Panel Member - Lay Member and Chair
UK
Panel Member - lay member and chair
Wales
About Us
At Social Care Wales, we provide leadership and expertise in social care and early years in Wales. Our vision is to make a positive difference to care and support for children, adults, and their families and carers.
To achieve this, we lead on developing and regulating the social care workforce, service improvement, and data and research to improve care. Through our quality assurance work, we support social work educators in both education and practice settings, ensuring the highest level of training for the next generation of social care workers.
As the regulator of the social care workforce in Wales, we register social workers, social care managers and workers and set standards through the Code of Professional Practise.
We are now looking for lay panel members and chairs to join us, working a minimum of 12 days per year.
Hearings are normally held online but some in-person hearings may be held in our office in Cardiff or Llandudno Junction or other venues in Wales, therefore some travel and overnight stays may be required.
Remuneration
- Daily Rates: Lay member: £200; Chair: £225
(Please note, only those eligible to apply as chair will be able to sit as chair)
The Role
As a panel member, you will assess the fitness of social care workers to practise, ensuring decisions are fair and evidence-based and uphold public safety.
Working collaboratively with fellow panel members, you will evaluate evidence, deliberate on cases, make objective decisions and provide clear, reasoned decisions that reflect our values and guidance.
Lay members selected to chair a hearing will be expected to ensure procedural fairness, contribute objective and non-discriminatory views and facilitate private panel discussions which prioritise objectivity and fairness to all parties to agree an outcome that will protect the public.
Additionally, you will prepare for hearings by reviewing case bundles and addressing conflicts of interest.
About You
A ‘lay member’ is someone who has an interest in social care in Wales and who has no professional experience or background of working in social care. A ‘lay member’ could be someone who uses care and support services or someone who doesn’t.
As a chair, you will have:
- experience of making decisions based on legislation, legal advice and procedural guidance
- the ability to calmly and confidently read panel reasons aloud in public
- the ability to handle challenging situations in a calm, fair and confident manner
- confidence to lead a panel, participate in panel deliberation and support colleagues to participate and have their views heard
The closing date for this role is 6th January 2025.
We want our panels to represent the social care workforce who are registered with us as well as the varied population in Wales. We know that some groups are underrepresented on our panels and we’re actively seeking to make our panels more representative of a diverse Wales
Reasonable adjustments can be made at any stage of the recruitment process for candidates with a disability, impairment or health condition, for example, who are neuro-divergent or who use British Sign Language. Please get in touch with the HR Team to discuss adjustments for any part of the process.
Other organisations may call this role fitness to practise panel chair, independent panel member, lay panel chair, lay member, regulatory panel chair, hearing panel member, or fitness to practise lay chair.
So, if you’d like to join us as a panel member, please read the associated documents (on the right hand side) and select the apply button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.