Are you interested in a new and exciting challenge?
Do you enjoy working in a fast-moving environment with the opportunity to make a positive difference to children and young people coming into care?
Are you a solution-focused problem solver with the ability to work collaboratively and communicate effectively with people at different levels within organisations?
An exciting opportunity has arisen to be part of the Childrens Placement Team as a Placements Commissioner
This is a fixed term role until end of March 2027. It is open as a secondment opportunity for internal candidates please read the Secondment Policy to check eligibility.
About The Role:
As a Placements Commissioner, you will work with the Team Manager, alongside Placement Resource Officers, mainstream and specialist social workers and the Special Education Needs Team to ensure that placement opportunities are identified for children and young people which are person-centred and outcome focussed, offering value for money and promote a sustainable environment for them to thrive.
Participate in a duty rota, providing cover during agreed hours to respond to urgent placement requests. Rota participation is shared across the team and essential to the delivery of the service, so flexibility is required to meet service demands, with appropriate support and management oversight. Duty responsibilities may include same‑day placement sourcing and liaison with providers and professionals to meet the need.
You will be liaising and negotiating with a range of stakeholders including fostering agencies and residential homes, specialist and mainstream schools and colleges, and supported living accommodation providers. Exceptional communication skills are required in order to promote the needs of the child or young person and to ensure the matching process to support them moving forward.
You will be working with internal and external partners in relation to care planning and delivery of individual service agreements, to develop extensive knowledge of available services locally and nationally.
You will ensure best value for money through negotiation of fees and ensure effective block purchasing to ensure that individual outcomes are measured, and services’ fees adjusted accordingly. The ability to have calm and have measured conversations in a highly pressurised environment is essential, to keep focused and outcome driven.
Professional qualification in social work with children or adults and registration with Social Work England (formerly HCPC) is listed as essential in the job description but we would welcome and consider applicants with equivalent knowledge, skills and experience in Health & Social Care, Brokerage, Commissioning and Contracts and evidence of continued professional development.
You will work closely with colleagues across the Families, Children and Wellbeing directorate to share good practice and enable joined up commissioning.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
DBS statement options:
1) remove both if DBS not required
2) for Basic DBS - keep only:
Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records Check.
3) for Standard or Enhanced DBS - keep only:
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
