Job Opportunity with St Christopher's: Fostering Panel Vice Chair

Location: Fostering Eastern Region

Salary: TBC

Contract Type: Contractor

Specific Hours: TBC

​Closing Date: 31 May 2026

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St Christopher’s Fostering Service strives to achieve excellence in its support for foster carers and in gaining Outstanding Outcomes for Children and Young People.

The independent Panel Vice Chair is crucial to St Christopher’s ability to achieve these aims – bringing experience of child care practice from outside the organisation, and the knowledge and skills to influence practice in the fostering service.

As a priority we value diversity and in recruiting panel members we seek to ensure that we are representative of the communities we serve.

Job Purpose

• To assist panel chair in meetings, ensuring that all items of business are covered and that the panel operates in accordance with regulations and the policies and procedures of St Christopher’s Fostering. 
• To contribute to the development of the Panel agenda. 
• To identify any matters that have the potential to cause a conflict of interest, and to identify these at the earliest opportunity to the Panel Advisor, and where necessary to absent oneself from Panel for that/those item(s). 
• To prepare in advance of panel meetings, reading and evaluating papers carefully, identifying key issues and alerting the panel advisor if necessary to ensure, as far as possible, that a particular case is adequate for submission to Panel.
• To facilitate the active participation of all panel members in contributing to the panel’s consideration of cases and to the making of a clear and well-evidenced recommendation to the ADM, with the reasons for this. 
• To ensure that all those attending the meeting are treated with courtesy and respect. 
• To address diversity issues and to promote anti-discriminatory practice at all times. 
• To liaise with the Panel Advisor and Panel Manager as appropriate. 
• To ensure that clear and accurate minutes are written, which record any serious reservations which panel members may have. To be involved in checking and agreeing draft minutes with the Panel Advisor and Panel Deputy Chairs for circulation and agreement to all panel members, and ultimately for submission to the Agency Decision Maker. 
• To ensure through the Panel Advisor and Panel Manager, that managers in St Christopher’s are made aware of any issues of concern – in relation to individual cases and practice in general. To ensure that Panel recommendations on Quality matters are acted upon and their outcome recorded. 
• To annually review with the Panel Advisor the performance of all members of the central list. Between annual reviews, to take responsibility for acting upon any concerns as regards an individual panel member as and when the need arises. 
• To assist in the development and monitoring of policies and procedures, and in the course of their work, and where Panel recognises that new policies are required, to ensure that St Christopher’s management is aware of this. 
• To assist in the identification of training needs and the planning of training for panel members, and to attend such training. 
• To Safeguard the Confidentiality of all materials/discussions provided to the Panel Chair.  

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