Family Intervention Worker – Children With Disabilities Children’s Social Care

SCC01458/SR

Inside this pack: • What You Will Be Good At

• What You Will Deliver

• What We Will Offer You in Return

• Living our values

If you are interested in finding out more before applying, please get in touch with

Helena Wellington, Team Leader, on 07919164919 or

Sally Hardwill, Deputy Team Leader, on 07919 540 433

If you have any questions about the benefits we offer, or our recruitment process, please contact our Recruitment Team on recruitment@.gov.uk or telephone on 01823 355596 We will notify you by email if you have been selected for interview or have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please check that the automated email has not gone in your junk mail folder before contacting us.

What You Will Be Good At

Key Competencies You should demonstrate a commitment to our four key values – Customer Focus, Can Do Attitude, Collaboration and Care and Respect. More information can be found on the final page.

Work Experience Knowledge & Skills

Essential Desirable • Some experience of social care, but not • Experience of working as part of a necessarily in paid employment. team • Experience of working with children and young • Clerical or administrative people. experience. • Positive attitude to the use of computers with • Broad working knowledge of Social IT skills enabling effective input, manipulation Care. and retrieval of data and information. • Experience of working with • Demonstrate knowledge and children who have a disability. • Experience of working with understanding of child development and children who have behavioural or family relationships emotional difficulties. • Able to promote equality, diversity and • Awareness and understanding of the interests of service users and carers rights of users and carers and the • Contributes to induction of new Family principles embodied within the Intervention Workers. Code of Practice for Social Care Workers. • Able to produce basic correspondence, oral • and written reports and records that are Awareness of relevant legislation. legible, accurate and easily understood • Knowledge of services and • Ability to speak fluent English as stated in legislation relevant to users and carers’ needs and circumstances. Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016)

Qualifications

Essential Desirable • Literate and numerate to GCSE level A-C/Level • NVQ Level 3 in Social care or relevant 4 or equivalent. qualification/experience.

Personal Attributes

Essential Desirable • Demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults. • Demonstrates empathy with client group and understanding and respect for individual needs. • An excellent telephone manner and good listening and assessment skills. • Demonstrates ability to prioritise work and organise competing demands. • Keeps up to date with routine tasks. • Has an open manner, which elicits trust. • Takes a full and active part in own development, appraisal and supervision. • Flexibility and creativity. • Ability to travel to clients’ homes across the county. • Demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. • Able to develop professional relationships with a range of clients and colleagues. • Ability to communicate effectively, sensitively and confidentially • Able to respect individual rights and cultural needs • Prepared to undertake training and share new knowledge and skills within the team.

All disabled applicants meeting the essential criteria will be interviewed.

Somerset has signed the Charter for Employers who are Positive about Mental Health

MINDFUL EMPLOYER is a UK-wide initiative. www.mindfulemployer.net

What You Will Deliver

Key tasks and responsibilities: Main Responsibilities & Duties In agreement with the Team Leader, undertake intense pieces of individual work with children who are disabled and their families with complex needs identified as Level 3 in the SCC Effective Support for Children document

1. Take case responsibility for a number of children, young people, and their families whom have complex support needs (level 3). Work directly and intensively with a significant degree of autonomy, working in partnership with parents and carers to encourage and empower them to participate as fully as possible in the care of their children and enable them to meet the needs of their family in Community based settings, in their homes or in Children’s Centres.

a) Ensure the implementation of the SCC Think Family Approach throughout all assessment and intervention activity; liaise with other agencies and practitioners as required to ensure the needs of the whole family are reviewed using the Team Around the Child/Family Process.

b) Assess the child and family’s strengths and needs to produce a holistic, intervention plan detailing the specialist support services which will be provided. Agree the plan with the child and their family/carer; implement, monitor, and review action plans with individual children, young people, and their families setting clear outcomes. Make recommendations for adjustment as considered appropriate.

c) Agree with parents/carers and partner agencies the aims, purpose, and outcomes of the work with families.

d) Organise and arrange multi-agency meeting’s (TAC/Family) to ensure plans and actions are reviewed and developed appropriately, working with staff from a variety of agencies and the family to monitor progress, effectiveness of support and evaluate interventions.

e) Monitor and manage appropriately any risks to or from children as part of direct work undertaken and escalate such risks to the line manger where necessary, recording, writing and presenting reports relating to child protection, childcare proceedings and court appearances as appropriate in consultation with line manager.

f) Integrate children, young people with disabilities sensitively and positively into the service, promoting participation in a range of quality activities.

g) Use persistent and proactive interventions when working with parents/carers of children and young people with disabilities to enable positive changes in their lives.

h) Have an awareness of services in the community and signpost as appropriate to these or other specialist services to ensure that the needs of children, young people, and their families are met.

i) Build upon existing knowledge and practice with research and training to develop individual skills. Develop and maintain professional competence as a Family Intervention Worker - CWD.

2. Develop a multi-agency approach by building working relationships with other professional agencies, practitioners and community-based services and working together with them in the assessment and support of children, young people and their families, appraising and evaluating new approaches and embedding improvements in service delivery.

