Job vacancies
Adoption East Midlands launched in 2019 as a collaborative venture between Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire councils to provide a regional adoption service. Adoption East Midlands provides all aspects of adoption recruitment, assessment, family finding, and the coordination of adoption support services. We are a successful child-focused service, making a real difference to the lives of children and adoptive families.
Current vacancies
Occupational Therapist
- Salary - £37,938 to £42,708 per annum (pro rata)
- Hours - 18.5 per week
- Closing date - Monday 28 July 2025 at 11:55pm.
Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of adopted children and their families? Join our dynamic and evolving Health Team, as part of the wider Adoption East Midlands (AEM) Multi-Disciplinary Team, and help shape a trauma-informed, strength-based support service.
About the Role
This role is for supporting the continued development of our multi-disciplinary approach to adoption support. Since its inception in April 2023, the AEM Multi-Disciplinary Team has been working to deliver innovative, holistic services to adopted children and their families.
As an Occupational Therapist, you will:
• Provide individual and joint consultations to families, professionals, and social workers.
• Help develop therapeutic support plans for adoptive families.
• Deliver training and support to Adoption East Midlands staff and partner agencies.
• Support the Whole School Approach alongside the multidisciplinary team (MDT).
• Play a strategic role in linking the MDT with public and private sectors.
• Contribute to our multi-agency reflection group for complex family support.
• Lead the Parent and Child Sensory Group for early placement families.
We’re looking for someone who is:
• Committed and passionate about adopted children and families and supporting sensory needs.
• Experienced with trauma-informed practices.
• A strong team player with a creative and flexible approach.
• Willing and able to travel across the D2N2 region as required.
• We welcome applications from staff of all ethnic backgrounds.
What We Offer
• A rewarding opportunity to be part of a creative and impactful project.
• Regular supervision and training to support your professional development.
• A friendly, supportive team environment that values collaboration and innovation.
• AEM has an active Global Majority Staff Support Group and staff are also supported to engage with the Black Workers Network within Nottinghamshire County Council.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact Vicky Pike at: victoria.pike@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk
Please note that the MDT currently has short term funding, and whilst we are very positive about securing a longer-term funding source, at this time we can only offer a fixed term contract.
Find out more and apply for the Occupational Therapist role
Adoption Support Social Worker
- Salary - £37,938 - £42,708 per annum
- Hours - 37 per week
- Closing date - Sunday 13 July 2025 at 11:55pm.
This is an excellent opportunity to join the Regional Adoption Agency, Adoption East Midlands, and to make a positive contribution to supporting adopted children and young people and their families.
The post is within the Adoption Support Service, and we are looking for a suitably qualified and experienced Social Work England registered social worker who has at least 3 years post qualifying experience, with excellent interpersonal and assessment skills. You will need to evidence an awareness and understanding of the lifelong nature of adoption; the skills and attributes required to adopt as well as the on-going need for adoption support services throughout the life course for adoptive families caring for children who have a background of developmental trauma. You will be aware that we work with a diverse population, and we strive to improve our services for Black children and families and other minority groups within our region.
You will be joining an established team of social workers within the Adoption Support Service who work across the Adoption East Midlands region (Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City, Derbyshire, and Derby City). As a worker, you will be instrumental in supporting families, from initial contact with the Agency to carrying out holistic assessments in discussion with the family and professionals to identify their needs to determine the most appropriate plan of support. Alongside working with families where direct pieces of work are carried out with children/adoptive parents, you will also be involved in developing and supporting our programme of universal services which include information and resource sharing, co-delivering peer support opportunities and learning events.
You will be expected to contribute to improving outcomes for all our children and families and understand the concept of safeguarding children within adoption.
You will need to be highly organised, flexible, and able to build excellent interpersonal relationships with service users and colleagues alike. We have a supportive team environment, and you will have the opportunity for peer reflection as well as regular supervision.
The ethnicity of our social work team is not as diverse as we would like, and therefore we welcome applications from staff of all ethnic backgrounds. AEM has an active Global Majority Staff Support Group and staff are also supported to engage with the Black Workers Network within Nottinghamshire County Council.
It is essential that you are IT literate and ideally have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
The office base for this role will be Trent Bridge House in West Bridgford however AEM operate a hybrid working policy to meet the needs of the service. Given the regional nature of the role, a valid driving licence and access to a car is also essential (a taxi service will be provided where disability precludes this).
If you would like an informal chat, please contact team manager Trescia Gallichan on 0115 8041081
Find out more about the Support Social Worker role and apply.
Education Support Worker
- Salary - £37,938 - £42,708 per annum
- Hours - 37 per week
- Closing date - Monday 14 July 2025 at 11:55pm.
