Terms and Conditions: Casual Position
Department: People
Interview date: w/c 7th September 2026
At Blackburn with Darwen (BWD) we are passionate about making a difference to our children who cannot live with their parents. Foster and Kinship care is about helping a child to feel safe, providing a loving, stable home where children are supported to thrive in an environment where they can achieve and reach their potential. As the Independent Vice Chair of our Fostering Panel, you will need to have the same passionate drive to make positive difference to our looked after children, recognising the importance of the difference kinship and foster care can make for our children and young people.
The Vice Chair will focus on chairing the Annual Review Panel where foster carers and their Supervising Social Workers will present their annual review and provide evidence and rationale as to why they should continue to be approved as foster or kinship carers. There is also the expectation that the Vice Chair will deputise for the Panel Chair were needed.
The Vice Chair will need to have experience of chairing complex and challenging meetings with a range of attendees from a range of partners, professionals and stakeholders. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills as well as written skills are essential. Experience of fostering, kinship, safeguarding and care planning legislation along with the National Fostering Minimum Standards and Statutory Guidance for Kinship Care is crucial to the role. There is a need for confidence in managing the complexities involved in the panel process, especially in relation to kinship care.
The role of the Vice Chair will need to work in collaboration with The Panel Chair and BWD, contributing to the development of the BWD Fostering and Kinship Service through relationships with panel members, fostering and kinship team managers and the Agency Decision Makers. There is the expectation of attendance of panel training and panel development.
Time management is key to the role of the Vice Chair who is expected to be available for 80% of annual review panel meetings. The Vice Chair will be prepared for panel meetings and work with the Panel Advisor to identify key themes and areas of concern where needed as well as providing recommendations to the Agency Decision Maker that are holistic and comprehensive. Feedback is crucial to the development of the Fostering Panel, and the Vice Chair is expected to work with panel members on collating constructive feedback and identifying themes and areas to develop.
The Panel Chair, Vice Chair and panel members are subject to annual reviews undertaken with the Fostering Service at BWD.
Panels are held face to face in Blackburn. Fostering Panels and Fostering Annual Review Panel are both held once a month with the expectation that up to three additional panels may be used in a 12-month period. These roles are inclusive of panel paperwork reading time, panel minutes reading time and travel costs.
