Childrens Participation Officer - Social Services

Job Description - Participation Officer (and Consultation's Champion)

Responsible To: Deputy Manager & Registered Manager

Hours: Full Time

Salary: £40k

Location: Office Based/with opportunity to work from home

Travel: Attend children/service users events/workshops nationally

Job Purpose:

The purpose of this role is to ensure that Banya Family Placement Agency maintains Children's and Young Persons and Service User Participation throughout all its services. This involves ensuring that all vulnerable adults, children and young people, not just foster children, but also birth children have full participation in all areas and that they are also fully involved and feel they are able to contribute to Banya's Services.

Participation enables all those who use their service to feel that their voices are listened to and that their views, concerns and ideas can be expressed. Relevant, creative and thoughtful activities and tasks must be designed and completed in order for this to take place, for example, forums.

Introduction:

Full participation, involvement and contribution are crucial and are at the heart of their Strategy. Participation has been shown to make a significant, measurable difference in the way in which services are shaped and provided to vulnerable adults and young people in care and leaving care.

As an independent provider, they are committed to hearing about experiences within Banya and the services received from them. They are also very committed to listening to feedback about placements, carers, and experiences in fostering and shared lives. Whether positive or negative feedback and issues, they understand that it is important to listen to all views and work alongside those who use their services and stakeholders to deliver improvements that reflect their views.

When receiving this feedback, they feel at Banya that relatives and friends the birth children of their foster carers hold just as valuable views, and they are therefore involved in all areas of participation. We understand that it is not just the foster carers that play a significant role in fostering, but all those in the fostering home.

This work centres on promoting the five centres from the 'Every Child Matters' agenda and developing positive outcomes for vulnerable children and young people and 'Key Lines of Enquiry for vulnerable adults. In order for Banya to achieve this; all participation encompasses a range of capability-building opportunities for children and young people including confidence-building, work experience and/or the development of new skills.

Day-to-Day Tasks:

1. Children's Forums - quarterly
2. Service user's Forums - quarterly
3. Coordinate councils - BCYPC & BPC (Banya Children and Young People's Council and Banya Peoples Council)
4. Children events - school holidays
5. Monthly Workshops - Young people
6. Service user events
7. Feedback and consultation with children and service users
8. Banya Children's Yearly Attainment Award Ceremony (Breakthrough Awards)
9. Welcome packs and prepare for independence.

Additional:

1. Social Media for Banya - promoting Banya to attract and recruit carers (fostering and shared lives)
2. Annual Events:
3. Carers Seasonal party (May/December)
4. Staff Seasonal party (June/December)
5. Staff Away Days (Summer/Winter)
6. Fostering Fortnight (May)
7. Shared Lives Week (June)
8. Carers Week (June)
9. Learning Disability Week (Mencap) (May)
10. Breakthrough Awards (October)

Role Responsibility:

1. Ensuring workers allow children and young person, service users to express their views, concerns and ideas.
2. Ensuring simple, yet effective consultation forms are included in review meetings.
3. Designing, organising and attending children's/service user's events and Forums.
4. Co-operate effectively with area leads or team managers with planning and maintaining Forums in their specific local areas.
5. Designing and implementing simplistic and effective feedback and event evaluation forms, ensuring that all safeguarding issues are followed up appropriately.
6. Design, organise and attend Banya Day's Out designed for all families, children and young people, service users.
7. Involving all those who use the service Banya's children and young people (including birth children), adults in all of Banya's decision-making processes where applicable, training, interview processes and wherever you see fit.
8. Creating and maintaining Banya's Children and Young Person's Council (BCYPC) and Banya's People's Council (BPC) ensuring that it is place for all areas.
9. Ensure children and young people, service users work with our Champions and are continuously involved in Banya activities.

What does 'Participation' mean to Banya?

At Banya, they understand participation to be the process in which all children and young people, service users are involved in decision-making. Participation can take place in a variety of different ways, for example, Forums, individual conversations, questionnaires and many more. All participation must influence what they do as an agency and how they do it.

What do Banya wish to achieve through Participation?

1. Ensure that all children and young people and service users are involved in all decision-making processes.
2. Ensure that we meet their best interests by asking their opinions first.
3. Ensure that any information given to them is easy to understand.
4. Take the time to explain things to them so they understand all processes.
5. If we promise them something, ensure that we do it, if not, make sure we explain to them why it was not possible.
6. Turn up on time to all meetings and events scheduled with them.
7. Provide contacts to them with whom they feel fully comfortable discussing all issues.

Banya's Participation Opportunities for Children and Young People, Service Users:

Central to the work at Banya Family Placement Agency is the opportunity for those who use the service to express their views, wishes and feelings about the care in which they receive. These include:

1. Forums.
2. Home visits.
3. Review process - consultation forms and questionnaires.
4. Personal Education Plan (PEP) - young people's contribution form.
5. Annual Reviews - Contribution Form.
6. Events held in all areas.
7. Summer Day Trip held every summer.
8. Involved in staff appraisals, interviews, and training courses such as TS2F (Therapeutic Skills to Foster).
9. Involved with Banya conferences.

Action Plan for Creating Banya's Councils (BCYPC and BPC):

Banya's Council will hold bi-monthly meetings. These will involve meeting as a group to have fun and identify issues they wish to be raised with senior managers.

Elected Members and Senior Staff will be invited to attend council meetings four times per year.

A long-term goal of this council would be to invite members of Councils to meet at Participation Activity Day events which will be organised during appropriate times. This will also provide help for the carers.

Members of the Council will be asked to deliver training to workers and managers. They will also be invited to assist with the interview processes.

Another long-term goal would be to have a Mail Out, where members can decide what will be involved in the newsletter, design competitions etc for the newsletter. E.g. Word searches.

The members will hold their own awards and achievements ceremonies for one another.

What additional opportunities for those who use the service to be actively involved?

1. The writing and text for the welcome packs to make them more child friendly & easy to read.
2. Interviews, appraisals and training.
3. Involved with events - organisation, planning and booking etc.
4. Chairing meetings and forums and reporting back to Banya.
5. Act as children's and service user's representatives.
6. Regular questionnaires.

Person Specification:

1. Excellent administration skills.
2. Strong and professional verbal and written communication.
3. The ability to identify and meet children and young people's needs.
4. Strong listening skills are essential.
5. The ability to be able to identify with children and young people on their level to allow them to feel comfortable communicating all feedback, ideas, concerns etc.
6. Planning and delivering (online) workshops and other participation activity to engage groups of young people in delivering creative outputs.
7. Reporting and analysing skills to generate appropriate feedback summaries.
8. Team working skills - being able to work alongside Banya employees to ensure that our children's and young person's needs are met at all times.
9. Creative IT Skills - feedback forms, Charms reports etc.

Candidates must have a willingness to work regular evenings and weekends as required (time off in lieu will be provided) and to travel nationally (when possible) to attend events and speak with care experienced young people where they are.