Referrals & Partnerships Officer - Kent Office - London - Fostering Together Ltd

Description

Due to growth of our community, we are looking to fill a new vacancy in our Operations Team. This is for experienced planner and negotiator to join our family-focussed specialist service which is dedicated to supporting children with disabilities and complex medical needs.

Don't just take our word for it - one of our foster carers recently said:

"The Fostering Together Family is a wonderful team of like minded people who come together to change children's lives. They genuinely change lives every single day with the direct and indirect work carried out."We have a new opportunity within our Operations team for a highly organised and confident professional with experience of managing high-volume communications and building effective external partnerships.

The successful candidate will take the lead on managing and triaging a high volume of referrals for children who require foster care from Local Authorities across the UK, identifying children with disabilities whose needs align with our specialist service, and ensuring accurate and timely recording of referral data within our internal case management system, FosterKit, to discuss and share with our fostering community. They will also oversee and track pre-placement planning activity to ensure our robust matching processes are completed to ensure smooth move-ins for children joining their new fostering families.

Alongside referral management, the role will lead on maintaining and developing strong working relationships with Local Authority partners. This includes regular communication regarding referrals and placements, promoting Fostering Together's specialist offer, coordinating partnership activity, and contributing to discussions around placement availability, fees and contractual arrangements.

The role will also engage in support of internal planned short breaks arrangements (whereby children may stay for overnights with another family) working with the Social Work team to ensure suitable assessment, planning and matching criteria is documented and evidenced on records.

This role may also include responsibility for the day-to-day support, guidance and line management of another administrator within the Operations team, ensuring high standards of practice, accuracy and professionalism across all referral and partnership activity.

You will be part of an aspirational fostering team where you will uphold the core values and beliefs of the organisation and contribute to the growth and development of the agency. This includes ensuring that children and young people with disabilities are supported to live in safe, nurturing and stable family homes.

The ideal candidate will be confident, highly organised, and comfortable working with sensitive information, external stakeholders and competing priorities in a fast-paced, office-based environment.

Key responsibilities:

Act as a key point of contact for Local Authority commissioning and placements teams, maintaining positive, professional relationships with existing and new Local Authority partners.

Review, filter and prioritise referrals to identify children and young people with disabilities whose needs align with Fostering Together's specialist service. Condense and succinctly summarise information into a quick-digest format onto FosterKit (our data management and sharing platform).

Liaise with the social work and placement teams to share relevant referral information and support effective matching decisions.

Write engaging and informative profiles for families with capacity to foster a child to proactively promote locally to relevant authorities.

Track referral outcomes and support reporting on referral trends and partnership activity.

Coordinate communication, promotional activity and information sharing relating to Fostering Together's fostering offer.

Support discussions relating to placement availability, fees and contractual terms, escalating where appropriate.

Represent Fostering Together in partnership communications and meetings (typically office-based video calls, with occasional external conferences required).

Provide day-to-day oversight, support and line management to an administrator contributing to the referrals and partnerships function.

Provide administrative support to the social work team, ensuring compliance with fostering regulations, standards, guidance and best practice.

Support wider Operations team activities, including data management, statutory document audits & reporting and general office administration.

Provide cover for Operations colleagues where required to ensure continuity of service.

The ideal candidate willhave:

Experience of managing high-volume referrals, enquiries or complex inboxes in a regulated or professional environment (e.g. social care, health, education, housing).

Experience of working with external stakeholders or partners, ideally within social care, education, health or a commissioning context.

Experience in working with and negotiating within the framework of contracts, agreements and policies, with some experience in forming & writing of policies.

Experience of line-management and supervision of other members of staff.

Strong ICT skills, including confident use of Microsoft Office applications and database or CRM systems.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate professionally and confidently with Local Authority professionals.

A high level of attention to detail and accuracy.

A good understanding of data protection and confidentiality.

An understanding of safeguarding principles and professional boundaries.

The ideal candidate will also be:

Highly organised and able to manage competing priorities.

Professional, personable and confident in external-facing communication.

Able to understand and be analytical at a high pace.

Experienced of line-management and supervision of other members of staff.

Confident in working with, or quickly learning, the geography of England in relation to Local Authority placement regions.

Knowledge of, or ability to rapidly develop, understanding of children's disabilities and health needs and their implications for care and placement matching.

Meticulous and accurate in administration.

Discreet and confidential.

A proactive team worker with the ability to work independently.

Skills

Minimum of 3-4 years' experience in a professional administrative, coordination, commissioning, partnerships, placements, referrals or stakeholder-facing role.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to engage professionally with Local Authority and commissioning staff.

Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage a high-volume workload accurately.

Experience of setting, chairing and/or presenting in both face-to-face and online meetings

High-level attention to detail and data accuracy.

Confident ICT skills, including Microsoft Office and case management / CRM systems.

Ability to summarise complex information into clear, concise formats for professional use.

Effective relationship-building and stakeholder management skills.Friendly, professional presence when representing Fostering Together at community and family events.

Comfortable engaging with children with disabilities in informal and structured settings (e.g. events, activities, groups).

Knowledge

Good understanding of data protection, confidentiality and information governance.

Understanding of safeguarding principles and professional boundaries.

Awareness of how Local Authorities commission placements and services.

Experience

Experience managing high-volume referrals, enquiries or complex inboxes in a regulated or professional environment.

Experience working with external stakeholders or partner organisations.

Experience working with sensitive or confidential information.

Experience in an administrative, coordination, placements, commissioning, or partnerships-related role.

Location, hours and remuneration:

Office based role - in the outskirts of Ashford, Kent.

37.5 hours per week.

£28,000 - £32,000 per annum with 25 days of paid holiday plus bank holidays, increasing to 30 days based on length of service.

Private healthcare following a successful probation period.

Safeguarding statement:Fostering Together is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children and young people in our care. Successful candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks including a Disclosure and Barring Service check, references, identity checks and qualification verification.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding means making sure children are safe, healthy and well cared for. It involves:

Protecting children from abuse and neglect.

Making sure their health and development are not harmed.

Helping them grow up in safe, stable and caring families.

Taking action when there are concerns about a child's welfare

Under the Children Act 1989, every organisation and professional working with children has a legal duty to put the child's welfare first and to take reasonable steps to protect them from harm. Find out more:

Please contact us today for more details, including a full job description and link to apply. Please outline your relevant experience and why you might be interested in joining the team

We reserve the right to interview and appoint prior to the closing date should a suitable candidate be identified. Early applications are therefore encouraged.

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