Child And Family Worker

About us
The Solutions Service is a countywide service working with children and their families from 10 to 18 years to help prevent entries to care or to reconnect and reunify a cared for child with their family or extended kinship network. The service aims to help families reconnect and relate, to develop the right conditions for families to live together with stability and confidence.
The key priority for the service is to support families where there is a young person who is at the edge of care, with the aim of enabling the young person to remain or return living with their family, or to reconnect and reunify a cared for child with their family or extended kinship network, where it is safe for them to do so, to secure better outcomes for those children.
About the job
Child and Family Workers within the Solutions South team provide a creative range of services for parents and children (aged 10 - 17) at the edge of care, specifically tailored to them by the Solutions team with the aim that children remain or return living with their families.
You will provide a range of strengths-based and relational direct interventions to address the compounding issues leading to family breakdown and supports families spend time together, strengthening and rebuilding their relationships.
You will support to parents using a therapeutic parenting approach to develop their skills and resources as well as delivering some direct work with children and their siblings using a trauma informed approach to build resilience.
Establishing effective working relationships is a key skill you will need as you will be collaborating closely with families aiming to support them work towards positive change. You will work with children and families who may present as in crisis and often have compassion fatigue or are struggling in their emotional wellbeing and will need empathy and emotional resilience to deal with distressing circumstances and / or challenging behaviours.
You will join our team based in Worthing although much of the service provision will be in the community and in family homes. You'll need to be able to travel independently throughout the county, including to areas that might not be easily accessible by public transport. There is a regular and intrinsic requirement to communicate in English with members of the public.
There will be a requirement to work flexibly across a 37 hour week to suit the needs of a Child and their family with some availability to work outside of normal working hours (9am-5pm), weekends and bank holidays.
Experience and Skills
Key Skills
Skilled in delivering relational and strengths-based interventions. Able to engage children/ young people and their families and deliver a range of interventions such as supporting a child to develop healthy relationships, understand and manage their feelings, emotions and behaviours, re-engage in learning or activities, support parents to manage their own well-being and build responsible and caring parenting skills.Strong interpersonal skills. Work in an empowering way, using negotiation and motivational skills you will focus on building collective strengths and resources. Strong resilience skills are required due to the nature of this role.Able to use initiative and creativity, as you'll be responsible for organising your own workload. You will also need to respond to unanticipated problems and make informed decisions independently, though seeking advice where necessary.Excellent communication skills with the ability to maintain clear, accurate records of all work undertaken, sound and accurate IT skills, ensuring confidentiality and protecting information.Qualifications, knowledge and experience
Essential
GCSE English and Maths, or equivalent qualification or experience operating at this level of literacy and numeracy.QCF Level 3 Diploma for the Children and Young People's Workforce (or equivalent), or demonstrable equivalent comparable experience.Experience of strengths-based and relational direct work interventions with children, young people, parents and / or families.Knowledge and understanding of the development of children and young people, and age-appropriate behaviour.Requirement to communicate in English with members of the public.You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars and pool bikes are available.Rewards and Benefits
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do. For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.
Further Information
The reference number for this role is CAFHE05129.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.