Leicestershire County Council
Senior Practitioner - Kinship Assessment Team
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Senior Practitioner - Kinship Assessment Team
Assessing Senior Practitioner (Kinship Assessment Team)
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA
Salary: £46,110 - £50,079 per annum (inclusive of market premium at £2,250, pro rata for part-time) (Pay Award pending)
Working Hours: 37 hours per week, Monday–Friday
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 16th July 2026
Interview Date(s): TBC
About the Role
We are seeking a passionate and experienced Assessing Senior Practitioner to join our Kinship Assessment Team, where you’ll lead the crucial work of ensuring vulnerable children remain safely cared for by their birth family or kinship networks.
Your Core Responsibilities
- Lead comprehensive Friends & Family assessments (initial viability checks and full Form C Kinship/Special Guardianship Order (SGO) assessments) to enable children to stay in safe, supportive kin-care.
- Work intensively with kinship carers, birth families, and extended support networks—including partners, birth children, and wider family—to ensure tailored, trauma-informed care.
- Implement therapeutic and evidence-based approaches such as PACE (Parenting for Loved Ones) and DDP (Attachment, Trauma and Neuroscience) to support carers in developing skills for attuned, child-centred care.
- Collaborate with team leaders to oversee report quality assurance (QA) and supervise support workers/external assessors.
- Drive ongoing service improvement, including carer progression to Kinship fostering, SGO status, or flexible permanence plans (e.g., Child Arrangement Orders).
- Engage with family support provision, post-approval kinship services, and referral reforms (e.g., assisting children to return home to biological parents or family members).
- Offer support and advocacy for carers at every stage, ensuring access to training, resources, visitation schemes (like those from the Kinship charity), and long-term family connections.
- Participate in team events, conferences, and community engagement activities (potentially outside normal working hours).
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Key Expectations
- Commitment to family-focused, collaborative assessments rooted in confidence-building, safety, and permanence.
- Expertise in multi-agency working (locality teams, legal services, Child & Family Services).
- Open to leadership on our rolling duty system, helping vulnerable children in urgent need.
- Proactive engagement with ongoing reforms, such as trauma-informed reunification approaches.
About You
To apply, you must meet the following essential criteria:
- Qualifications
- A Social Work degree (e.g., CQSW, DipSW specialising in children’s services) or equivalent.
- ASYE completion (with accrued experience beyond integration year).
- Experience (Minimum 3+ years’ post-qualification)
- Extensive practice assessing kinship carers, foster families, and children in care (in line with Fostering Regulations and National Minimum Standards).
- A track record in safeguarding, child protection, and care proceedings.
- Skill in navigating kinship carers’ households, tracking learning, and ensuring therapeutic adherence (e.g., via Critical Incident Reviews, Practice Observations & Discussions (PODs)).
- People-Centric Skills
- Proven ability to engage and empower ethnic minority groups, disabled individuals, LGBT+ families, and those with protected characteristics.
- Clear verbal/written communication for negotiation, advocacy, and record-keeping across families, agencies, and courts.
- Experience in constrained but deadline-sensitive environments, balancing assessments alongside operational demands.
- Technical Abilities
- Microsoft Office proficiency (Outlook, Word, databases), including case update logging.
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Desirable Attributes
- Experience with PACE training, DDP, or trauma-responsive care tools.
- Relevant CPD on emotional safety for children in kinship placements and reunification pathways.
Our Commitments to You
We embrace accessibility, neurodiversity, and disability-inclusive hiring. Reasonable exceptions will be considered for applications.
Commitment to Organisational Values
Candidates will be assessed on:
- Empathy and equity in fostering belonging for all families.
- Professional development aligned with a culture of continuous learning.
Benefits
- A meaningful role with 影響力 and impact on vulnerable children’s futures.
- Access to training, supervision growth, and community networks.
- Join a team focused on centring kinship carers’ conscientious goals, reducing rehospitalisation.
How to Apply
- Apply early: the vacancy may close early if demand is high.
- Submit a statement addressing how you meet each requirement (the core of your assessment).
- For assistance: contact our Employee Service Centre or review Our Employment Conditions.
Join Us
Whoever you are, Leicestershire County Council values what you bring to our organisation. If you enable families to flourish at critical moments, we’d love to hear from you!
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