Team Manager - Independent Review Team

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Job Title: Team Manager - Independent Review Team

Starting Salary: £53,806 plus £8,560 Market Enhancement with the opportunity to progress to £59,497 plus £8,607 Market Enhancement pa

Hours: 37

Location: Apsley, Hemel Hempstead with travel countywide

Contract Type: Fixed Term / Secondment to May 2027 (Maternity cover)

Directorate: Childrens Services

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Team Manager in the Independent Review Team. The Independent Review team plays a vital role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in care. They ensure that every child’s voice is heard and that care plans are robust, timely, and focused on achieving the best outcomes. The team provides independent oversight by chairing statutory reviews, challenging practice where necessary, and monitoring the local authority’s performance.

In addition, Placement IROs carry out Regulation 44 visits and independent fostering reviews, helping to maintain high standards across placements.

Hertfordshire is a large, Outstanding rated authority, and we are looking for someone with passion and enthusiasm to join our stable, supportive and inclusive management team, to support the service in its work in improving outcomes for children. You’ll work alongside our existing Team Manager to supervise a large team of children’s IRO’s, whilst having responsibility for supervising two Placement IRO’s who undertake Regulation 44 Visits and Independent Fostering Reviews.

You will ensure effective monitoring of our engagement with children, identify themes that impact the performance of the local authority and support IRO’s to challenge issues of concern. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape the continued development of our busy team. In addition, there are further opportunities to impact the development and practice across the wider social work workforce, through contributions to task and finish groups and county wide service panels.

• A qualified and registered Social Worker with at least 5 years post qualifying experience.
• Excellent communication skills.
• A good understanding of the role of the Independent Review Office and legislation as it applies to Looked after Children.
• Experience of having worked successfully at a supervisory/managerial level to develop a high performing social work team.
• Experience and skills in partnership working across Children’s Services.
• Ability to advise and make decisions on complex cases.
• You will be able to challenge practice, where appropriate, both internally and with our external providers.
• Driving licence and access to your own vehicle – as part of this role you will be required to travel across the County.

If you are excited about the prospect of making a tangible impact on the lives of Hertfordshire’s looked after children, please get in touch.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care Services, level HSC
13 job profile. Please locate this via:
Job profiles – Health and social care

For an informal discussion and more information please contact:
Kim Burrowes, kim.b

28th January

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

This position is open to secondments. If you work for HCC or any other Local Authority and would like to be considered as a Secondment contract, please ensure you complete the Secondment Form as part of your application. If you do not, your application will be considered as a Fixed Term Contract only.

We welcome applications from candidates…