Children's Safeguarding and Family Support: Project Officer for Permanence and Adoption Tracking Pay Scale - NJC SO2 £37,280 - £39,152 Full time - fixed term contract 12 months About the role We are seeking a motivated and well‑organised Project Officer to support permanency tracking, coordination, and adoption activity within Children’s Services. This role has been created to provide additional project capacity to strengthen oversight, coordination and performance reporting across the permanency pathway, with a particular focus on children’s journeys toward permanence. The postholder will work closely with heads of service, social work teams, managers and partner services to support the timely progression of permanency plans, ensure accurate data tracking, and contribute to service improvement activity aligned with national expectations and local priorities. This is ideally suited to someone with experience of children’s social care systems, performance tracking or project support who is looking to develop their skills within permanency, adoption and long‑term planning. Values‑based working, data accuracy and a child‑focused approach are central to this role. Key responsibilities The Project Officer will: Support permanency tracking and coordination, maintaining oversight of children’s permanency plans across adoption, long‑term fostering, special guardianship orders, reunification and other permanence and transitional pathways Maintain accurate and timely tracking data, dashboards and reports to support management oversight and governance forums Support preparation for permanency panels, adoption panels or tracking meetings, including data collation, documentation and action tracking Work with social work teams to identify drift and delay, supporting follow‑up actions and escalation processes where required Support adoption activity, including monitoring children’s journeys, placement progression and key milestones, and partnership reporting activities – liaising with regional adoption agency to monitor progress of children referred. Contribute to service improvement and project activity, including implementation of new tools, templates and tracking processes Liaise with internal teams (for example, IROs, commissioning, legal, social care teams) to ensure joined‑up oversight of permanency planning Ensure data quality and alignment between practice, recording systems and performance reports Produce clear, concise reports and briefings for managers and senior leaders What we are looking for You will bring: Experience working within children’s social care, adoption, fostering, or permanency‑related services, or in a performance / project support role within a local authority Strong organisation, coordination, and tracking skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams Confidence working with data, spreadsheets and case management systems (e.g. reporting, tracking, quality assurance) An understanding of permanency planning and adoption processes (statutory knowledge at an overview level is sufficient) Strong communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with practitioners and managers Attention to detail and a commitment to improving outcomes for children Why join us? This role offers an opportunity to: Make a meaningful contribution to children achieving permanence in a timely manner by promoting good permanence planning, stability and continuity to enable children and young people to reach their potential. Gain valuable experience across permanency, adoption and service improvement work Work closely with senior practitioners and managers on system and process development Build transferable skills in project coordination, performance tracking and governance support There are many exciting and rewarding benefits working for Telford and Wrekin Council including the option of working flexibly between home and the office base. If you would like to know more about this role, please contact Laura Moore, Service Delivery Manager via email laura.moore@telford.gov.uk Please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification. At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice. Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check. It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups. A CV template is available if you do not already have a CV. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible. Attached documents Project Officer - CS Final.pdf