Senior Social Worker - Maintaining Relationships Team
- South West
- Full Time
- £39,862 - £44,075 per annum
Temporary until 31 December 2026. This post is available as a Secondment to Devon County Council employees.
INTERNAL ONLY (DCC Employees Only)
Location: Flexible across Adopt South West region
This Senior Social Worker role will sit within Adopt South West's Maintaining Relationships Team - Adoption Support service.
The Maintaining Relationships Team was created in April 2025 in recognition of the importance of maintaining and strengthening the relationships between, and support of, all those affected by adoption - the adoptee, their birth family and their adoptive family.
This secondment post offers the opportunity to make meaningful, tangible differences to the lives of adopted children and young people, their adoptive and birth families, as well support the wider development of this services as part of the regional and national modernising of adoption.
The post holder will primarily support the functions within the Maintaining Relationships Team. This will include;
- Supporting proactive planning and review of Keeping In Touch (KIT) plans for adopted children and young people. This will include providing advice, guidance and training to colleagues and external professionals, as well as conducting and supporting others to review plans alongside adopted children and young people, adoptive parents and birth relatives.
- Working to support positive Keeping In Touch arrangements through work to facilitate direct and indirect keeping in touch methods. This might include attending and supporting adoptive families, adopted children, and birth relatives to enjoy positive time together as well as supporting effective letter writing and other means of communication to support adopted children and young people to gain a full sense of their identity.
- Supporting birth relatives to understand adoption processes where a plan of adoption may have been made for their child by a local authority and helping them to benefit their child, where they are able, through engagement in life story work and meeting with the adoptive family, and identifying additional sources of support for birth relatives to access. Birth relative support may also include working with birth relatives of children many years after their child was adopted.
- Planning, providing and facilitating positive group work and support groups opportunities for adopted children and young people, adoptive parents, birth relatives and adopted adults.
- Supporting adopted adults through providing them with information about their adoption history. This includes reviewing adoption files, summarising and sharing information about their early life to enable them to better understand and process their early life experiences and identity as an adopted person. This work also involves providing advice and signposting to the adult adoptee for further support.
- Contribute to the development of the Maintaining Relationships service in a wider way through engaging with regional and national development programmes alongside Adoption England and other regional adoption agencies and in providing advice, guidance and training to others within Adopt South West linked to all elements of the Maintaining Relationships work flows.
The post holder will be expected to be flexible to complete other senior social worker tasks if the service requires, such as assessment of prospective adopters, family finding and assessment of adoption support need on occasion, but this will not be the focus of this post.
Adopt South West supports flexible hybrid home/office working and the work base can be agreed to suit the post holder within the region. The post holder will need to work flexibly across the Adopt South West regional adoption agency area which covers Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay local authority areas.
For an informal discussion please contact Claire Trivett claire.trivett@devon.gov.uk
How to apply
Please ensure when completing your application form that you provide a supporting statement which demonstrates how you meet the essential and desirable criteria as described in the person specification of the job description. Applications may not be taken forwards if the supporting statement is not adequately completed.
Internal Applicants, please note: If you are an existing DCC employee, please use your iTrent Employee Self Service (ESS) details to log in and apply.
Please click Apply Now to see the Job Description.
- DCC embraces the positive benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to providing an environment that is inclusive and safe. We welcome applications from people who share our commitment to stop discrimination, challenge inequality and promote diversity across Devon. More information can be found on our Equality and Diversity webpages.
- Happy to Talk Flexible Working - The Council offers flexible working arrangements in terms of when and where people work e.g. hybrid working, part-time, condensed hours etc.
- We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
- This role requires the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence and fluency in English.
- Personal data we collect from you will be processed in accordance with the Applicant privacy notice.
- For more information about Working for Devon please visit our Working for Devon page.
- We cannot consider visa sponsorship at this time. UK Right to Work is required. For further guidance on right to work in the UK, please visit: Work in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
- This role requires a DBS disclosure.
Reference: REQ009386