Support Worker – Family Time and Support Service North

Essex County Council; Tendring; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Essex County Council is seeking a dedicated Support Worker for the Family Time and Support Service North in Clacton on Sea. This permanent, full-time role offers a salary of £26,284 to £33,256 per annum and a fixed-base location.

You will work with children in care, support care plans alongside Qualified Social Workers, and engage with partners to deliver targeted interventions that improve family resilience and outcomes.

Qualifications

• Educated to NVQ/BTEC Level 3 or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience with children and families in crisis.
• Knowledge of legislation and policy in Social Care.
• Experience with partners and external agencies.
• First Aid certificate desirable or Sign Language knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Support children and young people to have safe and meaningful family time.
• Support social workers to implement and monitor care plans.
• Maintain high standards of professional practice.
• Highlight issues and safeguard a child.
• Build relationships with service users and provide practical support.
• Collaborate across the service with partner agencies.
• Provide information about third party agencies (benefits, housing).
• Participate in meetings, reviews, case conferences, and court hearings.
• Write effective reports for meetings and courts.
• Meet annual targets within performance framework.

Skills

Communication skills

Interagency collaboration

Report writing

Child protection knowledge

First Aid knowledge

Education

NVQ/BTEC Level 3

Job description

About The Role

Support Worker - Family Time and Support Service North

Permanent, Full Time

£26,284 to £33,256 Per Annum

Location: Clacton on Sea

Working Style: Fixed-base worker

Closing Date: Monday 26th October 2026 at 11.59pm

Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Applicants must have a current, unrestricted right to work in the UK.

Interview Date: Thursday 5th November 2026.

Here in Essex, we continue to raise the bar about practice and our investment in our workforce is second to none. It’s an exciting time to join us having received our 2nd Outstanding Ofsted rating in a row.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families

Please take a look at our ‘No Magic’ Children & Families video

The Opportunity

Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion; promoting development and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse.

Working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions which build resilience, remove barriers, and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

Child and Family Support Workers work within the Family Time and Support Service, ensuring that children and young people in care have safe and meaningful Family Time with their family members, as well as working alongside the frontline teams in conjunction with Qualified Social Workers to deliver bespoke, targeted intervention work, in accordance with the care plans, to vulnerable children and families.

This work will normally be time limited, with measurable impact and meet the assessed needs.

Educated to Level 3 or with activity based alternative experience, in a social care setting, you will be passionate about engaging with and providing direct support in the community, building strong working relationships with partners to jointly deliver improved services.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for supporting children and young people in care to have safe and meaningful family time with their family members, in accordance with their care plans.
• Responsible for supporting social workers to implement and monitor care plans, and write reports where required, which deliver interventions for children and families.
• Responsible for maintaining high standards of professional practice which contribute to continuous improvement across the service.
• Responsible for highlighting issues and implementing plans to safeguard a child.
• Building strong, effective relationships with the service users, providing practical advice and support, where necessary and deemed appropriate, enabling children and families to sustain change and function effectively within the community.
• Work collaboratively across the service, with internal and external professional partner agencies, to ensure improved outcomes for children and families.
• Provide information and advice in relation to involvement/accessing of third party agencies relevant to the needs of the service user (e.g., benefits agencies, immigration, and housing).
• Participate in meetings, reviews, case conferences, and court hearings to provide information, insight, and evidence.
• Writing effective reports which could be used in professional meetings, forums, and court.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to NVQ/BTEC Level 3 or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and in-depth knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Experience of building strong, effective relationships with children and families in times of challenge and crisis.
• Experience of observing, facilitating, and reporting on Family Time.
• Experience of undertaking direct, activity based work with children and families where required.
• Knowledge and understanding of the issues impacting children, young people, and families, leading them to require support.
• Knowledge of legislative and policy guidance applicable within Social Care settings.
• Proven track record of working with partners and external agencies.
• A certificate in First Aid and/or knowledge of Sign Language is desirable in this role.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we are dedicated to making a positive difference for residents, communities and businesses across the county. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, Greater Essex was accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail]

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