3. Undertake comprehensive record keeping using the electronic case management system LCS CWD Episode. Record assessments, interventions and relevant contacts using the LCS CWD Episode framework in accordance with the SCC Data Protection and Information Sharing policies. Write reports in relation to the effectiveness of assessment and intervention packages to contribute to meetings concerning or involving children, young people and their families.

4. Undertake specialist training as required to deliver specific interventions to children and their parents/carers, contribute to team learning and training for partner agencies.

5. Accept responsibility for delivering courses for targeted families with level 3 complex needs such as Tuning into Kids/Teens, Overcoming Abuse, or Becoming Respectful, Autism Awareness, Inclusive Communication, and deliver bespoke strategies and resource as required; or other areas of work as directed by senior management. 6. Provide consultation, advice and support to wider professionals as required.

7. Update own knowledge of best practice and gain new skills by participating in workshops, networking, attending training sessions and sharing expertise acquired with staff colleagues.

8. Be aware of and work within the legal framework, Health and Safety framework, policies, procedures, ethical and professional boundaries, guidelines and legislation.

9. Participate in regular supervision, annual appraisal, staff meetings, as well as community or parent events.

10. Understand, uphold and promote the aims of the council’s equality, diversity and inclusion policies; health, safety and wellbeing of self and others; and Organisational values in everything you do. Equality and Diversity practice covers both interaction with staff, service users and communities and includes challenging discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity for all.

11. Undertake any other duties commensurate with the post as the programme develops, as required by the Team Leader.

Contacts & Relationships • Family Intervention Workers will work with and maintain a range of close contacts and relationships with children and young people who are disabled, and their families identified as level 3. Work closely with the Team Around the School regarding the effective identification of needs, assessment and evaluation of interventions. Liaise with Children’s Social Care regarding the step up and step down of cases.

• Maintain working relationships with care professionals, voluntary bodies and other agencies relating to client needs. Work with partners as required to plan and evaluate interventions and to develop practice based on feedback from children, young people and their families and lessons learned. Receive and pass information to professionals to offer appropriate advice and guidance to children, young people, and their families relating to the provision of support and care.

• The role will be supervised at least once monthly by the relevant Team Leader within the team.

• Receive frequent collaborative contact with Childrens Social Workers, Education and Health Professions and all professionals involved around a child and their family, contributing to the monitoring of welfare and outcomes as required.

Resources The postholder will work with disabled children and young people, and their families of varying abilities and needs, who on occasions can be distressed or difficult. There will be a clear expectation these situations will be dealt with in professional manner in accordance with guidelines and procedures.

The postholder will be expected to undertake their duties by working with children, young people and families at level 3 with multiple and complex needs.

Have knowledge of external resources, data and community services to support children and their families.

The postholder will support the Team Leader and Professional Practitioners in delivering best value for money in organising services, including case allocation, diary management and their own travel costs.

The postholder will be required to travel across the County.

Further information specific to this job The successful candidate has a responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of the children and young people they are responsible for, or come into contact with. Somerset County Council is subject to Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent English will be an essential requirement for customer-facing roles. This job requires a criminal background check (DBS) via the disclosure procedure.

Job title: What We Will Offer You in Return Salary and Grade 12, between £22,183 to £25,481 per annum grade: Appointments are normally made at the bottom of the salary scale. Contract Permanent type: Location: Hours of 37 hours per week. These will be in agreement with the line manager. work: Annual For this grade: 23 days or, with more than 5 years continuous service 27 days. leave: This is inclusive of two statutory days. In addition, there are 8 bank holiday days.

Please note, the amount stated will be pro–rata for part-time and fixed term contract posts.

The annual leave year starts on 1st April or 1st of the month in which the contract commences. Probationary The appointment will be subject to a probationary period of 6 months. period: Internal applicants who have already completed their probationary period would not normally be expected to complete this again. Notice Following completion of the probationary period, this post will be subject period: to a notice period of one calendar month on either side.

Living our values – 4 Cs At work, the way we do things matters as much as what we do. At Somerset County Council we have four key values – the 4Cs – that all employees are expected to work to. They will form part of every member of staff’s personal review.

Customer focus This is about putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. Collaboration This is about working with others to deliver our services. Can do attitude This is about getting the job done and doing it well. Care and respect This is about treating others as they would wish to be treated – with care, respect, dignity and understanding.

What does this look like in practice? The 4Cs describe our values. In practice, this means that we think from a customer or a community perspective to make sure we get things right first time and continually improve the services we provide. We must have a clear view of what our customers and service users say they need, rather than build services based on what we think they need. We operate a ‘no wrong door’ policy – whichever authority or department deals with the customer’s query, we help them get there. As we build links with other authorities and organisations we talk to each other and our managers about how we think we could change, even the smallest things, for the better. We work together, establishing positive, respectful and empowering ways of working as strong teams. We act with integrity, communicating clearly, admitting to our mistakes and striving to learn from them. When we think we need to speak out or challenge, we are prepared to do so in a constructive and positive way, but we remain objective.