South Gloucestershire Council
Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO)
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How You'll Make a Difference
Joining a Good rated children’s social care service, you will have the opportunity to contribute to practice that is child-centred, relationship-based and focused on continuous improvement. As an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), you will play a vital role in ensuring children in care have strong, timely and effective care planning, with their voices heard and their rights promoted throughout the statutory review process.
You will provide independent oversight, support and challenge to ensure care plans progress without drift, permanence planning is achieved within agreed timescales and children and young people are fully supported to participate in decisions that affect their lives.
What You Will Be Doing
As an Independent Reviewing Officer, you will have the opportunity to make a significant difference for children in care by chairing statutory reviews, scrutinising care planning and ensuring that plans are progressed effectively, lawfully and in the best interests of each child.
This is a specialist quality assurance role where you will critically evaluate multi-agency planning, challenge practice where needed and help improve outcomes for children in care, care leavers and young people transitioning into adulthood.
- Chair statutory Children in Care reviews and support strong permanence planning.
- Provide independent scrutiny, challenge and quality assurance across care planning.
- Help children and young people participate meaningfully in reviews and decisions about their lives.
- Work collaboratively with social care teams, managers, families, advocates and partner agencies.
- Contribute to audit, learning and service improvement across Children in Care and safeguarding practice.
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What We Need From You
You will need to bring professional authority, independence, emotional intelligence and a strong child-centred focus, using sound judgement to manage complex meetings, challenge practice sensitively and maintain attention to detail in planning for children’s safety, permanence and long-term outcomes.
We require you to hold a recognised professional social work qualification, such as DipSW, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, and to be registered with Social Work England.
- You will be confident chairing complex formal meetings, balancing different views and keeping a clear focus on the child’s needs, wishes and long-term outcomes.
- You will bring strong knowledge of legislation, regulations and statutory guidance relating to Children in Care and Care Leavers, applying this with sound professional judgement.
- You will communicate clearly and sensitively with children, young people, families and professionals, using strong written and interpersonal skills to influence practice.
- You will be able to work with independence and professional authority, constructively challenging practice or planning where needed to support safe, timely and child-centred decisions.
What You Need To Know
Although this post is advertised as a full-time position, we encourage and welcome applications from experienced practitioners who may be seeking flexible working arrangements.
Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained.
You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area, so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle insured for business use or have an alternative suitable means of travel.
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Interviews are currently anticipated to be held week commencing the 24th August.
How a Career At South Gloucestershire Council Is Different
As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
What’s special here is the strength of the team ethos. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan their services to ensure teams have manageable caseloads and have effective supervision so feel supported to make decisions which are right for the children and young people they work with.
Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.
- We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
- We’re providing essential services across our communities to ensure they are safe and well maintained.
- We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.
We’re making a difference, be part of it!
To view the full job description, please refer to the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) role profile.
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