Fostering Panel Independent Chair

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 1^st 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:

• Experience either professionally or personally or both of the placement of children in foster families
• Experience of chairing complex meetings and the ability to ensure the active participation of all panel members
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including written and verbal information
• An understanding of fostering processes legislation and current practice issues
• The ability to analyse large amounts of written information and identify key issues problems and solutions
• A strong commitment to achieving best outcomes for our children in Leicestershire

You must also have an understanding of and commitment toequality diversity and inclusion.

In addition we also expect you to shareour commitment to our valuesand 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 discussionplease 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 How to Applysection 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 telephoning0(select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: applying for this post you agree to ourTerms and Conditions.