Job Description: Senior Family Support Worker (Fixed Term One Year Contract)

Transcription

1 Job Description: Senior Family Support Worker (Fixed Term One Year Contract) Location: East Surrey - Redhill Hours: Full Time (including flexibility to work some evenings and weekends) Salary: 28,748 including inner fringe weighting AIM To deliver the broad based preventative support service offered by Welcare in East Surrey to families with children up to the age of 13 years. ACCOUNTABILITY SPECIFIC CONDITIONS To work in partnership with the Children s Centre Manager on specific developmental tasks. To hold overall case responsibility whilst managing and delegating specific tasks to a family support worker and team of volunteers. The volunteers will form an integrated part of the support offered by Welcare and will deliver a range of individual family help and mentoring support for children up to the age of 13 years. To manage and provide supervision and support for Welcare volunteers working with children and families. The post holder is accountable to and line managed by the southwest London Child and Family Support Service Manager and ultimately to the Chief Executive of Welcare who is responsible to the Trustees of Southwark Diocesan Welcare for the professional delivery of the service and the performance of the agreed duties. The nature of the post will require flexibility and the ability to work from time to time during the evening and weekend. Time off in lieu will be given. GENERAL DUTIES 1. Manage the external and internal referral process including the assessment of need, risk and safeguarding concerns and allocation of casework to the family support worker, outreach team and volunteers. 2. Take responsibility for the supervision of Welcare s Early Help Contract and ensure that contractual agreements are achieved in collaboration with the line manager. 3. Attend referral meetings with Early Help South East Referral, Assessment and Intervention Service (RAIS) team as part of a multi agency response. 4. Create the conditions that ensure a child-focussed approach to the work is developed and maintained. 5. Advise staff on safeguarding matters and take appropriate action if escalation is necessary keeping the Line Manager informed.

2 ADMINISTRATION 6. Provide line management and conduct appraisals for the family support worker and volunteers working with the child or family. 7. Provide quarterly reports as required by the local authority. 8. Comply with Welcare s requirements for recording output data on Welcare s Services database. Maintain case notes and files in line with Welcare s file policy. 9. Monitor and evaluate interventions and ensure that effective data is collected and that Outcome Stars are completed by staff to record client progress. 10. Maintain a positive profile for Welcare with external agencies and ensure that appropriate referrals are made to Welcare. 11. Attend family homes or schools for assessment visits. 12. Work towards specific goals that improve life chances as agreed with families in their individual plans. 13. Develop a good working knowledge of local resources for families and enable families to access them as appropriate to their needs; develop networks with statutory and voluntary agencies in the locality to enhance the service offered for the benefit of service users. 14. Comply with Welcare s policies, procedures and Staff Handbook, and in particular the Safeguarding, Health & Safety and Data Protection Policies to protect the health, safety and welfare of yourself and others. 15. Work flexibly as required by the service and take part in Welcare and other organisations meetings in order to support the family. 16. Attend multi-agency professional meetings to support social inclusion that reduces levels of vulnerability for children and families 17. Act as lead professional where appropriate to support the Team Around the Child/Family and Early Help Assessment (EHA) 18. Appraise Welcare service leaflets and make sure the information on the website reflects current services; provide information to central office for newsletters and annual reports. 1. Keep appropriate written reports of the work undertaken and submit them electronically on a regular basis according to the set requirements. 2. Provide case studies where appropriate for monitoring, publicity and fundraising in line with guidance from Welcare s Fundraising and Marketing Manager. TEAMWORK AND LIAISON SUPERVISION, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 3. Assist the Line Manager in the preparation of regular reports for funders on the progress and outcomes of the work undertaken. 1. Develop effective relationships with staff in local statutory, voluntary, education and health services, etc. 2. Participate in regular team meetings as required and full staff meetings. 1. Make constructive use of group/individual supervision from the Line Manager in order to assist professional development. 2. Take responsibility for identifying personal and professional training needs; undertake training as agreed with your line

3 TERMS & CONDITIONS manager 3. Maintain a high standard of professional practice both within Welcare and in the wider multi-agency environment, including keeping up to date with standards of good practice and local developments for service provision. 4. Participate in and contribute to training programmes to increase knowledge, understanding and skills, making full use of local authority training opportunities. Salary: up to 28,748 pa (incl. inner fringe weighting) + 6 weeks annual leave entitlement. Welcare offers staff two additional days paid leave each year (Christmas Eve and Maundy Thursday) Hours of work: 35 hours per week. DATE CREATED January 2016 JD REFERENCE JD PS Senior FSW (January 2016)

4 PERSON SPECIFICATION Job Title: Hours of Work: Local Centre: Senior Family Support Worker 35 including occasional evenings and weekends Redhill ATTAINMENTS AND EXPERIENCE Experience of working with and line managing others Experience of supervision of staff Experience of safeguarding Experience of working with people from diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds Good understanding of family relationships Knowledge of child development Qualified to level 4 or equivalent Caseload management Knowledge of current childcare legislation and legislation relating to disabilities Relevant vocational or academic qualification (e.g. social work, counselling, health and social care). Experience working with children or families who have experienced domestic abuse Group facilitation skills SKILLS Good communication skills, including written and oral reporting skills Creative approach to problem solving Skilled in recognising and responding to children s needs Good listener Networking skills Good interpersonal/counselling skills Good IT Skills Ability to provide individual and group supervision Ability to prepare monitoring information Use of outcome or evaluation tools Local knowledge PERSONALITY Practical Sensitivity to families in crisis Able to work on own initiative and as part of a team Ability to empathise A non-judgemental attitude and positive approach Ability to build relationships with a wide range of service users from different cultures Able to engage with hard to reach families

5 CIRCUMSTANCES Availability for occasional out of hours work (evenings or weekend) Use of own transport would be helpful to reach all parts of East Surrey WORK INTERESTS Commitment to providing good quality services to families Commitment to working in partnership with families and service users Interest in co-working in multi-agency partnerships WORK ATTITUDES Reliable and consistent Commitment to anti-discriminatory/ diversity working practices Commitment to being part of a team work Commitment to confidentiality. Empathy with Welcare s Christian Value Base