Job Description

Job Title: / Senior Practitioner: Adoption Support
Service: / Adoption and Permanent Families Service
Projects: / Adoption London
Reporting to: / Adoption Manager
Supervisory responsibilities: / None
Salary Range: / C £40,000 pro rata for up to 4 days.
Contract: / Permanent
Purpose of the Role:

(i)  To provide adoption support pre and post order

(ii)  To develop support services for adopted children and their families.

(iii)  To participate in delivering Coram’s parenting groups for adopters.

(iv)  To provide professional consultation and advice to colleagues in this area of work.

(v)  To take responsibility for other delegated work – e.g. preparation groups for adopters; birth records counselling; training for adopters.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

(i)  To provide support and counselling to adoptive parents and adopted children.

(ii)  To assess adoption support needs and help families to access services in consultation with the Coram Adoption Support Team, and the LA Adoption Support Team as appropriate

(iii)  To liaise with Children’s Services, schools, CAMHS and other resources in order to obtain services for adopted children.

(iv)  To provide advice and consultation to colleagues in the recruitment and assessment team.

(v)  To provide advice and support to adoptive parents who need to access the Adoption support fund.

(vi)  To complete records and reports in line with Coram policy and procedures

(vii)  To be aware of Coram’s child protection and safeguarding policies and to ensure procedures are followed.

(viii)  To be aware of Coram policies on anti-discriminatory practice and to demonstrate an understanding of these.

(ix)  To be aware of the complaints procedure at Coram

(x)  To maintain and constantly update professional standards and knowledge to ensure best practice and continuing professional development

Note: This post will require some Saturday and evening working.

Person Specification

Qualifications and experience

(i)  Registered as a social worker with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

(ii)  Significant previous experience working as a Social Worker in the adoption field. .

(iii)  Experience of providing counselling and support to adoptive parents, children and young people.

(iv)  Experience of working with other professionals

Knowledge base

(i)  Sound knowledge of:

·  Child development including adolescence.

·  Family dynamics and the family life cycle

(ii)  Good understanding of the impact of differences of culture, religion and class on patterns of family life.

(iii)  An understanding of attachment theory especially in relation to adoption work

(iv)  An understanding of the impact of developmental trauma on children

(v)  Knowledge of recent research in relevant areas.

(vi)  Knowledge of community resources available to support adoptive families and children.

Skills

(i)  Counselling skills with parents.

(ii)  Skills in direct work with children.

(iii)  Group work skills

(iv)  The ability to contribute to the development of the service.

(v)  Capacity to work as a member of a team.

(vi)  Capacity to develop and use interagency relationships to support families and children – including specialist community resources.

(vii)  The capacity to assess complex situations and give appropriate weight to competing needs and priorities

(viii)  Excellent communication skills, including:

·  Advocacy and representing children/families in professional consultations, school meetings and other agencies

·  Writing reports eg in relation to referrals for specialist services, and life history reports for adopted adults. .

·  Interviewing, listening and challenging when appropriate

·  Liaison and negotiation with other organisations including LA Adoption Support Teams

·  Training skills and preparation of training materials

(ix)  The capacity to cope with pressure, organise work and meet deadlines.

(x)  The capacity to use supervision and consultation appropriately; balancing this with the ability to use initiative and to act independently when necessary.

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Owner: Adoption and Permanent Families Service

Created: April 2012

Reviewed: October 2016

Issue: 3