Job Introduction
We are seeking a part time practitioner who is passionate, creative, supportive and highly motivated to join an established team who make a real difference to children's lives. The team have a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills in delivering tailored packages of support to parent's to enable their baby/child to remain or return to their care.
Breathing Space is part of Futures Matter which supports children and young people to remain safely within their family home. This is an exciting opportunity to join a team who have previously had one or more children removed and are pregnant again. The team also supports children in care and care leavers who are pregnant with their first child.
The team is based in Stafford but work across the county.
The worker will be responsible for working with the parents to develop and deliver a tailored package of support, drawing in and coordinating other resources as appropriate. The worker will also work in partnership with the lead practitioner to identify and engage parents with any relevant support services.
The underpinning methodology is solution focussed drawing upon relational and strength-based models, evidence based parenting programmes and practical parenting targeted to meet the specific needs of the family.
In addition, the team also support children aged 0-8 years to return to the care of their family following a period of being in our care.
The team are based in Stafford, however works across the county with their being occasions when practitioners may have to travel out of Staffordshire to complete home visits.
It is important that applicants have significant experience and understanding of early years and child development, working with children/young people and their families within their own homes delivering a variety of interventions/direct work to address presenting issues.
Main Responsibility
As a Breathing Support Worker, you will
- Work with children and young people, their families, and carers to maintain positive relationships, providing high support and high challenge to effect changes in family dynamics to promote stability at home.
- Work weekends on a rota basis and in an evening to support the children and families that you are working with.
- Work restoratively with families, offering an intense and robust package of support delivering practical and evidenced based interventions to ensure parents are equipped with skills to safely parent.
- Take responsibility for the accurate recording of all work undertaken on the electronic file in keeping with the agreed timeframes within Breathing Space/Futures Matters
- You will participate in all team meetings, training, the duty system and in developing the service.
- transport and attend groups with parents as and when required
- develop and review plans of interventions, attend statutory meetings, providing reports for courts as and when requested.
The Ideal Candidate
As an Intensive Support Worker, you must have:
- Passion and motivation to support children to remain living with their family
- Level 3 NVQ or equivalent qualification relating to children and families.
- An understanding of early years and child development, parental and community issues and the impact trauma can have on children and their families.
- Evidence of supporting children and their families within their homes, delivering direct work and being creative in the way that you work to engage children and their families to enable them to remain or return to the care of their family. Or have experience of working in a statutory/voluntary environment which provides services to vulnerable children and their families.
- Evidence of working restoratively with families building on strengths, relationships and promoting resilience.
- Access to a car at all times where mileage and an essential car allowance is paid is required.
For more information about this vacancy or for an informal chat please contact Kirsten.booth@staffordshire.gov.uk or 07815 999066
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.
Our benefits:
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.
In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire.
Our recruitment process:
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 Silver Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application 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.
