Lead Officer - London, United Kingdom - Lambeth Council

Lambeth Council
Lambeth Council
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London, United Kingdom

1 month ago

Tom O´Connor

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Tom O´Connor

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Description

Lead Officer - Children's Placement Brokerage

PO4:
£48,063 per annum, rising in annual increments to £51,099 pa LW

Permanent / Full time

Hybrid Working (Office based, 3 days a week)

About Lambeth Children Services:

Lambeth is a borough of huge diversity, strength, and possibility. Lambeth is home to approximately 63,000 children aged 0-18, representing nearly 20% of our borough's population.

Our Lambeth partnerships have the highest ambitions for our children and want them to grow up to be happy, safe and thriving in supportive communities.

We have a rich network of good and outstanding schools, a passionate voluntary community sector and an exciting youth and play offer.

Children growing up in Lambeth are surrounded by beautiful green spaces and a borough with a rich history, arts, and music scene.

Despite this, our children also face challenges and adversity.

There are several health and wellbeing indicators that are higher in Lambeth than other boroughs, including children in need due to parent disability, first time entrants to youth justice system, and children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

We have significant demand for mental health and emotional wellbeing provision and have critical challenges regarding placement sufficiency for our Children Looked After.

Lambeth is the fifth most densely populated borough in the UK with sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty.

It is estimated that 27% of our children and young people are living in poverty, rising to 43% when housing costs are factored in; we know Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges for many families in Lambeth and created a new set of problems for others.

It's an incredibly exciting time to come and work in Lambeth.

There's plenty to get your teeth into - be it leading the implementation of our strategy for youth services, overseeing the transformation of our emotional health and wellbeing provision, or presiding over the development of a new team delivering efficient brokerage for our teams.


We're passionate about integration of services and teams across education, health and social care to ensure our population can access services that are joined-up and seamless.

All of these roles play very important roles in partnership development with internal and external stakeholders.


About You:


A key aspect of the Lead Officer's role is to lead and supervise Placement Brokerage Officers in sourcing stable placements for children looked after aged 0-18, supported accommodation for young people aged 16+, and supporting young people leaving care with securing settled accommodation often within tight timeframes.

You will be working collaboratively with your colleagues across Children Services, Housing and with external providers, to deliver high-quality and well-matched placements for children looked after and accommodation for care leavers.

You will also need to ensure that budgets and other resources are used in accordance with Lambeth priorities and financial regulations, and that expenditure is accurately monitored and within budget.

You must have the skills and qualities of an accomplished team leader. You must have what it takes to bring positive energy, enthusiasm, and passion to the role.

You must have the tenacity to lead, shape and develop a team, bringing creativity and innovation to the way we commission placements for children and young people.

You must have a clear focus on achieving positive outcomes for the children and the young people we care for.

You must demonstrate significant experience of working in or managing a children's placements team, preferably in a local authority setting.

You must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to build relationships with colleagues in social care, finance, and commissioning, as well as with external providers.


A message from The Assistant Director

Successful applicants should have a drive to get things done and be able to promote and facilitate innovation, creativity, and continuous improvement of Placement Brokerage team.

We anticipate that you've had experience in complaint handling and managing change. You will also have knowledge of financial systems and controls, and standard Microsoft products (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint).

You will be able to oversee the effective and efficient delivery of brokerage activities to identify effective placement and support arrangements for children and young people.


Successful applicants should have demonstrable skills and track record of placement cost negotiation, maintaining robust oversight of financial arrangements for care and support packages which enables quality and value, utilising frameworks and cost-effective contractual mechanisms as far as possible.

The successful applicant shall build and lead effective working relationships with key suppliers and the wider market, working with Commissioning Managers to shape
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