Family Liaison Officer

Shorefields; Tendring; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

Lift Clacton is seeking a compassionate Family Liaison Officer to strengthen links between the school and families. You will identify children in need of support, assist attendance plans, and provide practical guidance to parents on parenting, behaviour and accessing local services.

You will work with safeguarding, attendance and external agencies, contributing to referrals, meetings and multi-agency work to improve outcomes for children and families.

Qualifications

• GCSE Maths and English at Grade 4 or equivalent.
• Experience motivating students and high expectations.
• Experience using data to analyse performance and track progress.
• Experience engaging hard-to-reach families, including home or community visits.
• Knowledge of safeguarding in education.
• Ability to build strong relationships with students, families and external agencies.
• Strong communication and organisational skills.

Responsibilities

• Build trusting relationships with parents, carers and students, including hard-to-reach families.
• Identify attendance barriers and develop practical plans with families and school staff.
• Provide guidance around parenting, behaviour, wellbeing and local services.
• Support students in transition and maintain engagement with learning.
• Assist safeguarding processes and contribute to multi-agency work.

Skills

GCSE Maths and English (4+)

Motivating students

Data-informed decisions

Engaging hard-to-reach families

Safeguarding knowledge

Relationship building

Communication & organisation

Empathetic approach

Attendance knowledge

Job description

Job Ref No. ECC8816910-246S Position Type: Teaching/Child Support Pay Range: £24893.47 - £25893.47 per annum

Position Start Date: Immediate Contract Type: Full-time Contract Term: Fixed

Application Close: 27/10/2026 Midnight Date of Interviews: TBC

Are you passionate about helping children and families overcome barriers, strengthen their engagement with school and make the most of educational opportunities?

Lift Clacton is seeking a compassionate, resilient and highly organised Family Liaison Officer to build strong links between the school and the families it serves. You will work closely with parents, carers, students, school colleagues and external agencies to help families access the support they need and ensure children can engage positively with school and learning.

About the role

As Family Liaison Officer, you will identify children and families who may benefit from additional support and work directly with them both in school and in the community. You will help parents and carers understand attendance expectations, identify barriers to regular attendance and support practical plans to improve engagement.

You will provide advice, guidance and practical support around parenting, behaviour, wellbeing and access to local services, while building trusting relationships with families who may be difficult to engage. You will also support students experiencing difficulties, including those at risk of exclusion, and help ensure their voice is heard.

Working closely with safeguarding, attendance and external professionals, you will contribute to referrals, meetings and multi-agency work, using information and data to identify patterns, target support and help improve outcomes for children and families.

In this role, you will:

• Build strong, trusting relationships with parents, carers and students, including hard to reach families.
• Support improved attendance by identifying causes of absence, carrying out home visits where appropriate and helping develop practical plans with families and school staff.
• Provide practical support to parents and carers, including guidance around parenting, behaviour management, play and access to information, benefits and local services.
• Support children and families through transitions and help maintain positive engagement with school and learning.
• Support students experiencing difficulties, including those at risk of exclusion, and help communicate the voice of the child to parents and school staff.
• Support the coordination and delivery of wellbeing and nurture interventions that improve emotional resilience and reduce barriers to learning.
• Use attendance information and other data to identify trends, inform interventions and evaluate the impact of support.
• Work collaboratively with external agencies and maintain up-to-date knowledge of local statutory and voluntary services.
• Support safeguarding processes by preparing reports, attending relevant meetings and drafting referrals where required.
• Represent the school at safeguarding and multi‑agency meetings, providing clear case updates and appropriate professional challenge.

What we're looking for

• GCSE Maths and English at Grade 4 or equivalent.
• Experience of motivating students and promoting high expectations.
• Experience of using data to analyse performance, track progress and inform decision making.
• Experience of engaging hard to reach families, including through home or community visits.
• Knowledge of the education sector, safer recruitment and safeguarding/child protection.
• The ability to build strong relationships with students, families, colleagues and external agencies.
• The ability to de-escalate situations, remain calm under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• Strong communication, organisation and interpersonal skills.
• A positive, non-judgmental, patient and empathetic approach, with the resilience to persevere when challenges are complex.
• Current knowledge of attendance and exclusions legislation, previous experience in an educational environment and experience working with external agencies are desirable.

About Lift Clacton

Lift Clacton is a rapidly improving school at the heart of the community and achieved 'Good' in its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024. The school has experienced significant growth, with more than 1,500 students now on roll.

We believe every child deserves an excellent education, every classroom, every day. Our staff are ambitious, supportive and committed to helping every student succeed, creating a culture where colleagues are valued and encouraged to develop professionally.

Joining Lift Clacton

Joining Lift Clacton means becoming part of Lift Schools, one of the country's largest multi academy trusts, offering excellent professional development, career progression opportunities and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

Who is Lift Schools?

Lift Schools is made up of 62 primary, secondary and special schools, educating more than 35,000 pupils across the country. We believe education can transform lives - and we want every child in our schools to achieve their full potential.

How we support you

We want you to feel supported, valued and able to grow throughout your career with Lift Schools. From high-quality professional development and career progression to wellbeing support and opportunities to connect and collaborate across our network, we invest in you so you can do your best work.

Discover how we'll support you to thrive, develop and grow your career in the way that's right for you: How we support you

Information about the School

At the Lift Clacton we aim to ensure that every child ends up in successful employment. To that end we ensure that our curriculum creates opportunities for students to become independent and self-motivated with the ability to be responsible, determined and aspirational. All students are individuals who develop in different ways and at different rates and the curriculum is designed to meet those individual’s needs and provide appropriate technology, qualifications and experiences to support students into their chosen career pathways.

The curriculum is centred around core concepts which are sequenced in order to support students in every subject. Core concepts form the bones of the subject. These pieces of knowledge or skills unlock further learning. Core concepts are sequenced in such a way that students are supported to secure each essential concept before moving onto the next. These concepts are focused around a knowledge rich curriculum where students learn topics to a high level of depth to help them to tackle mastery of each subject discipline.

We prioritise the development of reading, writing and communication to support students to access new challenges in the curriculum as this is an essential element for success in our local context. Students have dedicated reading lessons, to enhance their reading skills and build a culture of reading. Students read for twenty minutes a day every day. Subject leaders work hard to build vocabulary and increase the number of opportunities for students to read in lessons, with at least one reading focused lesson per half term.

We recognise our young people as individuals, offering support and challenges to empower them to achieve their aspirations with a high standard of lesson content. Where students need further support they are provided with opportunities within our Remarkable Futures programme (which provides intensive support to students at risk of disengaging with education) or our Transition Curriculum (which provides an enhanced curriculum to accelerate the progress of students who join Lift Clacton with significant gaps in their learning).

Additionally, there are a variety of enrichment activities to enhance our curriculum. Year 11 and the Sixth form have allocated intervention times and a study hub to support their revision as they build up to their public examinations.

Lift Clacton is committed to providing all of our students with a broad and balanced curriculum. It is our belief that this large discipline of all subjects helps our students to receive a strong traditional academic education, while also having time to find expression in the creative subject areas.

Our mission:

• We will provide an excellent education to every child, in every classroom, every day.
• With excellent leadership and teaching in every school, we will help children go on to lead successful and happy lives.
• We will work with others beyond our network to benefit more children and communities.

All appointments are subject to safer recruitment requirements to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people. All positions will involve appropriate checks and clearances.

Laurence Johnson
Pathfields Road, Clacton-on-Sea
Essex, CO15 3JL Telephone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]