Family Early Help Practitioner LBS-009

JOB DESCRIPTION

Post Title Early Help Practitioner

Grade 9

Division / Unit Family Early Help

Department Children and Adult Services

Reports To Family Early Help Team Manager

To engage families in recognizing the need for change in order to improve outcomes for their children and work with them to achieve sustainable changes.

To conduct whole family assessments that consider risk factors such as poor school attendance, physical and mental health issues, substance misuse, worklessness, offending, exploitation, financial difficulties, safeguarding, domestic violence and parental conflict. To create a whole family plan with families that includes the voice of children and has SMART objectives to address risk factors and improve outcomes for children. To review progress of family plans regularly and plan exit strategies to sustain progress.

To use evidence based tools that engage families and can show progress against identified needs. To deliver evidence based direct work to children, parents and families to address risk factors in a 1:1, family or group setting using a variety of professional skills. To work purposefully with schools, health professionals, voluntary sector, police, social workers and other professionals to achieve best outcomes for children. To act as lead professional and coordinate Team around the Family meetings, holding others to account for the delivery of agreed actions. To manage a caseload of families and balance competing demands as needs arise, ensuring timescales for case work are adhered to. To provide written and verbal reports that demonstrate appropriate analysis of issues.

To provide a responsive, flexible outreach service to families in the borough.

To problem solve with families to develop their resourcefulness, resilience and capacity to sustain progress and increase their social capital. To provide advice and support to families and professionals in the community in regards to resources for families, the early help offer and safeguarding duties.

To record electronic casework as directed by local procedures, to a high quality and within expected timescales.

To promote parental responsibility for school attendance and support the statutory enforcement duty of the service including work with children missing from education.

To support parents and schools with strategies to improve attendance and prevent school exclusion

To actively seek and apply research knowledge on ï¿½what works� to improve personal, team and service practice. To contribute to the monitoring, evaluation and performance management of the service including feedback from parents, children and agency colleagues. To influence the development of the service by sharing ideas for innovation. To use supervision and reflective team opportunities to manage risk and support development of practice.

As an Early Help Practitioner you will:

To contribute to the delivery of an ï¿½outstanding� Family Early Help Service as part of Southwark�s Children & Families Directorate Work with families where children have been identified as at risk of negative outcomes and provide early help for emerging problems in order to improve impact, engage families better and avoid escalation to higher levels of statutory intervention Support continued progress of families who have ï¿½stepped down� from statutory work Act as a lead professional and work with all family members to assess their needs and develop a whole family plan to achieve agreed outcomes that promote the safeguarding of children, attendance at school and positive citizenship Work directly with children and families and actively engage them in sustainable change within the resources available, enforcing positive parenting responsibility through a twin track approach of high challenge and high support.

Grade/Conditions of Service

PERSON SPECIFICATION The person specification is a picture of skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out the job. The person specification describes the essential criteria, (minimum requirements), that a candidate must demonstrate for appointment. The desirable criteria are used to help us select between candidates. The criteria initially tested at short listing stages may be given further consideration at later stages of recruitment.

Use the application form to describe how you meet the criteria outlined below. You should explain and provide examples to outline how your experience, knowledge and skills transfer to the challenges of this post. Do not use more than 4000 characters for any of these sections (knowledge, experience or skills) and please do not feel that you need to reach this limit.

Knowledge, including educational qualifications: Essential (E) orDesirable (D) How assessed (S/ I/ T)

1. Must holda recognised andrelevant academic and/orprofessional qualification at level 4 or above E S

2. Knowledge of guidance and best practice in work with0 � 19 year olds and their families in respect of early intervention, youth justice, relevant childcare and education legislation, and the London Child Protection Procedures E S

3.  Knowledge and understanding of child development, parenting capacity, environmental factors and riskand protective factors for poor outcomes for children E S

Experience:

4. Experience of direct work with children and their families within an early help context, in addition to formulating and implementing effective intervention plans with families E S

5. Experience of working withina multi-disciplinary and multi-agency context to support vulnerable families E S

Aptitudes, Skills& Competencies:

6. Ability to build effective relationships with children, parents / carers, other family members, informal support networks using a twin track approach of high challenge and high support E S/I

7. Abilityto summarise, analyse and evaluate complex information in relation to family assessments and practice, as well as to formulate and implement effective plans with families. E S/I

8. Ability to produce highquality concise reportsand have excellent verbal communication skills E I

9.  Ability to utilise technology effectively E I/T

10. Abilityto develop workingrelationships internally andto form partnerships with other professionals at both operational and strategic levels E I

11. Ability to take into account and manage issuesrelating to diversity and the experience of discrimination E I

12. Abilityto apply negotiation skills and influence the behaviour of others in a complex and demanding environment E I

13. Ability to work flexible hours to fit with the needs of young peopleand families - including evening and occasional weekends as required. This work will be planned and flexi time arrangements will apply. E I

14. Ability to design and drive innovative work with families and embed best practice within the service. E I

Special Conditions of Recruitment:

Comply with and promote the Council�s Equalopportunities policy

Key: D Desirable S Shortlisting criteria

E Essential I Evaluated at interview

T Subject to test