Job Description

Job Title: / Family Support Worker
Salary Range/Grade: / Grade J- Spinal Points 22-27
£20,660 - £22,658 rising to £24,174 per annum
Training Band: / 2
Hours: / 37 hours per week
Work base: / Police and Schools Spurgeons Project ( PASS)
Reporting To: / Specialist Youth Worker
Responsible for: / NA
Main Purpose of Job:
·  Develop and maintain effective partnership working with young people, their parents and other agencies with a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and working
·  Assess, provide or co-ordinate support to young people at risk of anti-social behaviour and or are experiencing complex and multiple issues.
·  Facilitate and deliver support and interventions which improve the young people’s personal, social and educational development
·  Promote equality and the interests and welfare of young people, achieving improved outcomes for the young people and their families.
·  Maintain competent and ethical practice in the provision of the PASS service, supporting young people and their families experiencing complex and multiple issues
Performance Fundamentals:
Spurgeons has identified three performance fundamentals applicable to all roles in the organisation:
·  Providing Excellent Services
·  Managing Self and Others
·  Managing Resources
All job tasks and competencies are aligned with these performance fundamentals.
Performance Indicators and Targets:
·  Meet quota for young person and family support referrals and cases
·  Deliver parenting courses throughout the year
·  Engagement and end of intervention baseline questionnaires/action plan
·  Engage effectively with as many young people and their families at risk of anti-social behaviour as possible within the area of responsibility
·  Achieve agreed outcomes with young people and their families
·  Safeguarding incident reporting to timescale
·  Record all group sessions and any incidents requiring follow up to required quality and time bound
·  Customer satisfaction
·  Case recording of referrals to required quality and time bound completion
·  To adhere to Spurgeons vision and mission and to demonstrate Spurgeons core values of compassion, inclusivity and hopefulness in performing the essential duties and responsibilities of your job
Job Description
Providing Excellent Services
1.  Provide individual support to young people and their families who are at risk of or who have been affected by gangs; supporting them to minimise risky behaviour, advocating on their behalf to access relevant support services and empowering them in making positive changes to their lives.
2.  Work with young people and their families to identify priorities, support needs, interventions and goals, developing and implementing strategies for securing these, using assessment and monitoring to motivate young people and their families to achieve a shared and mutually agreed support plan/ contract.
3.  Work with CAF processes where required and as part of a Team Around the Child, which includes attending external meetings and case conferences, fulfilling the roles of Lead Professional in the CAF if appropriate in some situations.
4.  Develop innovative ways of engaging with and developing services for young people and their families especially those who are harder to reach and at greatest risk of gang involvement.
5.  Take up referrals and work with young people and their families in order to identify, understand and meet their needs, with an emphasis on promoting positive outcomes.
6.  Work with young people and their families in line with the agreed model, ensuring that the level of support meets the identified need including one to one support, group support, telephone support, advocacy, provision of information and signposting.
7.  Promote young people’s self-awareness, confidence and participation through facilitating exploration of their values and beliefs, encouraging their involvement in the design of their service and supporting them in evaluating the impact of the service upon their own situation.
8.  Pro-actively work in partnership with other agencies including educational settings and community groups to provide ongoing support to young people to enable young people to continue their education.
9.  Ensure that the policies, procedures and practice for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children are implemented effectively within Spurgeons and relevant Local Safeguarding Children Board policies and procedures.
10.  To work flexibly and deliver services across the Spurgeons services as directed.
Managing Self and Others
11.  Accountable for and review own practice through working as an effective and reflective practitioner, participating in regular supervision and accessing opportunities for professional development.
12.  Ensure your own actions reduce risks to health and safety, through the following of lone working policy and guidelines and ensuring health and safety requirements are met in your area of responsibility (e.g. risk assessments in place and followed service activities).
13.  Provide support as required to colleagues (internally and partner agencies) to ensure service targets are achieved, including the induction of new staff, student placements and volunteers in conjunction with your line manager’s requests.
Managing Resources
14.  Follow contractually agreed case management procedures, including recording and reporting, involving other agencies, colleagues and line managers where appropriate.
15.  Monitor and evaluate the quality and Effectiveness of the service activities.
Person Specification
Attainments / In order to be considered for this post you will have to demonstrate that you already have: / Criteria

