recognise Health and Safety Issues to include risk

Assessments, and the need to work within the team's budget.

24. The post holder will be expected to be flexible in undertaking the duties and

responsibilities attached to their post and may be asked to perform other duties

which reasonably correspond to the general character of the post and are

Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy County Borough CouncilJD/PS EngV1

Commensurate with its level or responsibility.

25.

As a contractual duty you are required to attend various meetings, training events

etc throughout the County area and further afield as requested and

Must be able to travel in a timely manner to ensure the efficient performance of

duties and use of officer time and the provision of an effective service.

Duties and Responsibilities – Corporate

1. To be responsible for establishing good working relationships both internally and externally.

2. Compliance with the Authority’s Policies and Procedures and to make known to Management any areas which are not adequately covered.

3. To participate actively in supporting the Authority’s principles and practices of equality of opportunity as laid down within the Equalities Policy.

4.To be responsible for the application of Health & Safety practices within the daily operations, sharing a common responsibility for Health & Safety across the department, directorate and Authority as a whole.

5.

Employees will be required to give certain information relating to themselves in order that the Authority may properly carry out its duties, rights and obligations as an employer. The Authority will process and control such data principally for personnel, administrative and payroll purposes.

6.

As a term of your employment and in order to maintain effective departmental operations, you may be required to undertake any other reasonable task, commensurate with your grade, as determined by your Line Manager or Head of Service.

7.

Conwy is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable groups. All Council employees are expected to be aware of the Corporate Safeguarding Policy and their responsibility to report any concerns in the appropriate manner and timescales.

Review Date/Right to Vary

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties. The Authority reserves the right, after appropriate consultation with you, to vary your duties and responsibilities within the parameters of your grade and occupational competence in order to respond to changes in the needs of the service.

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Signed by: …………………………………………. Date: ……………………………..Employee’s Name and Signature

Approved by Head of Service: ………………………………….. Date: ……………………………..

Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy County Borough CouncilJD/PS EngV1

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Post: Connected Persons Coordinator

Date: May 2019

Factor Requirements How Identified

Esse

ntia

l

Des

irabl

e

Degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field.

AF / VE

Knowledge of Child Protection procedures. AF / I E

Working knowledge of the Children Act (1989); Children Act Guidance & Regulations; The Children and Adoption Act (2002); The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act, 2014, Special Guardianship (Wales) Regulations, 2016 and Special Guardianship (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations, 2018.

AF / I E

Minimum 12 months’ work experience

With families and children in a social care, setting

AF / I / R E

Experience or a good understanding of working within Children and Family/Fostering services

AF / I / RE

Experience of working with Looked After Children or Foster carers AF/I/R E

Knowledge of family relationships and how they can affect child development and attachment.

AF / I / R E

Knowledge of housing and homeless issues. AF / I / RD

Strong interpersonal skills. AF / I / R E

Knowledge of safeguarding children and adults.

AF / I / R E

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Knowledge of welfare rights. AF / I / R E

The ability to communicate in English is essential. AF/I E

The ability to communicate in Welsh is desirable. AF/I

D

Experience of IT packages, spreadsheet, word and producing reports using Microsoft Packages

AF / I / R E

An ability to undertake risk assessments. AF / I / R E

Supervision & Management

To take responsibility for personal and professional development through preparation for supervision and annual development reviews.

AF E

Creativity & Innovation

To work in challenging situations autonomously as well escalating concerns when necessary.

AF / I / R E

Ability to be flexible, positive and imaginative when working with families. AF / I / R E

Ability to develop positive relationships with carers and identify support needs. AF / I / R E

Contacts & Relationships

Experience of multi-agency working

e.g. Health, Education, CAMHS, Probation and Youth Justice over complex cases.

AF / I / R E

To be motivated to deliver a high quality service, committed to the rights and interests. AF / I / R E

Establish trust and good relationships with families. AF / I / R E

Decisions / Recommendations

To actively manage own time and workload and contribute to the teams development. AF / I / R E

Committed to the involvement of carers in policy and service development. AF / I E

To have drive and energy to ensure a high quality service and have a non-judgmental attitude towards children and carers.

AF / I E

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Participate in and contribute to data analysis, the evaluation and development of the service.

AF / I E

Committed to equal opportunities. AF / I / R E

Committed to working corporately. AF / I / R E

Managing carers concerns to avoid escalation to a complaint. AF / I / R E

Resources Control of small amounts of cash up to £100 to facilitate group work. AF/R E

Physical Demands

Ability to manage stress and work under pressure. AF / I / R E

The ability to travel throughout the County Borough area and beyond. AF / I / R E

As a contractual duty you are required to attend various meetings, training events etc throughout the County area and further afield as requested and must be able to travel in a timely manner to ensure the efficient performance of duties and use of officer time and the provision of an effective service.

AF/I E

Please Note: In order to be shortlisted for this post you will need to demonstrate that you meet all the criteria ranked as E - Essential.

Identification of the requirements will be through the:

Application Form (AF),

Interview (I),

Test at interview (T),

Presentation at interview (P),

Verification (V)

Reference (R)

Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy County Borough CouncilJD/PS EngV1