Adoption Panel Vice Chair

Job Title:

Adoption Panel Vice Chair (Adopt South)

Salary Range: £26.93ph per panel - panel runs 9.30am - 1.15pm

Work Location:

Virtual via Zoom - panels run on Tuesday and Wednesdays

Hours per week:
Various

Contract Type:
Monthly and ad hoc if needed.

This role is with Adopt South, the partnership Regional Adoption Agency for Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, and Southampton local authorities, with the lead authority Hampshire County Council as the employer.

Adopt South is dedicated to providing safe and loving homes for children with plans of adoption. We are committed to ensuring the highest standards of care and support for adoptive families. Our team is passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of children and families.

• Experience, either professionally or personally or both, of the placement of children in adoptive and foster families and of children being cared for away from their birth family.
• Experience of chairing complex meetings.

• An appreciation of the effect of separation and loss on children.
• An understanding of adoption regulations.
• An awareness of the richness of different kinds of families and their potential for meeting children's needs.
• An understanding of the purpose and function of the panel and of the agency which the panel is serving.
• An understanding of the adoption process and practice and of the legislative framework for the work of the panel.

• To chair panel meetings virtually when Chair is unavailable, ensuring that all items of business are covered and that the panel operates in accordance with regulations and the policies and procedures of the agency.
• To prepare for panel meetings, reading panel papers carefully, identifying key issues and alerting the agency adviser if necessary to ensure, as far as possible, that the case is adequate for submission to panel.
• Finalising panel members questions and identifying themes of questions for prospective adopters within given timeframe when chairing the panel.
• To facilitate the active participation of all panel members in contributing to the panel's consideration of cases and to the making of clear and well-evidenced recommendations with the reasons for these.

It positively encourages applications from all suitably qualified and eligible candidates.