Reviewing Officer

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Job Details

The successful candidate will join an experienced Reviewing Service team within the Children & Family Service in Fife. This opportunity comes at an exciting time involving service redesign and transformative change to meet the objectives within the Promise and the C&F strategy Belonging to Fife. A relationship and children’s rights approach underpins the practice in Fife ensuring children and young people’s voices and participation is central to practice.

If you are looking for an opportunity to influence service improvement and promote good practice we would welcome an application from you.

Fife Council’s reviewing service plays a fundamental role in contributing to quality standards of practice in key decision making and planning processes (Child Protection and Looked after reviews). You would be joining a well-established and experienced Team, led by a Reviewing Service Manager who is testing new approaches to meet the objectives of the service.

As part of our quality assurance and improvement service the candidate will deliver a high-quality service to improve outcomes for children and families across Fife. The candidate will drive service improvements through their comprehensive knowledge of good practice, agency standards, and developments in National Policy and guidance. The candidate will have knowledge and understanding of both Child and Adult Protection, looked after processes and be able to use their experience of joint working to achieve common goals across the partnership.

Key responsibilities include:

• Chairing reviews for Looked After children and young people, and Pathway Reviews for young people as they transition to aftercare.
• Acting as independent chair for initial and review Child Protection case conferences – ensuring child remains at the centre of plans and that risks are managed effectively.
• Ensuring excellence through quality assurance across the partnership to improve standards across Children Services.
• Meeting with children, young people, and families to encourage active participation ensuring their views are heard within multi-disciplinary meetings.
• Making effective contributions to strategic planning to assist in service design across the localities within Fife.
• Having comprehensive knowledge of the statutory guidance and legislation in relation to looked after children, and child protection.
• Ensuring that foster carers are reviewed independently, and with scrutiny to ensure quality of care.
• Ensuring the child’s views are heard within plans, and that services progress actions within set timescales.
• Contributing to the quality and monitoring of child protection practice, highlighting any concerns regarding the quality and effectiveness.
• Active participation in team meetings, and group supervisions to ensure consistent quality of standards across Children Services within Fife.

The Person

If you meet the essential qualification criteria outlined below, we’d like to hear from you:

• Qualified to SCQF level 10 which includes an honours degree in Social Work or equivalent.
• An accredited post-qualifying award (eg Certificate in Child Protection Studies, Mental Health Officer Accreditation, Practice Teacher Award). https://scqf.org.uk/about-the-framework/interactive-framework/

You should have:

• Significant experience working in Children and Families Social Work.
• Experience of facilitating, chairing, and planning LAC reviews, Child Protection Reviews, and complex meetings aimed at managing and reducing risk.
• Significant experience of working with different services across the partnership to improve outcomes for children and families in receipt of services.

You will be able to travel across Fife.

You are required to register with Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) within 6 months of taking up employment in this role and to complete the required Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL) over the first registration period.

You may be required to obtain a Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme Membership or Disclosure Check for this role.