Judged “Good” in our recent Ofsted inspection, Dorset Council Fostering Service are investing strongly in our fostering provision, aiming to see significant growth in the proportion of our vulnerable children and young people looked after by our own foster carers.
We are committed to provide high quality support to our carers, making sure that they are assessed in a timely and robust way.
We work closely with our Foster Carers and with the children’s social work teams to make sure that our fostered children are well cared for, enjoying a warm, loving, secure and stable family life, and achieving best outcomes.
We are inviting applications for the post of post of Enquiry Officer who will be the face of Dorset Fostering Service to people who make contact by phone or by email that are interested in fostering and direct liaison with the Southwest Recruitment Hub. You will be the front-line ambassador for our organisation, putting the needs of our children and carers first, and we are looking to appoint individuals who are as passionate about this as we are.
For more information about this position, please contact Nicola Meakin on 01305 225723.
What you will be doing
- To liaise directly with the Southwest Recruitment Hub and receive all new requests as the first point of contact for all prospective foster carers.
- Use relevant telephony systems online, mail and email systems to interact with enquirers and provide a responsive service.
- To use systems to record relevant data in order to inform service development, marketing and recruitment.
- Maximise time and resources to promote the Dorset Fostering Service.
- To work with fostering social workers and the managers to process fostering and enquiries and record high quality factual information in relation to the enquirer.
- To provide consistent, confident, and exemplary customer service experience to all carer enquiries.
- To provide advice to enquirers over the phone, following a telephone enquiry, and in writing where appropriate.
- To record factual information in relation to enquirers making full use of Children’s Social Care’s record management system.
- To provide support to individuals throughout the assessment and newly approved process whilst tracking progress of assessments.
- To maintain up-to-date records, ensuring accuracy in respect of the Mosaic record management system.
- To liaise with enquirers as required, including face to face, and delivering presentations to staff and the public.
- To ensure enquirers are advised with regard to the outcome of their enquiry.
- To use effective communication skills to enable enquirers to explain their understanding of fostering and provide them with information about any support they require.
- To re-direct inappropriate requests for service in a sensitive and respectful manner.
- To assume a high degree of personal responsibility for professional development to leverage ongoing developments to further improve the effectiveness of the carer recruitment strategy.
- If business issues arise that prevent timely follow up, to take personal responsibility for telephoning the applicant to keep him/her updated
- To play an active role in advertising and recruitment of prospective foster carers, including some flexible evening and weekend working.
About you
The successful candidate will have:
- A customer focused approach
- Patience and empathy
- The ability to maintain professional boundaries with an understanding of confidentiality.
- Self Confidence
- Outstanding organisational skills
- Substantial IT Knowledge with experience of using a previous Social Care System
- A good understanding of how social media platforms can be utilised for advertising purposes.
- A full valid driving licence and access to an appropriate car to fulfil the travel requirements for home visiting and transportation of marketing materials.
Not everyone has the right to foster, and it will be down to you to skilfully manage initial discussions with empathy and insight to quickly ascertain suitability. Having done so, you will then take information using a conversational and reassuring approach. This will ensure you form accurate judgments about applicant suitability, and the applicants themselves feel well informed, impressed by the customer service experience, and enthusiastic to begin their assessments as Dorset Fostering Service carers.
What we are looking for:
- Fostering experience would be ideal but this is not essential.
- Experience in sales or a targeted customer service/recruitment role
- A warm, personable individual who can communicate with a vast cross section of our communities.
- Flexibility to cover evening or weekend appointments/recruitments events when required.
- Driving licence with access to transport
- To keep all confidential data secure
- Provide an excellent quality service which promotes equality, diversity and rights for all children and people associated with the service and ability to identify and challenge discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sexuality, disability, or age.
- Highly motivated to deliver a high-quality fostering service in a positive and enthusiastic way.
- Willingness to work in extremely flexible way in order to be responsive and available for foster carers and potential foster-carers needs. This may require some evening and weekend availability.
- Knowledge of social media marketing.
- Experience of using digital marketing tools to effectively engage with customers.