Independent Reviewing Officer

About us at Hounslow
We\’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.
We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we\’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London\’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.
About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in \”Harness the Mix\”. It\’s about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.
We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.
As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There\’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.
Our Benefits
If you join us, you\’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.
About The Role
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of our Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Team as an Independent Reviewing Officer. You will work collaboratively with children and young people alongside their carers and professional network to bring about and ensure the very best outcomes in accordance to their needs.
You will strongly advocate for our children and young people having the confidence and ability to work constructively with senior managers, offering a critical perspective and appropriate challenge.
You will ensure that our children and young people are at the heart of your work seeking to incorporate and consider carefully their views and wishes in accordance to care planning arrangements.
About The Team You\’ll Be Working In
1. The Safeguarding Review and Quality Assurance Team is essential in supporting children and young people to gain stability and permanence whilst advocating for their needs.
2. It is made up of 5 Independent Reviewing Officers whose primary task is to ensure that the care plan for the child fully reflects their current needs and that the actions set out in the plan are consistent with the local authority\’s legal responsibilities towards the child.
3. Regular review and challenge of the child\’s care planning arrangements is essential to our role providing independent oversight and scrutiny.
4. We offer a safeguard to prevent any \’drift\’ in care planning for looked after children and the delivery of services to them whilst monitoring the performance of the local authority\’s function as a corporate parent. We continuously strive for improvement.
5. Reflective Group Supervision is held on a monthly basis by way of Team Meetings.
6. As an Independent Reviewing Officer you will report to the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Manager.
About You
If the points below resonate with you, we\’d love you to put in an application:
1. Applicants should hold a social work qualification and have experience equivalent to an Assistant Team Manager and / or Team Manager.
2. Applicants should have a thorough understanding of the legal framework relating to looked after children and care leavers, including knowledge of National Minimum Standards and the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005.
3. Applicants should have a thorough understanding of the complexities of care planning arrangements ensuring stability and permanency is achieved within the child\’s timeframe highlighting and seeking to prevent drift and/or delay.
4. Applicants should be able to effectively and sensitively ascertain the wishes and feelings of the child supporting them to be fully engaged in their CLA Review including the option to chair.
5. Applicants should be able to effectively build and maintain a relationship with the multi-professional network.
Read more about the work you\’ll be doing in the Role Profile.
When Interviews Will Be Held And Who To Contact
The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:
Email:
Telephone: 0208 583 6381
Interviews for this job will be held July 2025. #J-18808-Ljbffr