Family Engagement Manager (Scale 2)

Prison Advice and Care Trust; Exeter; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous Holiday allowance

Season Ticket loan

Cycle to work scheme

Charity worker discounts

Enhanced maternity package

Wellness, inclusion, and diversity Itd

Blue light card

Job summary

Pact is a highly respected independent charity operating across England and Wales. As a Family Engagement Manager at HMP Exeter, you will support prisoners and their families by providing advice, guidance and learning opportunities to strengthen relationships.

You will develop referral pathways, manage a caseload of family support cases, advocate for families' rights, and work in a multi‑agency environment.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable ability to coordinate a broad range of services.
• Experience working with families in a challenging multi‑agency environment, preferably involving offenders and/or their families.
• Excellent organisational skills and the capacity to manage a demanding workload.
• Ability to contribute to the planning and development of Pact’s family work.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and child protection practices.
• Exceptional interpersonal communication and ability to build partnerships with various agencies.

Responsibilities

• Service Delivery: provide comprehensive services ensuring prisoners, their children, carers, and other relatives receive appropriate advice, guidance, learning opportunities, care and support to maintain or enhance positive relationships.
• Referral Pathways Development: develop and implement effective referral pathways for families, prisoners, and other professionals; establish connections with other relevant services for seamless integration.
• Family Support Work: manage a caseload of family support cases; conduct detailed assessments to tailor support for the family unit.
• Advocacy for Families: advocate for the rights and needs of families dealing with imprisonment; promote their human rights and ensure their voices are heard at all levels of decision-making.

Skills

Coordinate services

Family work experience

Organisational skills

Safeguarding knowledge

Partnership building

Multi‑agency work

Job description

As a Family Engagement Manager at HMP Exeter, you will play a pivotal role in supporting the complex and varied needs of prisoners and their families. Your work will be crucial in fostering positive relationships between prisoners and their loved ones, providing essential advice, guidance, and learning opportunities. By developing robust referral pathways and managing a caseload of family support cases, you will ensure that each family receives personalised care and support. Additionally, you will advocate for the rights and needs of families, ensuring their voices are heard and respected within the prison system. This role requires a compassionate, dedicated individual committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of those affected by imprisonment.

Key Responsibilities:

Service Delivery:

• Provide comprehensive services ensuring that prisoners, their children, carers, and other relatives receive appropriate advice, guidance, learning opportunities, care, and support to maintain or enhance positive relationships.

Referral Pathways Development:

• Develop and implement effective referral pathways for families, prisoners, and other professionals to access family support services.
• Establish connections with other relevant services to ensure seamless integration and support.

Family Support Work:

• Manage a caseload of family support cases related to prisoners.
• Conduct detailed assessments to inform and tailor support for the family unit, ensuring personalised and effective interventions.

Advocacy for Families:

• Advocate for the rights and needs of families dealing with imprisonment.
• Promote their human rights and ensure their voices are heard and considered at all levels of decision-making and service provision.

About You:

To thrive in this role, you should possess:

• Demonstrable ability to coordinate a broad range of services.
• Experience and understanding of working with families in a challenging multi‑agency environment, preferably involving offenders and/or their families.
• Excellent organisational skills and the capacity to manage a demanding workload.
• Ability to contribute to the planning and development of Pact’s family work.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and child protection practices.
• Exceptional interpersonal communication skills and the ability to build partnerships with various agencies.

This offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of families and offenders by enhancing the support and services available to them. If you are passionate about family engagement and have the relevant skills and experience, we encourage you to apply.

Organisation:

Pact is a highly respected independent charity, working across England and Wales to develop and deliver a range of innovative services. We provide practical and emotional support to prisoner’s children and families, to prisoners and those who have resettled back into the community. Our work is founded on core values, the first of which is a belief in the innate dignity of every human being, and our work focuses on human relationships, family and community. We are committed to achieving high standards of quality in all that we do.

What we offer:

Pact offers a range of benefits including a free advice, information and counselling service, contributory pension, corporate eye care scheme, cycle to work scheme and generous holiday entitlement. You will have the opportunity to attend training events to further develop yourself as a professional training and interventions worker. You will undergo a thorough induction process and be supported by a friendly and enthusiastic team.

• Generous Holiday allowance
• Season Ticket loan
• Cycle to work scheme
• Charity worker discounts
• Enhanced maternity package
• Wellness, inclusion, and diversity groups
• Blue light card

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.

Other information:

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all applications including those with a criminal conviction (appointment to post is subject to a risk assessment).

This post is subject to a 6-month probationary period, verification of identity and proven right to work in the UK, satisfactory references from previous employers covering a 3-year period, declaration of any unspent criminal convictions (and where appropriate a satisfactory risk assessment), Prison Vetting and a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Please note that being bankrupt or having County Court Judgements may affect your ability to be successfully vetted to work in a prison.

About us

Pact (the Prison Advice & Care Trust) is a pioneering national charity that provides caring and life changing services to men and women in prison, to people with convictions on release and in the community, and to their children and families.

Pact’s vision is of a society in which justice is understood as a process of restoration and healing, in which prisons are used sparingly and as places of learning and rehabilitation, and in which the innate dignity and worth of every human being is valued. We work for the common good of Society, taking a public health-based approach. We work at the intersection of criminal justice, child and family welfare, mental health, wellbeing provision and health & social care.

Our volunteers and staff can be found in courts, prisons, probation services, and in communities across England & Wales. We are a diverse, inclusive, modern, and collaborative charity. We build effective partnerships and sustainable solutions based on our well-established understanding of the systems in which we work, and on our historic values and ethos developed through our 120+ years of service delivery.

As an inclusive employer, we welcome requests for job adverts and descriptions in accessible formats (for e.g. larger text) for candidates with disabilities, including those with neurodiversity. Please contact us via [e-mail], if you require any support in engaging in our recruitment process.

£29,452.50 per annum

37.5 hours per week: evening and weekend working may be required

05-11-2026

Job attachments

FamilyEngagementManagerScale2JDExeter.docx