Family Support Worker

Shooting Star Children's Hospices; Guildford; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a compassionate Family Support Worker to join their dedicated team. In this vital role, you will provide essential emotional support to families facing life-limiting conditions, ensuring they receive the care they need during challenging times. Your work will involve regular check-ins, home visits, and collaboration with a multidisciplinary team to create a supportive environment. This position offers a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the lives of families while benefiting from a range of competitive perks and a supportive working environment. If you are passionate about helping others and have the skills to provide empathetic care, this role is perfect for you.

Benefits

NHS Pension Scheme

27 days annual leave

Paid sabbatical leave

Flexible working arrangements

Reimbursed professional membership fees

Eye care

Employee Assistance Programme

Mindfulness sessions

Cycle to work scheme

Free meals at Christopher's

Qualifications

• Experience working with children and families facing hardship and complex needs.
• Ability to convey empathy while maintaining professional boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Provide emotional support to families in crisis and monitor Family Support Line.
• Attend various sites to deliver culturally competent care.

Skills

Empathy

Communication

Crisis Management

Cultural Competence

Education

Experience with children and families

Job description

Job Title: Family Support Worker (12 months FTC)

Team: Family Support Team

Hours: 37.5 hours per annum

About Shooting Star Children’s Hospices

We have an exciting opportunity for a family support to join our Family Support Team at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.

Shooting Star Children’s Hospices provides specialist care and support to families who have a baby, child or young person with a life-limiting condition, or whose child has died. Rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, we support families across Surrey, north-west London and south-west London from diagnosis to end of life and throughout bereavement with a range of nursing, practical, emotional and medical care.

About the role

Family Support Workers (FSW) are the frontline of our psychosocial care. Each FSW holds a caseload of end-of-life and bereaved families. They get to know their families, and check-in regularly with phone calls and home visits and can provide enhanced emotional support where required through more regular contact and interventions. Our FSWs inform families about the different psychosocial care and many services they can access at Shooting Star, assess their needs and make recommendations to our specialist psychosocial MDT. They work hard to support families of different ethnicities and families living in poverty, so that our service is as equitable as possible.

Our FSWs work closely with our Therapists, Counsellors, Social Workers, Transition Team and our Care Events Team. Weekly specialist psychosocial MDT meetings bring the team together to think of ways to help families in crisis. The work is varied and creative, taking place at the hospices, in family homes and hospitals, allowing the support to be where the families need it. Our Family Support Workers are hugely appreciated by the families we support.

The ambition of our strategy is to ensure every family affected by a life-limiting condition, or the sudden death of a child, has access to the specialist care that they need.

Day to day duties are:

• Being part of the duty rota over both sites monitoring 3 email inboxes and answering the Family Support Line.
• Supporting the events team with admin tasks and attending various events
• Providing on the spot emotional support, sometimes in a crisis where a calm and empathic response is required.
• Support the in-house team with families staying at Christopher’s for assessed nights and end of life care.
• Attend various sites over the course of a week, hospice, hospital, family homes. Planning your own diary effectively.
• Building connections with families from different backgrounds, delivering culturally competent care.
• Acting as an ambassador for Shooting Star’s Specialist Bereavement Service, supporting other care team members with their learning and delivery of the bereavement pathway, and continually seeking ways to improve quality.

About you

This role requires experience of working with children and families who have experienced hardship, presenting with complex needs. You should have a calm positive manner, be consistent in your approach, and convey empathy whilst maintaining professional boundaries.

Please see the attached job description for more information about this opportunity at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.

What we offer

In return you will receive a competitive salary along with a range of benefits, which include:

• NHS Pension Scheme (for eligible employees) or our stakeholder pension scheme, with up to 7% employer contributions

Annual leave

• 27 days plus Bank Holidays rising with length of service
• 2 weeks paid sabbatical leave after 5, 10 and 15 years’ service

Contractual benefits

• Enhanced maternity, adoption, and paternity leave pay
• Flexible working arrangements
• Reimbursed professional membership fees
• Eye care

Health and wellbeing

• Employee Assistance Programme
• Occupational Health
• Mindfulness sessions
• Cycle to work scheme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Nutritionally balanced meals at Christopher’s (free for employees) and free fruit at our Hampton site

Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all our staff to share this commitment. Also, we are committed to equal opportunities and consider all applicants to be in line with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Employment is subject to receipt of satisfactory references and an ehanced DBS check.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Shooting Star Children’s Hospice is committed to inclusion and diversity in everything we do. We know that getting things right is critical for us to live our organisation’s values: Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence.

We are always trying to improve our way of working to be more inclusive and equal. Our vision is for Shooting Star Children’s Hospice to be a place where people of all backgrounds, groups and communities feel welcomed to work and volunteer.

Please contact Fiona Rankine [[e-mail]] if you have any questions about this role.

To apply, please complete our online application and send a statement outlining how your skills and experience meet the criteria set out in the person specification. please send completed applications to [[e-mail]]

Closing Date: 15/05/2025

Interview Date: TBC

Download the full Job description

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Associate

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Health Care Provider

• Industries

  Non-profit Organizations

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