- Trent Bridge House, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 6BJ
Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of adopted children and their families? Join our dynamic and evolving Education on TRACK Team, part of the wider Adoption East Midlands (AEM) Multi-Disciplinary Team, and help shape a trauma-informed, strength-based support service.
About the Role
This is a fixed-term position for one year, supporting the continued development of our multi-disciplinary approach to adoption support. Since its inception in April 2023, the AEM Multi-Disciplinary Team has been working to deliver innovative, holistic services to adopted children and their families.
As an Education Support Worker, you will:
- Collaborate within a small, creative team to deliver group-based education support.
- Contribute to our Whole School Approach in partnership with the wider MDT.
- Support the multi-disciplinary helpdesk, offering holistic, trauma-informed advice and guidance.
- Work closely with the four Virtual Schools across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Derby City, and Nottingham City, advocating for children previously in care.
About You
We’re looking for someone who is:
- Committed and passionate about education and adoption.
- Experienced or familiar with trauma-informed practices (highly desirable).
- A strong team player with a creative and flexible approach.
- Willing and able to travel across the D2N2 region as required.
- We welcome applications from staff of all ethnic backgrounds.
What We Offer
- A rewarding opportunity to be part of a creative and impactful project.
- Regular supervision and training to support your professional development.
- A friendly, supportive team environment that values collaboration and innovation.
- AEM has an active Global Majority Staff Support Group and staff are also supported to engage with the Black Workers Network within Nottinghamshire County Council.
Contact: For more information or an informal discussion, please contact Vicky Pike at: victoria.pike@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk
Find out more about the Education Support Worker role and apply.
Adoption Support Team Manager
- Salary - £45,718 - £50,788 per annum
- Hours - 37 per week
- Closing date - Tuesday 22 July 2025 at 11:55pm.
- Trent Bridge House, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 6BJ
Adoption East Midlands (AEM) are seeking to recruit an innovative, dynamic and forward-thinking Team Manager to join our established leadership team. AEM is the Regional Adoption Agency, established in 2019 to deliver all adoption services on behalf of our 4 partner Local Authorities across Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire. This is a real opportunity for a successful candidate to join our team to lead and further develop our successful child-focused service, making a real difference to the lives of children and adoptive families across the Region.
We are seeking a full time (37 hours per week) Team Manager to co-lead our Adoption Support Team working with families across the region. We have been successful in securing funding from the Department of Education to help us establish our successful multidisciplinary team which includes therapeutic social workers, advanced practitioners, education support workers, youth workers, colleagues from Health (Clinical Psychology, Specialist Occupational Therapy and Speech & Language) and Experts by Experience, and which gives us a unique opportunity to provide needs led, relevant and timely support to families from the point of match through to adoption order and beyond. We are an ambitious and creative team who understand the importance and value of service development and delivery which is achieved in co-production with experts by experience and are therefore proud that we place emphasis on the continued development of our regional Peer Network.
Working with an established and experienced team, this is an exciting opportunity for a creative and pro-active individual who has a sound knowledge of the lifelong impact of Adoption on children and families to contribute and shape the service at an exciting time of further development and change.
We welcome applications from staff of all ethnic backgrounds. AEM has an active Global Majority Staff Support Group and staff are also supported to engage with the Black Workers Network within Nottinghamshire County Council.
For an informal conversation please contact Jane Bolan (Service Manager) before Friday 11 July: 07584 593752 / 0115 8041499 or email jane.bolan@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk
Find out more about the Adoption Support Team Manager role and apply.
Independent assessors for adoption assessments
We are looking for suitably qualified and experienced Social Work England registered Independent social workers who have at least three years post qualifying experience, to carry out the assessment and preparation of prospective adopter(s).
Social workers will need to evidence an awareness and understanding of the lifelong nature of adoption; the skills and attributes that are required to adopt, the principles of therapeutic parenting, as well as the ongoing needs of adoptive families caring for children who have a background of developmental trauma.
An ability to write clear, concise and analytical adoption assessments is a core skill of this position.
If you feel you have the necessary skills, for more information and to express an interest please contact Recruitment Assessment and Placement Team Manager, Maxine Bennett at maxine.bennett@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk or Lisa Drummond, Service Manager at lisa.drummond@adoptioneastmildlands.nottscc.gov.uk
Adoption panel membership
We don't have any vacancies for panel members at this time however, we are driven to increase the diversity of our panels in respect of having a better mix of panel members from various ethnic origins. We welcome expressions of interest if you feel you can add value to our panels in this respect. You must also have recent relevant adoption experience.
For more information and to express interest, please email: PanelManagers.Adoption@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk
