Independent Reviewing Officer - Cared for Children

Become an Independent Reviewing Officer for

Bury and help with our ‘Let’s Do it for Children’ vision.

Apply for one of our IRO posts now!

We are committed to flexible working - ask us for more details.

About the role

Normal hours of work are 37 hours per week, worked throughout the year.

Full time salary is £48,226 - £49,282 (£5,000 market supplement).

This is an exciting opportunity to join our experienced and stable team of IROs dedicated to improving outcomes for our child looked after.

As a Independent Reviewing Officer in Bury, you will play a pivotal role in safeguarding children by leading Children Looked after Review that are childcentred, rigorous, and outcomefocused. You will ensure that each review provides a clear, analytical forum for understanding risk, agreeing robust plans, and promoting improved outcomes for children and young people.

A core part of your role will be to make sure children’s voices, wishes, and experiences are central to all decisionmaking. Wherever possible, you will ensure that parents, carers, and family members are included in the process in a respectful, transparent, and meaningful way, supporting their participation and promoting partnership working.

Building constructive relationships with children, young people, and families will be fundamental to your practice. You will meet or make direct contact with children prior to their reviews to understand their views and ensure these are accurately represented. You will maintain professional oversight of Looked After Children reviews between reviews, working closely with social workers and managers to ensure plans progress at pace and remain focused on reducing risk and achieving permanence.

As a Independent Reviewing Officer in Bury, you will be a confident, independent safeguarding professional who is able to challenge, support, and influence practice across the partnership. Your contribution will help ensure our work remains focused on safety, permanence, and the lived experience of every child we serve.

This is job is currently subject to pay review for further details please contact Rae Capon (Head of Service Safeguarding and Quality Assurance and Principal Social Worker CYP) .

About You

We are looking for people who are motivated, enthusiastic and committed to making a difference for our cared for children. You will have excellent skills in communicating with children.

We need you to be an experienced practitioner with at least 5 years post qualification. You must also bring a minimum of two years’ management experience or equivalent, demonstrating your ability to provide leadership, drive quality, and support reflective, authoritative practice within a complex safeguarding environment.

You will be experienced in chairing meetings and able to handle complex and competing demands to ensure the best outcomes possible for children and young people.

You will need to be comfortable working in a multi-agency environment and able to question and challenge partner agencies in the same way as our social care colleagues.

We want to invest in you, and we have a clear vision around succession planning for our most talented workers. At the heart of everything we do are the children and young people of Bury. We want staff who can form relationships, seeing the strengths in families and building on those assets, always looking for solutions to support families to live together safely and for children and young people to thrive.

About Bury

Bury is a busy town with its world famous market and large shopping centre!

We are part way through a journey in Bury and are doing things differently. IRO’s are vital to drive improvements and implement our new practice model.

We are committed to finding and supporting the best talent to work in Bury. The Independent Reviewing Officers sit within children’s services but retain their independence, which enables them to advocate effectively for Bury’s children and young people.

We are one of the first Authorities in the North-west to be pioneering the Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding model of working with families and training will be provided to learn new skills such as motivational interviewing which will help you forge strong connections with children, young people, and their families.

Employee Benefits include:

• Re-imbursement of the annual £90 Social Work England registration fees (conditions apply).
• Pay increases in line with your continued professional development.
• Free parking where you work - worth £860 a year for qualified Social Workers who work from town centre locations where there is no ready access to free parking, plus car mileage.
• Opportunities to develop new and specialist skills.
• Innovative training and development opportunities.
• Supportive integrated teams and a friendly working environment.
• Professional supervision to a high standard.
• Local Government Pension Scheme.
• A range of attractive work/life balance policies.
• 26 days annual leave (rising to 31 days after 5 years), plus an additional day of leave over the Christmas period and the option to buy an additional 10 days on top of that.
• Employee discount scheme which provides discounts with local business within the borough as well as a cycle to work scheme and car lease scheme.
• Employee Assistance Programme, to support you through difficult times, with things like free counselling, financial or legal advice.
• It all adds up to an exciting package.

We’ve improved our interview process too - you’ll get a quick response to your application, and we have regular interview days.

We listen

We hold bi-monthly Voice of the Workforce meetings where we discuss how we can resolve practice challenges and create better conditions for social work to thrive.

We encourage work-life balance

We want our Social Workers to have enough time to relax, spend time with family and friends, and feel good, so that they can do their best at work.

Come and join Team Bury #TeamBury