Family Worker

To deliver a targeted high quality early help family support service to families from pregnancy to age 19 years
* to improve health and well-being outcomes, educational attainment and reduce inequalities.

To offer practical advice, support and direct case work to prevent issues escalating and requiring statutory intervention.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• To carefully and thoroughly assess children and families needs underpinned by the common assessment framework, prescribed screening tools and models of engagement.
• To create a whole family action plan and evaluate progress against shared outcomes.
• To work in partnership with universal services to support early identification of need and/or risk, ensuring needs are identified in a timely way.
• To deliver responsive early intervention packages, including evidence-based programmes and/or refer to appropriate services (universal, targeted and specialist) to meet need, working in partnership with families.
• To identify and respond to risk, work with children in need and those in need of safeguarding and their families according to policy and procedure (e.g. London-wide Child Protection Procedures) to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable children and adults at risk.
• To manage a caseload of allocated families, effectively prioritising according to need and risk, consistently meeting the timescales agreed, providing excellent customer service and making every contact count.
• To work with families to support sustained engagement in services to achieve the greatest impact and positive outcomes.
• To work collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues, services and organisations to provide integrated services for families, including working across the Early Help system to support families and evaluate outcomes.
• To act as Lead Professional (including leading Team around the Family meetings), ensuring the effective coordination and communication across the network of services, a high level of family and child/young person engagement and avoiding duplication.
• To contribute to service improvement initiatives, engaging positively in a changing and dynamic environment to sustain and improve standards of service and achieve positive family outcomes.
• To contribute to public health initiatives to prevent ill health and promote health improvement e.g. obesity prevention or referral to the Families for Life programme.

WORK CONTEXT

• Family Workers work in multi-agency, multi-disciplinary teams based in community venues and work with families in their own homes.
• Family Workers are required to demonstrate emotional intelligence and resilience to work confidently with families who are often vulnerable, have complex needs, including for example children on the edge of care, engaged in criminal or antisocial behaviour, gang activity or substance misuse or are experiencing domestic violence and neglect.

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS/REQUIREMENTS

• Satisfactory Enhanced DBS check.
• Numeracy and literacy to GCSE level of equivalent
• Further education to the level of e.g. NVQ, B-TEC or equivalent in a relevant field
• Experience of working with children, young people and families in diverse, inner-city communities