Schools and Families Practitioner recruitment 2015

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLESchools and Families Practitioner

JOB SUMMARYTo provide support for schools following a bereavement in the school, and training for school staff

To contribute to SeeSaw’s services to bereaved children and families.

To run the Side by Side programme of group work for bereaved children

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Schools

  1. To plan the development of SeeSaw’s strategy for work with schools
  2. To offer support to school staff where there is a bereavement in the school community
  3. To design, deliver training packages to school staff
  4. To promote training packages for schools.
  5. To promote the work of SeeSaw in schools, taking an active role in public relations
  6. To support SeeSaw’s fundraising events in schools and elsewhere

Training of other professionals

  1. To coordinate SeeSaw’s response to training requests
  2. To contribute to training provided by SeeSaw to increase knowledge of child bereavement among professionals and other community members

Side by Side

To plan and deliver groups for bereaved children (the Side by Side project)

General

  1. To work collaboratively with the SeeSaw team to provide SeeSaw’s services to children and families. This includes:
  • Offering a first voice to referrers
  • Visiting families to conduct assessments prior to allocation of work to SeeSaw’s Volunteer Support Workers
  • Providing direct support to a small caseload of children and their families where appropriate
  1. To liaise with referrers and other agencies working with the families
  1. To maintain records and workload statistics as required by the Director
  1. To collaborate with other bereavement services
  1. To assist in the production of literature published in the name of SeeSaw
  1. To participate in appraisal, evaluation of the service and future research
  1. To work flexibly in response to the needs of the service
  1. To work within SeeSaw’s and statutory policies
  2. To raise awareness of the work of SeeSaw across Oxfordshire
  1. To undertake any other reasonable tasks related to the aims of SeeSaw and to contribute positively to the overall work of SeeSaw, in negotiation with the Director and Trustees

SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES PRACTITIONER, SEESAW

PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL

/

DESIRABLE

Experience and qualifications
  • Qualification in counselling, health care, education or social work
  • Experience of working with bereaved children, young people and families
  • Experience of working with staff in school settings
  • Experience of working with groups of children/young people
/
  • Experience of service evaluation.

Knowledge
  • Child development, psychology and therapeutic interventions in grief work
  • Safeguarding children
  • Understanding of the voluntary and/or statutory sectors
  • Understanding of the vital role of fundraising for the organisation
  • Understanding of the contribution of volunteers to service provision
/
  • Knowledge of methods of service evaluation
  • Up to date with current research on
child and adult bereavement
Skills
  • Counselling skills
  • Training skills
  • Skills communicating with senior school staff
  • Group work skills
  • Excellent verbal and written communication
  • Presentation skills for a variety of audiences
  • Competent I.T. skills
  • Good time management

Personal Qualities
  • Good team player
  • Excellent interpersonal skills including sensitivity
  • Sense of humour
  • Energy and enthusiasm, and commitment to SeeSaw.
  • Flexibility in terms of hours and location

  • Enhanced DBS disclosure
  • Clean driving licence