Family Time Worker

Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership; Lichfield; On-site; GBP 23,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Disability Confident employer

Guaranteed interview under schemes

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is seeking a dedicated Family Time Worker to support children in foster care and help maintain relationships with their birth families. The role covers Cannock and Lichfield and is fixed-term for 12 months, with a weekend rota and shared weekend duties.

You will facilitate family time, coordinate court-directed arrangements, transport children, and provide parenting guidance while maintaining professional boundaries for vulnerable children and families.

Qualifications

• Minimum NVQ3 in working with children and families or equivalent
• Experience of direct work with children, families and carers in statutory or voluntary agencies
• Understanding of child development and effects of stress/trauma on development
• Understanding of policies, guidance and legislation governing children’s social care
• Have unrestricted use of a car and a driving licence
• Be flexible to work evenings and occasional weekends
• Ability to communicate effectively with children, their families and carers
• Ability to build relationships and deliver interventions to children, families and carers
• Ability to work effectively in conflict situations

Responsibilities

• facilitate therapeutic family time between children and their parents or other family members
• coordinate arrangements for family time for children and their parents or other family members as directed by court
• transport children and young people to attend family time
• provide parenting support and guidance during family time
• support the completion of accurate documentation, reports, and records in relation to children, young people, and families
• be available outside of traditional working patterns including evenings and weekends to provide support to children, families, and carers when it is needed

Skills

NVQ 3 in childcare

Direct work with children

Driving licence

Flexible hours

IT skills

Communication

Education

NVQ3 in working with children & families

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Cannock and Lichfield

Are you passionate about making a difference to the lives if childrenwho are placed in local authority foster care?

As a Family Time Worker, you’ll play a critical role in supporting children in understanding their birth identity and supervising their time with birth parents.

We’re looking for people to join us with the skills to encourage and help maintain positive relationships between children and parents. We work with very vulnerable children so we must ensure we maintain professional relationships whilst managing complex family needs and behaviours.

You'll play a vital role in supporting families for them to spend quality time together. Our aim during family time is to promote a positive and meaningful time for children with their family. This could include offering support, guidance, and parenting advice or modelling positive interaction and behaviours. Our family time workers are required to transport the children around the county and further afield.

This role will be covering at Cannock and also The Old House in Lichfield and is Fixed Term for 12 months. There is a weekend rota and 1 in 4 weekends are worked to support our families.

Main Responsibilities

You will:

• facilitate therapeutic family time between children and their parents or other family members.
• coordinate arrangements for family time for children and their parents or other family members as directed by court
• transport children and young people to attend family time.
• provide parenting support and guidance during family time.
• support the completion of accurate documentation, reports, and records in relation to children, young people, and families.
• be available outside of traditional working patterns including evenings and weekends to provide support to children, families, and carers when it is needed.

The Ideal Candidate

As well as a passion for helping and supporting children and their families, you’ll need to have:

• a minimum NVQ 3 in working with children and families or equivalent experience of working with children and families.
• Experience of direct work with children, their families, and carers in a statutory or voluntary agency which provides services to vulnerable children and their families.
• An understanding of child development and the effect of stress and trauma on child development.
• An understanding of the key pieces of policies, guidance, and legislation which govern children’s social care.
• Have unrestricted use of a car and a driving licence.
• Be flexible to work evenings and occasional weekends as needed.
• The ability to effectively communicate with children, their families, and carers.
• The ability to build relationships and deliver interventions to children, families, and carers.
• The ability to work effectively in conflict situations.

Previous experience in the use of IT including Microsoft packages would also be desirable

This role is currently subject to a review of weekend working arrangements, including any paid enhancements.

Need more information? If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach us at Cherry Fowler, Family Time Lead at: [e-mail]

Interviews are expected to take place on the week of 2nd November

“We’re happy to talk flexible working”

Please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families directorate to realign individual teams and the wider team’s ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.