Family Support Worker

LLOYD'S REGISTER INTERNATIONAL; Godalming; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 33,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual leave

Pension

Death in service

Cycle2work

Season ticket loan

Staff discounts

Health cash plan

EAP

Learning & development

Job summary

Barnardo's seeks a dedicated Family Support Worker in Godalming to support children, young people and families. You will deliver evidence-based interventions, run group sessions, and conduct home and community visits across Surrey to meet targeted outcomes.

You will manage 12–15 families, build strong partnerships, and contribute to early help plans while upholding safeguarding principles and inclusive practice.

Qualifications

• Experience of working directly with families with complex needs.
• Experience with family breakdown, domestic violence/abuse, and attachment difficulties.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients from culturally diverse communities.
• Ability to challenge other professionals to promote service users' rights.
• A approachable, non-judgemental, friendly and resilient individual.
• Excellent organisation and time-management skills.
• Knowledge of multi-agency working and information gathering on families.

Responsibilities

• Work with children and young people delivering evidence-based support.
• Facilitate group-work with peers in the centre and venues around Surrey.
• Support universal and targeted interventions one-to-one or in groups.
• Collaborate with the wider team and local partners for integrated services.
• Develop the Centre as a safe place for families to access support and information.
• Hold a caseload of 12 to 15 families and complete assessments.
• Visit families at home and in the community to support needs.

Skills

Complex needs experience

Domestic violence

Multi-agency working

Home visits

Group delivery

Risk assessment

Cultural sensitivity

Communication skills

Car owner

Time management

Job description

Waverley Family Centre is recruiting!

We are looking to recruit a full time (37 hours per week) family support worker.

SurreyFamily Centres are a commissioned service supporting families with complex and multiple needs with children aged 0-19 years/25 (SEND) years. The Family Support team receive targeted referrals from Surrey County Council's cSPA.

The Family Support Worker meets the allocated family on a regular basis and provides support and signposting through a bespoke programme of work, focused on the child or young person and their family's targeted needs. Our ambition is to empower the parents and carers with new knowledge and skills, while also building resilience and providing essential emotional support. The Family Support Worker will be based in the Family Centre (there are 2 sites - Loseley Fields and Hale) and will be a supportive contact for children, young people, families and professionals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with children and young people delivering evidence-based support, demonstrating the difference made from the intervention.
• Facilitate group-work with peers in the centre and in venues around Surrey when needed.
• Support and deliver universal and targeted interventions, on a one to one or group basis to achieve positive outcomes alongside the 10 Supporting Families Outcomes.
• Work in partnership with the wider team and local partners to ensure a joined up and fully integrated service provision.
• Support the development of the Centre as a safe place for children, young people and their families to access for support and information.
• Hold a caseload of between 12 to 15 families.
• Complete assessments.
• Work with the family in their home and in the community.

The skills/knowledge/experience required are:

• Experience of working directly with families with complex needs.
• Experience of working with issues of family breakdown, domestic violence/abuse, and attachment difficulties.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients from culturally diverse communities and demonstrate sensitivity to their needs.
• Ability to appropriately challenge other professionals to promote the rights of the service users.
• Someone who is approachable, non-judgemental, friendly, kind, calm, creative and resilient.
• Someone with excellent organisation and time-management skills.
• Knowledge and experience of multi-agency working.
• Ability to contact agencies and practitioners to support families and gather information - making initial visits to families to risk assess, gather accurate personal information, gain family views, and begin to assess the strengths, needs and goals of the whole family in a holistic way.
• Ability to work holistically keeping the children as the focus of work to improve outcomes and ensure safeguarding - visits with children held at school and home to include their lived experience.
• Ability to assess and analyse family function, dynamics, routines and relationships within the family home to help to identify the root causes of difficulties to inform the Early Help Assessment within 45 calendar days.
• Experience of detailed case recording and an understanding of the importance of keeping timely and accurate case notes.
• Someone with their own car, who is able to travel across the borough to meet with the parents/carers on their caseload.
• Experience delivering groups and sessions.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification and Job Description. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.

We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Reference number:23727
• Job Title:Family Support Worker
• Location:Godalming
• Locality:Waverley
• Contract type:Permanent
• Hours:37
• Salary:£28,687 - £32,786
• Closing Date:28 September 2026
• Interview Date:To be confirmed

Additional Info

• Information Sheet for Applicants Applying for Positions Working with Children and Vulnerable Adults (updated July 2021).pdf (107.00 KB)
• Barnardo's Workplace Offer Visual Summary.pdf (27.58 KB)
• Recruitment of Ex-Offenders Policy Dec 2024.pdf (164.07 KB)
• Project Worker 2 - Job Description and Person Specification.pdf (262.63 KB)