Placement Assistant (Maternity Cover)

Are you a motivated and passionate individual, looking to bring your experience to an exciting role?
Look no further! We are now recruiting for a Placement Assistant on a 12 month maternity cover contract.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who wants to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in Darlington.

Reporting to the Placements Officer you will work in a fast paced and rewarding role to progress referrals for external placements and support service arrangements for children, in line with the child’s Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) or social care assessed need.  

External placement arrangements include, but are not limited to: Ofsted registered external foster care, residential care and supported accommodation placements, regulated community care and support services and independent special school placements. 

About you: We are seeking applications from individuals who have GCSE English and Maths at a pass grade (or equivalent level award), hold an NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience. Have approximately 3 years’ experience of implementing policies and procedures and have an understanding of Children, Adults, Education or Health related services. 

To be successful in this role you’ll:
• Have an ability to develop strong and effective close working relationships with operational colleagues in social care and SEND.
• A flexible approach to a fast-changing working environment, demonstrating emotional resilience. 
• A demonstrable ability to navigate and update a range of administrative and management information systems, including databases and spreadsheets with a high degree of accuracy with attention to detail. 
• Have an awareness of the national children’s social care and SEND agenda and local delivery priorities particularly in relation to children’s placements.  

If this is you, we’d love to hear from you. 

The rewards for working at Darlington Borough Council go beyond the salary you will receive; we have numerous additional benefits such as:

• 32 days Annual Leave, plus Bank Holidays, with option to purchase additional Annual Leave (pro-rata for part time working)
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme with option to make Additional Voluntary Contributions
• Flexi-time scheme
• Flexible working
• Generous Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave schemes
• Staff equality forums
• Access to a wide range of training, learning and development
• Physiotherapy service
• Confidential counselling service
• Great wellbeing offer
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Dolphin Centre Fit for Life Discounts
• Local and National retailer discounts
• Vivup employee benefit app and Lifestyle Savings
• Arriva Employee Travel Club

For the full range of benefits we offer, please see our Why work for us internet page, which also includes our Total Reward Booklet and Employee Benefit Video.

Find out further information about us and what it’s like to work for our great team by visiting the Jobs and Careers home page.

For detailed information on this role, please refer to the Role Profile and Person Specification.

The successful applicant will be subject to a standard Disclosure and Barring Service check.

General Information for Applicants:

For an informal discussion please contact Placements Officer Toni Mace on View phone number on northeastjobs.org.uk or View phone number on northeastjobs.org.uk.

If you have any further questions regarding applying for this role or the questions and required fields within the application form, please contact the HR Support team on View phone number on northeastjobs.org.uk or View email address on northeastjobs.org.uk .

If you are experiencing problems with the NE Jobs website, such as logging in, saving pages, on account queries please fill out the form within the link below.

All applicant email correspondence will come from View email address on northeastjobs.org.uk and may be directed to your Junk folder depending on the settings of your email account. Please check both your email and Junk folder as all applicants will be notified whether they have been shortlisted.

You must ensure that anything submitted in your application is factually accurate. Plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. Whilst we accept candidates may use AI tools within job applications; submissions must be truthful and relevant to your own experience.

We are an equal opportunities' employer. We welcome applicants from all sections of the community. We aim to interview any applicant who declares a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job.