Family Support Worker - Thames Valley

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity; Prescott (AZ); On-site; USD 32,000 - 39,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car

Pension scheme

Life assurance

Generous annual leave

Job summary

Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity is hiring a Family Support Worker to deliver high-quality, needs-led emotional, social and practical support to families whose child is life threatening or terminal. This full-time role (35 hours, 5 days) covers the Thames Valley area and requires travel.

You will work with health, education and social care professionals, manage your own caseload, and build trusted relationships, drawing on bereavement support experience; a current driving licence is required and

Qualifications

• Experienced child health, education or social care professional.
• Warm, inclusive approach to achieving goals quickly and correctly.
• Confident with data protection and information sharing practices.

Responsibilities

• Deliver needs-led emotional, social and practical support to families.
• Manage own schedule and travel to family locations as required.
• Collaborate with health, education and social care professionals.

Skills

Child health experience

Social care experience

Bereavement support

IT literacy

Communication skills

Education

Qualified in education/health/social care

Tools

MS Office

Job description

• Location: Thames Valley Team (surrounding area)
• Interview dates: Interview dates to be confirmed
• Salary: £27,000 pa + Company Car (with an approx. retail value of £23,000-26,000, taxable benefit in kind of £6-£8K) and other excellent benefits

• Location: Thames Valley Team (surrounding area)
• Closing date: 25 October 2026
• Interview dates: Interview dates to be confirmed
• Salary: £27,000 pa + 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 Thames Valley Care Team to families in the local area, at a time where they need it most.

Reporting to the Family Support Manager of the Thames Valley 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/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 Thames Valley and surrounding areas. The role does require travel, however you have the freedom to plan your own diary around the demands of both the families you are working with and your team.

What We’re Looking For

• 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 MSOffice)
• 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 others needs and concerns, is essential.

Benefits

We are 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 most 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.

Please disclose on your application form if you have used AI for any part of your job application.

Interviews will take place at our Thames Valley Care Team office with the dates to be confirmed. We will only contact those applicants who have been successful. If you require any adjustments during the interview process, please let us know.

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

There will be a requirement for flexible working and a full current driver’s licence to accommodate team and family need. An enhanced DBS disclosure will be required for this post.

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.