Family Support Worker - Children's Services

Human Resources & Development - Form 35 Version 15- Issued October 2022 JOB DESCRIPTION AND PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT ▪ Job Title: ▪ Post Number: ▪ Grade and SCP: ▪ Directorate: Family Support Worker Grade 7, SCP 12-17 People Directorate Where your role fits at Shropshire Council As Shropshire Council we are rightly proud of our achievements and we have proven to be a resilient local authority in our response to the many challenges we overcome, particularly over recent years. We will be continuing this momentum with ambition and a focus on delivering our four key priorities outlined within the Shropshire Plan: Healthy People, Healthy Environment, Health Economy and Healthy Organisation. We are committed to achieving this by aligning everything we do to our vision 'Shropshire - living the best life'; to tell everyone that Shropshire Council is a great place to be. We will enable a skilled, happy, healthy, diverse, inclusive, empowered, and proud workforce that influences and leads change, addressing any inequalities. As a member of the Family Help Team within Children's Social Care, Safeguarding and Early Help, you will support the achievement of these key priorities, making a real difference to the lives of people in Shropshire. In 2023 the Early Help Service has undergone significant transformation, to ensure that families receive the right help at the right time. This includes creating a new Early Help Strategy with partners and the 'How Can I Help?' approach, working with families restoratively to achieve change, preventing the need for Children's Social Care intervention where possible. The Family Help Service has been re-designed to ensure that families receive direct access to help and support when needed. Who will your manager be and what will you be responsible for? You will be: ▪ The post holder is responsible to the Locality Team Manager who is in turn responsible for the post holder's health and safety, training and development. ▪ You will work with a range of professionals and families across Shropshire. ▪ You will gain excellent and varied opportunities for developing your knowledge and training regular, high-quality supervision and skill set, strengthened by opportunities. ▪ You will support to improve outcomes for children and families in line with local and national priorities and targets, applying the Early Help Practice Framework. ▪ You will play a key role in providing lead professional coordination where appropriate for pregnant women, families and children aged 0-19 (25 SEND), through community based targeted activities, including group work and home visiting to meet identified needs. Providing targeted support to allocated families on caseload at a frequency most suitable to the needs of the individual and/ or family that will enable them to make positive changes, facilitate independence and meet service demand. What will you be doing? ▪ Managing a case load and work as Lead Professional to coordinate the support for Children, young people and their families. ▪ Assessing the needs of the family, utilising the most appropriate assessment tool. ▪ Networking and Co-working with other professionals to deliver services to a child and their family, within an agreed plan. ▪ Monitoring and reviewing effectiveness of intervention through the coordination of a multi-agency Family plan and Review meetings. ▪ Undertaking direct work with children and young people as determined by the Family's plan. ▪ Undertaking return home interviews with children who have been reported as missing to the police. ▪ Working with children, young people and their family who are at crisis point through the provision of focused work as planned to prevent escalation to Social Care. ▪ Encouraging and enabling families and carers to install boundaries, structure and routine in children's lives through programs of direct work with children and their parents/carers. ▪ Ensuring case notes, plans and records are maintained to an excellent standard, that additional reports are completed within timescale (i.e., to coincide with Family Help Practice Framework) and that any Liquid Logic recording is kept up to date at all times ▪ Recording outcomes for families in line with the Supporting Families Programme. ▪ Working to enable children and young people and their parents to progress such matters including housing, welfare benefits or any other work to prevent escalation of need. ▪ Where appropriately trained, deliver training programmes to individuals and to groups to meet elements of the plan and wider service delivery. ▪ Facilitating community-based services and activities of key universal service providers at an appropriate level of support ▪ Developing Family Hubs and providing high quality community-based activities, in partnership where possible. ▪ Using any other information systems required to record group and Family Hub activity. ▪ Developing skills through training in areas of work relevant to the setting. ▪ Ensuring that Health & Safety standards are met. ▪ Working with colleagues to ensure the team functions successfully in support of the Council's corporate and service objectives. ▪ Reporting safeguarding risks immediately to their line manager and COMPASS. The above duties are an illustrative outline and are not an exhaustive list. You will be expected to become involved in a range of work to enable the service to respond effectively to the changing requirements of the Council and changes affecting the workforce. What we expect of you You will: ▪ adopt a customer focused approach when delivering your service, ensuring engagement with service users and maintenance of an appropriate personal profile, ▪ act as an advocate for your service and work collaboratively with colleagues across the whole Council to meet the needs of the people of Shropshire, ▪ meet individual, service and personal development targets agreed through the Personal Development Review Process, learn from experience and are committed to continuous improvement individually and as an employee of the Council, ▪ work with colleagues to meet your team's key performance indicators, support a culture of team working and ensure the team functions successfully in support of the Council's corporate and service objectives. ▪ meet the behaviours and competencies adopted by the Council in the way in which they achieve their objectives and carry out their work. What are your conditions of Service The conditions of service are those laid down by Shropshire Council, which have been adopted and amended as necessary from those laid down by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services. Your primary work base will be at the Local Area Hub with the requirement to regularly work from home. Depending on the needs of the service you may be required to work at any of the other Shropshire Council premises. Your post is subject to the following: ▪ The post is Permanent for 37 hours per week, ▪ Normal office hours are 7am - 7pm Monday - Friday and 8am - 1pm Saturday with a minimum lunch break of 30 minutes. Occasional evening work may be required, ▪ The post is subject to the Council's annualised hours scheme as implemented within the specific work area. This post carries eligibility to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. Information about this will be sent with any formal offer of appointment. Annual leave entitlement is a pro rata flat rate scheme of 207 hours (28 days) annual leave plus bank holidays, with five days extra awarded to those staff with five years local government service giving an entitlement of 244 hours (33 days). Two days of an employee's allowance (pro rota for part time staff) must be taken at Christmas for any potential Christmas closures. Employees who work in a building/service which is required to open over the Christmas period, the two days leave (pro rota) can be carried over into your next leave year but must be used by the end of March. The appointment is subject to one month's notice in writing on either side. The appointment is subject to six months' satisfactory probationary service during which time the notice period will be one week on either side. Smoking is not allowed in Council buildings, in Council vehicles or in any Council place of work. It is a condition of your appointment that you provide a suitable vehicle for the performance of your duties and that this is readily available for use during normal working hours. You are entitled to claim for reimbursement of the costs of travel on council business at the rate of 45 pence per mile. What pre-employment checks will we undertake? The appointment is subject to receipt of the following pre-employment checks; 1. Satisfactory employment references, 2. Medical report, 3. Evidence of the qualifications required for the post/listed on your application form, This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such all applicants who are appointed to this post will be subject to an Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service before the appointment is confirmed. This check will include details of cautions, reprimands or warnings as well as convictions and non-conviction information. Once appointed, the successful applicant(s) will also be required to apply for an Enhanced Disclosure at pre-determined intervals during the course of their employment whilst in this post. Supplying false information or failing to disclose relevant information could be grounds for refusal and could amount to a criminal offence.