Personal Advisor

Role Responsibility

Personal Adviser – Maternity cover up to 26th January 2024

Do you have what it takes to build positive and beneficial relationships with young individuals?

Would you like to improve the outcomes for care experienced young people?

Would you like to support young people to build bright and stable futures for themselves?

Would you like to spend every day at work knowing that you have made a difference in the lives of young people?

If yes, we have the perfect role for you!

The 18+ Care Leavers Service is a growing service that provides support to the Local Authorities care experienced young people. Kent County Council is a large authority and so this service is based at two sites at either end of the county, at Thistley Hill in Dover and Worrall House in West Malling.

We require a Personal Adviser for a team based at Thistley Hill in Dover, to work with both Citizen and Asylum-Seeking Care experienced young people up to the age of 25. You will be the first point of contact for a specific number of young people, with responsibility for providing flexible support, assistance, and advice when they are preparing and planning to leave care, and throughout their transition to adulthood.

You will need to encourage and support the young adults to actively participate and develop a robust and detailed Pathway Plan that will enable them to move successfully into adulthood and independent living and helps them achieve their goals. The post embodies the Local Authorities commitment to care experienced young people to act as their corporate parent to help them reach their potential.

Our care experienced young people come from a diverse range of backgrounds, so you’ll need to be flexible with your time and imaginative in your approach to help them achieve the best possible outcomes. You’ll need to be very organised and capable of balancing priorities, including the need to carefully record your work and provide good planning which reflects the aspirations of the young people you’ll be supporting. You’ll need to build close working relationships with colleagues in other agencies as part of a wider network and advocate on behalf of the young people to ensure their needs are met. The Service was rated as “Outstanding” at its last Ofsted inspection and is continually looking at ways to improve further.

You will be well supported with regular 1:1 supervision, training, team practice and reflections meetings and working alongside colleagues who are passionate about what they do.  

It is essential that you can travel across a wide geographical area, both inside and outside of Kent in a timely and flexible manner at various times of the day to support the care experienced young people. This can be within Kent and Medway and on some occasions outside of Kent.  Being able to work flexibly is a requirement of the role, on some occasions you may need to work past your contracted hours to meet the needs of our care experienced young people. Overtime is not paid; however, you will receive your time back in lieu.

Employee Benefits:

• A starting salary of £25,378 with performance related pay increases (pay award pending)
• Option to enrol in the Local Government Pension scheme, with KCC contributions totalling 21.3%
• 26 days paid annual leave per year (rising to 28 after 5 years' service) + bank holidays
• Staff discounts on a range of leisure products and services through our Kent Rewards programme
• Access to a range of KCC staff groups providing support and development opportunities to staff across our diverse workforce
• Access to a wide range of training opportunities via our Delta platform
• On the job training and support and regular supervision with your line manager

This could be offered as a Secondment opportunity to internal candidates.

Closing date: 10^th April 2023

Interviews will be held in the week beginning 17^th April 2023

Contact Details

For more information about the role or if you have any specific questions, please contact Anita Budai on 03000 410972 or by email using anita.budai@kent.gov.uk

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and faiths, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.