Qualifications

/ NVQ level 3 qualification in Child Care, Health or Social Care or equivalent
Evidence of recent and continuing professional development in relation to child development and family support practice.
Youth & Communication Qualification / E
E
E

Experience

/ Professional experience of engaging young people and their families in one to one and family support at risk of anti-social behaviour or who are vulnerable
Experience of providing home visits and facilitating group sessions
Experience in running family support programmes and parenting courses
Practical experience in identifying innovative ways to engage with hard to reach families
Experience of working within a multi-agency team, interagency settings and the CAF/TAC process
Experience of using data bases for recording, maintaining monitoring and retrieving information. / E
E
E
E
E / D

Work Based Knowledge

/ A working knowledge and demonstrable understanding of:
The Children Acts of 1989 and 2004 and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Child protection and safeguarding issues, including Safeguarding and Child Protection policies, procedures and systems
Knowledge of physical, social and emotional developmental needs of young people and the impact on them from issues such as domestic violence, substance misuse and parental mental health
Knowledge of solution focus approaches
An Outcomes based approach to measuring performance and its application in services for children.
Lone Working best practice.
The Data Protection act in relation to working with Children families and multi-agency working.
Equal opportunity and diversity in assessing and responding to the needs of children and families / E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E

Skills

/ Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills – effective in a variety of settings and range of people.
Effective persuading, communicating and interpersonal skills to gain commitment, confidence and compliance.
Responsive to direction and challenge.
Demonstrates an excellent customer service approach
Demonstrably accurate, methodical and neat in ways of working
Proficient time management skills
Skills in collating and sharing data / E
E
E
E
E
E
E / D

Special Job

Circumstances

/ This post has the following special circumstances:
A car driver and access to a car for work purposes
Regular travel within the Geographical areas
Requires lone working within Spurgeons policies and procedures
Occasional national and regional travel
Flexible approach to hours due to possible travel and supporting the needs of colleagues and service users. This includes occasional weekend and evening work
Note: If you have difficulty in meeting these conditions because of a disability or family circumstances, the Chair of panel will discuss it with you in order to consider reasonable adjustments to the job or working conditions. / E
E
E
E / D

Competencies (expected behaviours)

Within the main performance fundamentals Spurgeons identified ten core competencies that describe expected behaviours for which staff are required to work within, at the level of their role. For each post there are essential competencies that are key in ensuring the role is done effectively which are complemented by desirable competencies.

Please refer to Spurgeons Competency Framework for detailed descriptions.

Competencies / Level / Job Critical Competencies / Other Core Competencies
PROVIDING EXCELLENT SERVICES
Focusing on the Customer
To meet customers’ (service users and colleagues) needs and aims to continuously improve the services they provide to make sure customers receive an excellent service. / 3 / X
Safeguarding People
To ensure that all service users are appropriately safeguarded and that all staff are kept safe whilst working; safeguarding being always recognised as of paramount importance. / 3 / X
Delivering Outcomes
To ensure agreed outcomes are delivered in the most efficient and timely way by embracing a creative and entrepreneurial approach. / 3 / X
MANAGING SELF AND OTHERS
Providing Direction
Leading and providing direction to individuals, supporting and enabling them to make a positive contribution to the current purpose and future vision of the organisation. / 3 / X
Working as a Team
To work effectively with other people and use the diversity of the team to create a working environment which helps achieve the tasks. / 3 / X
Developing Self and Others
To behave ethically and professionally within your role, being aware of your own and other people’s strengths and weaknesses, and take steps to learn, develop and achieve high levels of performance in yourself and others. / 3 / X
Embracing Change
To embrace change effectively within services and departments through reflective, motivating and flexible leadership and team working. / 3 / X
Communication
To ensure the effective use of written and oral communication skills to convey information and ideas to individuals and teams within and outside the organisation and create opportunities for individuals to respond and provide feedback. / 3 / X
MANAGING RESOURCES
Making Evidence Based Decisions
To identify and use various sources of evidence, making meaning of it to understand how relevant and valid it is, to enable effective decision making that improves performance and delivers outcomes. / 3 / X
Planning and Managing Resources
To make sure the organisation delivers its key priorities, tasks and forecasts; effectively manage risks, relationships and use resources in efficient ways to deliver outcomes. / 3 / X

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4 July 2016