Family Support Worker - Kentown

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity; Lancashire; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 30,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car

Pension scheme

Life assurance

Annual leave 25 days

Job summary

Rainbow Trust is seeking a Family Support Worker to join the Kentown Care Team, delivering needs-led emotional, social and practical support to families in Lancashire. The role involves coordinating with health, education and social care professionals, managing a caseload and providing bereavement support in a demanding, compassionate environment.

Reporting to the Family Support Manager, you will build supportive relationships, work flexibly with families, and contribute to case studies and

Qualifications

• Experienced child health, education or social care professional.
• Warm, inclusive approach to achieving goals quickly and correctly.
• Practised in data protection and information sharing.
• Confident user of IT including MS Office.
• Persuasive and open communicator collaborating with team and volunteers.
• Knowledge of diversity issues affecting children and families.

Responsibilities

• Deliver needs-led emotional, social and practical support to families where a child or young person has a life-threatening or terminal illness.
• Manage your own schedule and caseload, remaining flexible to family needs.
• Work in partnership with health, education and social care professionals.
• Provide bereavement support and help families cope with grief and change.
• Support fundraising colleagues by writing case studies and family updates.
• Maintain accurate documentation and comply with information-sharing and data protection guidelines.

Skills

Child health

Education

Social care

MS Office

IT literacy

Communication

Diversity awareness

Team collaboration

Education

Education/Health/Social care qualification

Tools

MS Office suite

Job description

• Location: This role covers Lancashire- Preston and Blackpool. Weekly team meetings in Lancaster.
• Interview dates: Interview dates to be confirmed
• Salary: £27,000 + Company Car (with an approx. retail value of £23,000-26,000, taxable benefit in kind of £6-£8k) and other excellent benefits

• Location: This role covers Lancashire- Preston and Blackpool. Weekly team meetings in Lancaster.
• Closing date: 19 November 2026
• Interview dates: Interview dates to be confirmed
• Salary: £27,000 + Company Car (with an approx. retail value of £23,000-26,000, taxable benefit in kind of £6-£8k) and other excellent benefits

Rainbow Trust

About The Role

We are looking to appoint a Family Support Worker on a full-time basis (35 hours, 5 days per week), to deliver a high-quality family support service as part of our Kentown Care Team to families in the local area, at a time where they need it most.

Reporting to the Family Support Manager of the Kentown Care Team and working in partnership with health, education and social care professionals, you will take responsibility for providing needs-led emotional, social and practical support to families where a child or young person has a life threatening or terminal illness. You will enjoy responsibility for managing your own schedule, remaining flexible to the needs of the families on your caseload.

Having worked in a demanding and emotional environment you have a genuine interest in building supportive relationships and helping people; and having provided bereavement support to families, you understand processes of grief, loss and change - and how best to help others deal with its impact.

Location

This role covers Lancashire- Preston and Blackpool. Weekly team meetings in Lancaster.

What We’re Looking For

Download the full Job Description & Person Specification

• An experienced child health, education or social care professional - applications will be particularly welcome from those who have worked in a community environment and those with a recognised qualification in education, health or social care
• A warm, inclusive approach to achieving goals quickly and correctly
• Practiced in child protection, information sharing and the rules around data protection - you lead by example, drawing on your own professional experience and working within established guidelines
• Practical and people-oriented - you will thrive working at a fast pace whilst maintaining accuracy and be a confident user of IT (including MS Office)
• A persuasive and open communicator - you will work collaboratively with your team and volunteers to ensure delivery of a high-quality service and support fundraising colleagues by writing case studies and family updates
• A practical knowledge of diversity issues affecting children, young people and their families – aware that being responsive to other’s needs and concerns, is essential.

What We Offer

We are proud to be a Best Companies Two-Star rated organisation, an outstanding place to work! As a Top 10 Charity, we have a range of fantastic benefits that we offer our employees, including:

• Control over your own schedule, based on the needs of families on your caseload, to balance home and working life
• Company car for front line care posts (car P11D value of £23,000-26,000, taxable benefit in kind of £6-£8k)
• Pension scheme where we contribute 5% of your salary and you contribute at least 3%
• A life assurance scheme for all employees which provides a death in service benefit of three times’ basic pay.
• 25 days of annual leave plus public holidays – rising to 26 days after 1 year, 27 days after 5 years and 30 days after 11 years, with an additional 5 days to use in your 10th or 20th year of service (pro rata for part time)
• The option to buy/sell annual leave, as well as additional leave for your birthday, wedding/civil ceremony and an extra half day off for Christmas shopping
• Time off in Lieu
• Family friendly policies, focused on employee wellbeing, and an active cross-organisational wellbeing group running a number of initiatives throughout the year
• Employee Assistance Programme with access to remote GP, counselling, physiotherapy, resources to support your mental health and financial wellbeing, as well as a 24/7 helpline via Help@Hand
• Access to the Blue Light Card Scheme, and other rewards and discounts
• Bike to work, season ticket loan and payroll giving schemes
• A recommend a friend recruitment bonus scheme
• Robust training and development programmes to support your learning and growth.

If you’d like to find out more about these benefits and working with us, please visit our why work with us page.

More information about us and our recruitment process can be found in our Candidate Pack.

Development Opportunities

As part of our learning and development Anne Harris Skills Development Programme, we aim to provide a high level of training and development opportunities for all staff, so you are able to perform to the best of your ability, achieve individual and team objectives aligned to Rainbow Trusts strategic plan, supporting staff to be their best and feel a valued member of a high performing organisation.

Our Family Support Teams are given the opportunity to complete a number of diverse training courses in their first 12 months

Including but not limited to: Mental Health First Aid, Makaton, counselling skills, introduction to play.

The programme aims to provide a building block for you to individually tailor your own learning and development needs.

About Us

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity enables families who have a child with a life‑threatening or terminal illness to make the best of time together, providing expert, practical and emotional support, where they need it for as long as it is needed. For families living with childhood illness, time is everything. Right now, there are too many families coping alone with no support, no time to think, no time to make memories and no time for each other. We believe that no family should go through this alone, so we are here to change that.

Additional Information

Interviews will take place at our Kentown Care Team Office, we will only contact those applicants who have been successful.

If you require any adjustments during the interview process, please let us know as part of your application.

There will be a requirement for a full current driver’s license to accommodate team and family need and an enhanced DBS disclosure.

Rainbow Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment.

Rainbow Trust is an equal opportunities employer, and we welcome applications from all backgrounds.