Permanency Lead. Maximum Term, Full Time - NSW Flexible Location

About the?Organisation 

Every day, Life Without Barriers provides support and care to children and young people, as we work collaboratively with families, carers, and communities, to ensure they have the environment they deserve to grow. With a focus on ensuring safety and respect, this is an opportunity to make a positive and meaningful difference in these young lives and help pave a brighter future.

Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose organisation of 8,000 employees working in more than 500 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people, and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers. Join a community of people dedicated to breaking down barriers.

We want to employ people who reflect the diversity of our clients to ensure we can support each client's individual needs and wants. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability to apply.

About the role 

Life Without Barriers holds accreditation from the Office of the Children’s Guardian, allowing us to offer adoption services to children and youth in out-of-home care. As a Permanency Lead, your role involves collaborating with key stakeholders to provide guidance and expert support to team members in our NSW Child, Youth & Families team. Your focus will be on assisting them in determining, pursuing, and achieving the most suitable permanency goal for each child and young person in our care. It is crucial to ensure adherence to best practices, policies, and relevant legislation.

Our Permanency and Open Adoptions team currently has three Permanency Leads, each responsible for one of the permanency options: restoration, guardianship, and adoption. In this particular opportunity, we are seeking an experienced individual to contribute to our ongoing efforts in the restoration space.

This position is available on a temporary full-time basis (until April 7, 2025), offering flexibility in terms of location, allowing you to work from any office within our NSW footprint, including hybrid work-from-home arrangements. Regular travel is a requirement for this role, and a company vehicle is provided to meet the inherent demands of the position.

Learn more about Life Without Barriers services for Children, Young People & Families here: https://www.lwb.org.au/services/child-youth-and-family/

Key Responsibilities? 

• Support the Director, Permanency and Open Adoption and the State Leadership Team to manage the delivery of the NSW Child Youth and Family permanency and open adoption program and support practitioners and practice leaders to determine, pursue and achieve positive permanency outcomes for children and young people, in accordance with relevant legislation and standards.
• Ensure that permanency-focused practice is delivered consistently and ethically, within the purpose and values of Life Without Barriers.
• Ensure appropriate management of risks and issues arising in the course of service management of the permanency and open adoption program, in accordance with policies and procedures.
• Model and implement a culture of continuous improvement throughout the Child, Youth and Family program, focusing on systems and process that will improve the impact of our services and the outcomes we achieve for clients.
• Monitor, coach, support, motivate and develop area team members, particularly in the areas of restoration, guardianship, open adoption  and dual authorisation practice.
• Provide expert advice to practitioners and practice leaders on the application and implementation of restoration, guardianship and open adoption and dual authorisation practice in NSW based on  relevant legislation and standards

Skills & Experience 

• Demonstrated team leadership skills and experience in the management of programs and services in the areas of restoration, guardianship, open adoption, child protection or out of home care.
• Demonstrated experience working within a complex, dynamic and high-volume environment.
• Highly developed analytical capability, including the ability to use data to monitor and manage practice systems at scale and the capacity to review, refine and improve practice systems and procedures.
• Strong written and oral communication, interpersonal and customer service skills including the ability to effectively communicate with children, young people, parents, other family members and carers.
• Working knowledge of child protection and adoption legislation in NSW and other relevant legislative and regulatory environment for areas of business responsibility.
• Understanding of carer recruitment, assessment and authorisation of carers including dual authorisation for foster care and adoption.

Successful candidates will be required to clear probity checks including National Criminal History Record Check and NSW Working with Children Check

To be considered for and appointed to a position at Life Without Barriers, you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a minimum of two (2) doses or hold a valid medical exemption certificate, in accordance with Life Without Barriers Employee COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. You will be required to provide evidence of your vaccination status during the recruitment process.

Benefits

• Work within a specialised team to achieve the permanency goals of children & young people
• Generous Salary Packaging Benefits – claim up to $15,900 per year, tax free!
• Company Vehicle + Monthly RDO provided.

How to Apply
Include your resume and covering letter in one document, click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. For any enquiries including persons with disability that require adjustments, contact Kristy Crowe at recruitment@lwb.org.au.

Applications close at midnight on Sunday 7th April 2024

Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as applications are continuously reviewed prior to the closing date; and as such the closing date is subject to change without notice.

We are dedicated to playing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and bring continuity of care and support to our clients. With this in mind, if you are successful, we will discuss with you an alternative to a face to face interview. 

 Life Without Barriers supports the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. We believe people with disability need to be heard and for these experiences to influence how support services like ours are delivered. View our statement here https://bit.ly/2GzZGWA