Specialist Senior Supporting Families Worker - 12 month FTC

Specialist Senior Supporting Families Worker

Fixed Term, Full Time

£30,931 to £35,362 per annum

Location: Harlow

Please note that this position is being offered as a Fixed Term Contract / Secondment for 12 months until June 30th 2025.

This is an exciting opportunity to work as part of a busy yet challenging service delivering creative interventions to support families to change. We work here within the Supportive Families Programme defined by central government to impact upon outcomes for families, working towards improving the quality of their lives. The team covers West Essex which requires visits to families in their homes, schools and other agency bases across the entire quadrant.

Here in Essex, we continue to raise the bar about practice and our investment in our workforce is second to none. It's an exciting time to join us. Not only have we been named Outstanding by Ofsted, we are delighted and at the same time humbled to have been crowned Social Work Employer of the Year for the second time in the last three years!

Why work with us?

• Use your skills to make a difference to the lives of children and families who experience difficulties and inequalities
• Work for a high performing team with great team morale and friendly, helpful, and supportive colleagues.
• Access high quality training and development to help develop your career within the Children and Families sector, learning more about the broad range of challenges families face, such as school attendance, emotional behavioural difficulties, poor health, substance dependency such.
• There are many helpful tools and strategies we use as part of our interventions and teams work collaboratively here to share ideas and strategies.
• Regular high quality support and supervision from qualified social work practitioners is continually on offer and at times, joint working opportunities.
• As a member of the directorate for Children & Families there are opportunities to gain professional qualifications
• 26 days' annual leave plus Bank Holidays. We also operate a flexi system and so there is some scope for flexible working especially around home / office working.

The role - overview:

The work of a Specialist Senior Supporting Families Worker is a varied and rewarding role working with children and their families with many different types of complex need.

Key aspects of the work include:

• Working closely with families to build strong relationships with all family members who have consented and are committed to working towards goals.
• Meeting with multi agency professionals to develop and implement plans
• Maintaining well written notes and documents in line with our service requirements.
• Working closely with a Practice Supervisor or Manager to identify and manage areas of concern, including risk and to respond, at times, to crisis.
• Participating in group work to implement creative interventions whilst also offering individual sessions in line with need.
• Draw upon your previous study/ experience to develop a specific area of understanding to enable you to act as point of consultation within the team and to forge relationships with key providers, such as Domestic Abuse support, housing, early years, working with teenagers and such.
• We are particularly keen to hearing from those of you who enjoy working with troubled teenagers.

About you:

• Significant practical experience of working with children and families with multiple and complex needs or within a helpful field.
• Educated to degree level or equivalent by experience in relevant area e.g., Domestic Abuse, Substance Misuse, Education, Mental Health, Parenting etc.
• Effective communication skills with a range of children, families and professionals, both verbal and written.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.