AEM Adoption Panel Vacancies

Published: Monday, November 1, 2021

AEM Adoption Panel Vacancies

Adoption East Midlands have the following vacancies on their Adoption Panel:

• Independent Vice Chair
• Social Work Representatives
• Independent Panel Members

Panels consider whether prospective adopters are suitable to adopt and whether children should be matched with prospective adopters.

Our adoption panels are made up of a range of people who have personal or professional experience relevant to adoption. Panels offer independent scrutiny and quality assurance to the adoption agency and our partner local authorities, with a focus on meeting the needs of children who cannot live within their birth family.

We hold panels on behalf of Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. Panels are held virtually using Microsoft Teams, therefore successful applicants must have appropriate IT equipment and a good internet connection.

We are particularly interested in strengthening the range and diversity of our panel membership and we would particularly welcome applicants from ethnic minority groups.

For the Social Work Representative vacancies, we welcome applications from registered Social Workers with recent adoption experience to join our panels. Given our Panels are held virtually we are able to accept expressions of interest from across the UK.

We are unable to take applications from Social Workers working within any of the Permanence Teams from Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City, Derbyshire County Council or Derby City or AEM Assessment Team due to conflict of business interest.

If you are interested in applying for one of the vacancies on our panels, please send an expression of interest to PanelManagers.Adoption@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk taking into consideration the following:

• An appreciation of the effects of separation, loss and developmental trauma on children.
• Awareness of the richness of different kinds of families and their potential for meeting children’s needs.
• Understanding of the purpose and function of the panel and the work of the agency.
• An understanding of adoption and the looked after experience for children, either professionally or personally.
• An understanding of the adoption process and the related legalisation or the capacity to develop this quickly.
• A commitment to keeping children within their own family or community where this is possible and to maintaining contact between children living in adoptive families and their birth families where this appears to be in the child’s best interests.
• A commitment to adoption as a way of meeting a child’s need for permanence, where this appears to be in the child’s best interests.
• A valuing of diversity in relation to issues of ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and sexuality.
• An understanding of, and commitment to, the need for confidentiality.
• A willingness to increase knowledge and understanding of issues through reading, discussion and training.
• Recognition of the lifelong impact of adoption on all parties.

If your application is accepted, you will be contacted to arrange for further discussion.

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