Head of Regional Area Adoption ( London East)

Job Description
Grade 12- £67167-£75696pa (plus £10k Market Supplement)

About us

Adopt London consists of four Regional Adoption Agencies (RAA) covering the London area, and each area is led by a host local authority. Adopt London East started in October 2019 and is a shared adoption service working on behalf of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, and Tower Hamlets councils, hosted by the London borough of Havering.

Adopt London provides an opportunity to collaborate across all of London, making a real difference to the lives of children at a local and national level. The vision for RAAs is to achieve excellent outcomes for children and adults affected by adoption and ensure services delivered are of the highest standard. Since its inception in 2019, Adopt London East has rapidly embedded a quality support service for adoptive families within our East London community.

The successful applicant will be employed by the London Borough of Havering (host local authority) within Adopt London East, as part of adoption services working on behalf of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, and Tower Hamlets councils.

As the host local authority, we can truly say that Havering is a fantastic place to live and work!

Benefiting from excellent transport links, being only 18 minutes from London Liverpool Street Station, with our offices located centrally in Romford with easy access to all four boroughs supported in Adopt London East. We also offer staff onsite subsidised car parking in Havering, making our offices easily accessible via the M25, A12, A406 and A127.

As the employing authority, Havering is committed to providing a healthy work-life balance, whether that be via flexible working or through our corporate health and wellbeing initiatives. We are proud to be a forward-thinking organisation that embraces new ways of working to benefit our employees and residents alike.

About the role

The Head of Service for Adopt London East is an exciting role that provides leadership and oversees the day to day service delivery of the Regional Adoption Agency in the east of London.

The post-holder will be responsible to the Assistant Director of Social Care in Havering Children’s Services and will work closely with senior colleagues across all boroughs in the RAA to ensure best practice developments continue.

We aim to provide the best quality support for adoptive families within our East London community. We work within a systemic framework, which means we hold relationships central to everything we do.

As host borough, Havering strives to be a diverse and inclusive borough, where we can ALL be ourselves. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff, and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of race, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, age, religion etc.

Havering offers family-friendly, flexible working arrangements, with forums and inclusive facilities to support our staff.

About You

With previous experience in managing adoption services, you will know what excellent practice looks like. Your knowledge of transforming services will underpin how you shape and develop services to ensure this is consistently delivered.

You will have demonstrable skills in service improvement, with the ability to use excellent influencing and change management skills to work across organisational/regional boundaries. Most importantly, you will have a passion for supporting children, young people and families to ensure that they can thrive and flourish. This is an opportunity to lead a fantastic team, make a real difference to children, young people and families and be at the cutting edge of new ways of working within a RAAs.

The ideal candidate will hold a relevant professional social work qualification and is registered with The Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC). Also, demonstrate extensive post-qualification training and development and have strong knowledge and understanding of adoption regulations and relevant legislation and practice. The post is subject to a current enhanced DBS disclosure.

This advert will close at 23:59 on the 30th November 2021. Shortlisting to take place by week ending 3rd December 2021 and interview processes and stakeholder panels expected to take place week commencing Monday 6th December 2021.

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Tara Geere, Assistant Director of Children’s Services on 01708 434635 or by email onTara.Geere@havering.gov.uk.

Additional Information

The London Borough of Havering is a Disability Confident employer. Candidates who declare that they have a disability in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and meet the essential criteria as specified in the Job Profile will be guaranteed an interview.

Priority consideration on all advertised roles will be given to London Borough of Havering Redeployees.

The London Borough of Havering is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable groups and expects staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Please be aware that a Disclosure and Barring Scheme (DBS) check will be required for any position with access to these groups under the provision of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

In addition, the Authority reserves the right to request employees undertake a basic disclosure check (Disclosure Scotland) where required for the role this includes anyone who has access to (or information obtained directly from) a government database, or has a GCSX account. These posts will be required to have a Basic Disclosure Scotland check as per the requirements of BPSS (Baseline Personnel Security Standards).

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