Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: Fostering Panel is held face-to-face at County Hall, Glenfield
Worker Category: Hybrid Worker
Salary: Set fee paid, £500 per panel
Working Hours: One panel per month; panels are held on a Wednesday. Preparation time is also included within the above fee.
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 8th December 2025
Interview Date(s): 12th and 13th January 2026
About the Role
Leicestershire County Council are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated person to chair the fostering panel. Leicestershire run three Fostering panels per month and are looking for a panel chair to cover one panel a month. We have a full and well-established central list of independent panel members who work hard to achieve positive outcomes for our children.
The fostering panel makes recommendations on cases presented which includes approvals for mainstream and kinship foster carers and reviews of foster carers, including 1st and 5 yearly reviews, reviews following concerns and on occasion complex case presentations. The panel has an important function in the quality assurance of reports and ensuring a degree of independent scrutiny over cases presented, as well as reporting back to the agency to support and promote good practice.
We are committed to providing the best service for fostering families, children and their birth families. We are determined to drive forward best practice with creativity and innovation, the fostering panel has an important role in this.
The panel chair is paid a fee per panel which is set at £500. This includes all reading of papers and preparation for the panel, chairing of the meeting and finalising of the minutes. The chair manages panel members in the meeting; completes annual appraisals of all members and recruitment of panel members, alongside the Fostering Panel Advisor. The Chair is also expected to attend and contribute to quarterly business meetings with the service and quarterly Chair/Vice Chair meetings. The panel chair is supported in their role by vice chairs.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
About You
To apply for this post, you must:
1. Experience, either professionally or personally or both, of the placement of children in foster families
2. Experience of chairing complex meetings and the ability to ensure the active participation of all panel members
3. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including written and verbal information
4. An understanding of fostering processes, legislation and current practice issues
5. The ability to analyse large amounts of written information and identify key issues, problems and solutions
6. A strong commitment to achieving best outcomes for our children in Leicestershire
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Becky Edser (Fostering Panel Advisor)
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the section on our career site.
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.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal:.
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