Advanced Social Worker - Adoption Team

About the Adoption Team

We work closely with families, foster carers, and Adopt South (Regional Adoption Agency) to ensure children achieve permanence through adoption. Our team supports children and families sensitively throughout the process, from parallel planning to adoption orders.

The Role

As an Advanced Social Worker, you will:

Manage a small caseload of children subject to parallel planning and Placement Orders.

Provide expert advice on adoption regulations and processes.

Attend family-finding meetings and support matching decisions using trauma-informed practice.

Quality assure Child Permanence Reports and mentor less experienced staff.

Deliver reflective supervision and act as a practice educator for students.

Lead practice development and promote a learning culture across the Directorate.

Chair professional meetings and support the Team Leader.

The ideal candidate

You will need to have/be

• A qualified social worker and be registered with Social Work England.
• Minimum 4 years post-qualifying experience.
• Strong understanding of adoption legislation and trauma-informed practice.
• Commitment to ongoing professional development, including leadership programmes.
• Ability to mentor, supervise, and lead practice development.

Please ensure that you read the full job profile attached for the details and expectations of this role, paying particular attention the section 'Who is the person' as you will need to refer to this when completing your Personal statement on your application.

Hybrid working arrangements :

Minimum 2 days in office per week - Able to work flexibly to meet the needs of the service, working family events including occasional evening and weekends.

Informal Enquiries

If you would like to discuss this role in more detail with the hiring manager, please contact Dave Crewe - dave.crewe@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call 023 92 688 371.

Application process

We anonymise applications during application & shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered.

As part of your application, we ask that you complete a personal statement, this statement is crucial and is where you must demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the job against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience.

We are a disability confident employer and Armed Forces Covenant gold standard. More information can be found at Equality, diversity and inclusion - Careers portal. We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria, however for roles that receive a large number of applications, this is not always possible, and we will select the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it

About Portsmouth City Council

What we can offer you:

Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.

Read more about working at Portsmouth City Council and our benefits on our careers portal homepage: Careers Portal - Find jobs with Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk. or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616800