Personal Advisor - Yate

As a Personal Advisor, you will be the lead professional for care leavers aged 18-25, supporting them to have the best possible start to their adult lives. This is a varied and engaging role within our Care Leavers team, where you will be working alongside social workers to help prepare young people as they approach their transition into adulthood.

Building good relationships will be at the centre of everything you do as we strive to be an outstanding Corporate Parent to all our care experienced young people. As a Corporate Parent, you will be a dedicated, empathetic and ambitious champion for the young people you work with – wanting and expecting the best for them in all aspects of their lives.

You will be working with a varied group of young people from different backgrounds, who will have had different experiences and reasons for having spent time in care. This will include asylum seeking young people.

It will be your responsibility to create personalised pathway plans to maximise young people’s independence, ensuring that relevant legislation, codes of practice and good practice guides are implemented, and service standards are met. It will be key for you to provide support, specialist advice and guidance as well as advocacy on behalf of young people. You will support your young people to access and maintain education, employment and training opportunities. Liaising with contacts from different sectors, including health, housing, education, and voluntary sectors, you will ensure our young people are getting the services they need to thrive and achieve. To protect our vulnerable young people, you will take necessary action in accordance with Safeguarding procedures.

We require you to hold a relevant qualification such as an NVQ level 3 or equivalent in health and social or considerable experience of working with young people in a professional environment such as residential social work, youth work, career advisory work, young people’s drugs work or mentoring. It is essential you can demonstrate knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations and codes of practice as well processes and procedures related to leaving care. You will have strong interpersonal and communication skills and an ability to build relationships and engage successfully with young people, their families and professionals.

There are two roles available: a full time role 37 hours per week (5 Days) and a part time role 29.6 hours per week (4 days), both are for a limited term ending 31st March 2027. You will be required to travel widely within the authority so you must either have a current driving licence and provide a car or have access to appropriate means of travel. Please note that due to the nature of this role it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Child (DBS) check is obtained for this post.

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.

We invest in the careers of our people and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work. 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. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

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 working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life. We’re investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

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!