An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Royal Greenwich Fostering Service for a Recruitment Officer.  The fostering service is looking for a conscientious and enthusiastic individual who can join our dynamic team in its drive to promote and provide good foster carers to look after some of the most vulnerable children in Greenwich.

Children in foster care deserve to be treated as a good parent would treat their own children and to have the opportunity for as full an experience of family life and childhood as possible, without unnecessary restrictions. To enable this it is essential that foster carers receive relevant support services and development opportunities in order to provide the best care for children; and that more of the right people are encouraged to become foster carers for us.

To help us do this we are looking for highly committed and capable person to join us in helping to achieve our ambition. The Recruitment Officer will support and carry out the recruitment activity for new foster carers, collate performance data and ensure timely follow up to all enquirers; and carry out initial home visits to people interested in fostering to deliver a view as to whether they should be referred for assessment. You must be educated to at least GCSE level (with English and Maths) and have experience of working in a customer/public service oriented setting.

This role requires the post holder work flexibly and outside of office hours when required, adaptable and have the ability to multi-task and prioritise their own workload accordingly. Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details of the requirements and responsibilities

Closing date: 11th December 2020

Shortlisting is likely to take place week beginning 14 December 2020 with interviews week beginning 21 December 2020.

Safer recruitment: Royal Borough of Greenwich is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Any roles which involve working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, or roles in which the duties will involve access to sensitive information relating to children, young people or vulnerable adults, the Royal Borough will take up references prior to interview. You should provide details of referees including your current and previous employers, covering the last 5 years. Candidates can request for us not to send a reference request to their current employer prior to interview by emailing us at recruitment@royalgreenwich.gov.uk. As part of our Safer Recruitment Policy, a full employment history is also required for this role. Please provide a full employment history, together with a satisfactory written explanation of any gaps in employment. Unless otherwise stated, a Basic DBS check will be undertaken as part of the pre-employment checks for successful candidates.

Diversity Statement: Royal Borough of Greenwich values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this. We therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community.

High Volume Applications: Royal Borough of Greenwich reserves the right to close any vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date should there be a high volume of applications received.

DBS: This role requires an Enhanced DBS. (This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act,1974)

Advert Close: All vacancies close at midnight unless otherwise stated

Full Employment History: A full employment history is required for this role. Please provide a full employment history, together with a satisfactory written explanation of any gaps in employment.

Internal to External: This opportunity has recently been advertised as an opportunity for current RBG employees (internal only advertising). Applications received during the internal advertising period have been considered and processed. If you were interviewed for this position via an application to this job advertisement during the internal advertising period, any further application will not be shortlisted.

How Applications are Scored: Each application is scored according to how well the supporting statement addresses each point on the Person Specification for the role. Candidates will be short-listed for interview on the extent to which they meet the specific points within the Person Specification. The Person Specification is supplied with the job advert. When completing your application, please use the supporting statement section to tell us how you meet each of the points on the Person Specification. We need to have this information in order to consider your application. If you have a disability and are unable to meet some of the job requirements specifically because of your disability, please address this in your application. If you meet all the other criteria, you will be shortlisted and we will explore jointly with you if there are ways in which the job can be changed to enable you to meet the requirements.

Interview Arrangements: During this time, our priority for all of our recruitment activity is to make sure our applicants, hiring departments and new starters are informed, safe and supported. Careful and thorough consideration will be given to interview arrangements and for any essential in-person recruitment, we will ensure this is held in a suitable, secure setting with additional arrangements to ensure any current safety requirements are fully adhered to.