Care Quality Commission
Specialist Advisor - Local Authority Assessments
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Location: National
Daily rate: £300 (£268 day rate + £32 day holiday pay)
Contracted hours: As and when required (ad hoc)
Closing Date: Sunday 13th September at 11.59pm
The role
The role of a Specialist Advisor is critical to ensuring the credibility of the Local Authority Assessment Team by providing an expert peer perspective that informs assessment findings and judgements.
Specialist Advisors are typically employed within Local Authorities in senior leadership roles, the LGA or ADASS and have a recognised reputation for delivering effective leadership within adult social care. The role requires proactive participation throughout the assessment process and a commitment to supporting fair, evidence-based judgements.
Accountabilities:
- Proactively participate with CQC representatives on assessment activity of assigned Local Authorities, provide relevant advice and input regarding professional practice and impact to support appropriate judgements.
- Undertake preparation for assigned Local Authority Assessments, likely to include identifying and reviewing key documents to support planning, assessment activity and analysis of the local authority.
- Contribute views on the proposed interviews to help determine where your specialist expertise will be most useful.
- Use specialist knowledge and experience to inform areas for exploration during interviews based on available information.
- Lead interviews to gather evidence of local authority delivery of Care Act duties, to assess against the 9 Quality Statements.
- Contribute views and observations based on experience and good practice to corroboration discussions and provide a written summary of key points following the assessment.
- Provide challenge to any perceived bias within the assessment team to ensure fair identification and triangulation of information.
- Contribute to and endorse key messages provided as feedback to the Local Authority.
- Participate in quality assurance processes and provide clear, practical written feedback.
- Maintain the confidentiality of information accessed during work undertaken for CQC.
- Ensure all work carried out is within the required scope and that relevant CQC policies and guidance are adhered to.
What you will bring…
- A minimum of 2 years' experience working as a senior leader within a Local Authority or associated organisation in a role directly related to delivery of Care Act Part 1 duties.
- Up-to-date skills, knowledge and experience of Care Act Part 1 delivery and implementation.
- Currently employed within a Local Authority, LGA, ADASS or a related organisation, with a reputation for providing effective leadership across a range of circumstances.
- Strong understanding of Local Authority responsibilities and the wider adult social care landscape.
- Highly developed influencing, analytical and communication skills.
- Ability to act as a proactive and collaborative member of an assessment team.
- Willingness to attend the Local Authority Specialist Advisor induction and associated briefing discussions.
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To help you better understand the role, assessment process, expectations and time commitment, please review our Executive Reviewer and Specialist Advisor Guidance for Local Authority Assessments before applying.
Being a Specialist Advisor
This role can be undertaken as either a Casual Worker, paid directly to a personal bank account by the CQC for attending in your own time (non-working days, annual leave) or as a seconded position if your service is registered with the CQC and agrees to the secondment. Seconded SpAs' organisations agree in principle that their employees can attend CQC assessments and the seconded SpA seeks their line manager's permission to take leave to attend individual inspections, which can last from one to three days. The seconded SpA's organisation then invoices the CQC for the time the SpA spent away from their substantive role. Please note this is invoiced at the SpA day rate.
You will be offered opportunities to support assessments with 6 weeks’ notice whenever possible, however, you will also be contacted for more short notice support on occasions. You are under no obligation to accept an assessment should it be offered and it not be convenient for you. We are not able to guarantee you a set number of assessment opportunities in a one-year period. You may be offered one a month or one in the whole year depending on the focus of the assessment programme.
If successful at interview we aim to conclude your pre-engagement checks within a 6-8 week window, please complete all forms and take actions to assist the team in achieving this. You will be provided with a dedicated onboarding peer who will support you in completing pre-engagement checks and will be on hand to answer any questions you have. You will be required to have a current DBS certificate under 3 years old, and we require references going back three years. If you've been with the same employer for three years’ then we'll only require one reference.
Expected time commitment for formal assessments...
- Approximate commitment: 5 days per assessment
- Must be able to commit to at least 2 full assessments within a 12-month period.
- Preparation and planning calls prior to assessment activity.
- Fieldwork activity, including a minimum of 2 days on site per assessment.
- Ad hoc advice and input relating to documentation and interviews as required.
- Input into quality assurance activities, typically 6 to 8 hours per assessment.
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Eligibility to work
If you are successful at interview, CQC will need to verify your right to work in the UK using digital identity verification. Details of how to complete the right to work check will be provided as part of the conditional offer of employment. If we are unable to verify your right to work digitally, we are required to complete this face to face at one of our CQC Offices. Please be aware that we are unable to progress any offer of employment until right to work in the UK is confirmed.
If you would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Jeanette Blackburn Deputy Director for Local Authority Assessment (Adult Social Care), jeanette.blackburn@cqc.org.uk
To access the full Job Description, please click the link below:
Specialist Advisor - LAA - Job description
Next steps
If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.
Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.
A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:
- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.
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