Personal Advisor

How You'll Make a Difference

As a Personal Advisor within the Care Leavers team, you will be the lead professional for care leavers aged 18-25, providing ongoing support to help them make a successful transition into adulthood. Working closely with social workers, you will support young people to develop the skills, confidence and independence needed to achieve their goals and aspirations, while helping them access education, employment, training, housing, health and essential services.

Building positive and trusting relationships will be central to your work. As an ambitious and dedicated Corporate Parent, you will champion the needs of care experienced young people, ensuring their voices are heard and their individual circumstances understood. Through encouragement, advocacy and practical support, you will help young people overcome challenges, maximise opportunities and achieve the best possible outcomes as they move towards independent adult lives.

What You Will Be Doing

• You will be working with a varied group of young people from different backgrounds who will have had different experiences and reasons for having spent time in care. This will include asylum seeking young people.
• It will be your responsibility to develop personalised pathway plans that promote independence and positive outcomes, ensuring all work is delivered in line with relevant legislation, statutory guidance and service standards.
• A key aspect of your role will be providing support, specialist advice and advocacy on behalf of young people, helping them navigate the challenges of adulthood and make informed decisions about their future.
• Supporting access to education, employment and training opportunities will be a key part of your work,alongside helping young people sustain suitable accommodation and access the services they need.
• Working collaboratively with professionals across health, housing, education and the voluntary sector, you will coordinate support and build effective partnerships to ensure young people receiev the right help at the right time.
• To protect vulnerable young people, you will take appropriate action to safeguarding, responding to concerns in line with procedures and promoting their wellbeing and safety at all times.

What We Need From You

• It is essential that you hold a relevant qualification, such as an NVQ level 3 in Health and Social Care or an equivalent qualification, or have substantial experience working with young people in a professional setting. This could include experience within residential social work, youth work, careers advice, substance misuse services, mentoring or similar roles supporting young people to achieve positive outcomes.
• We are looking for someone with a sound understanding of the legislation, statutory guidance and procedures relating to care leavers, and be able to apply this knowledge confidently in practice.
• You will have strong interpersonal and communication skills, alongside the ability to build positive, trusting relationships with young people, their families and a wide range of professionals.

What You Need To Know

• There are two roles available in this team, one full time permanent position and one full time limited term contract ending 31st October 2027. Please advise at interview which role you are applying for.
• You will be required to travel widely within the authority so you must either have a current driving licence and provide a car or have access to appropriate means of travel.
• Please note that due to the nature of this role it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Child (DBS) check is obtained for this post.

Interviews will be held week commencing 9th November 2026.

How a Career At South Gloucestershire Council Is Different

• As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
• We invest in the careers of our people and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
• What’s special here is the strength of the team ethos. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan their services to ensure teams have manageable caseloads and have effective supervision so feel supported to make decisions which are right for the children and young people they work with.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life.
• We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We’re making a difference, be part of it!

To view the full job description, please click this link: Personal Advisor, Job Description