Children's Rights Officer

Salary: £44,406 - £50,275 per year dependent on experience

Location: Westburn, 116 Westburn Road Aberdeen

Duration: Permanent, Full Time

Roles that require PVG Membership

Please note that with effect from 1 April 2023, where a role requires PVG membership, candidates will be required to meet the cost of the PVG membership. This applies only to roles with a full-time equivalent salary of £30,000 and above.

The Council will pay for the PVG membership cost initially, either £18 for existing PVG scheme members, or £59 for non-members, and this cost will be deducted from an employee’s first FULL month’s salary payment.

Job Purpose/About the Role

This role supports that the attention and resources of corporate parents are focused on the task of safeguarding and promoting the rights and wellbeing of Aberdeen’s looked after children and care leavers (Part 9 (Corporate Parenting) of the Children and Young People).

The post holder needs to hold as a minimum:

• BA in Social Work or equivalent i.e. DipSW
• SSSC Registration
• PVG
• Ability to travel to meet with young people in the location of their placement

The postholder is able to demonstrate:

• Practice which is relationally based and inclusive in its intentions
• Professional role in supporting and leading on a change and transformation agenda
• Building and maintaining trusting and safe boundaries and relationships
• Applying an advocacy approach
• Applying a rights-respecting approach into practice
• Communicating inclusively through use of sensitive and trauma-informed verbal and non-verbal language
• Designing and delivering participatory activities which engage and connect with children, young people and young adults who are socially disadvantaged and marginalised
• Writing in accessible, creative, and sensitive ways which represents voice and views and what matters to children, young people and young adults as well as integrating and reflecting their rights
• Active role modelling and use of communication and language skills which are sensitive to trauma experiences
• Realising community empowerment

About Us

Please see the Job Profile for further details.

We are happy to talk flexible working and offer flexible working for most roles in the organisation meaning that many of our employees enjoy the freedom of choosing a working pattern that suits them as much as it suits the organisation.

Disability Confident

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you consider yourself to have a disability and think you may require a reasonable adjustment to be made for this part of the selection process, or would like further information in relation to reasonable adjustments, please contact AskHR@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

We are a forces-friendly employer, have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and are a silver award recipient in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We have a specific email address for those in the forces, those who have left the forces, as well as their partners/spouses/families: armedforces@aberdeencity.gov.uk. We are able to answer questions about jobs and our application/selection process, as well as about our employee support provisions.

We have a number of guaranteed interview schemes available to applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role they are applying for who:

• have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 (all jobs)
• looked after young people, those that are in continuing care or are a care leaver up to the age of 29 (all jobs)
• are aged 16-24 and live in Aberdeen City or have been to an Aberdeen City Council school and are applying for a Modern Apprenticeship (except Trades apprenticeships)
• have done a Foundation Apprenticeship with Aberdeen City Council and are applying for any apprenticeships relevant to the area in which they did their Foundation Apprenticeship
• are New Scots aged 16-24 and are applying for any apprenticeships

*"New Scots" are defined as refugees and asylum seekers who are in Scottish communities and include those who have been granted refugee status or another form of humanitarian protection, people seeking asylum, those who have been refused asylum, and those whose application has been refused but who remain in Scotland.