Family Link Worker

**Salary**: £27,000

**Hours**: Full Time 37.5 Hours

**Location**: Russell House, Huddersfield

**Responsible to**: Family Support Team Leader

**Responsible for**: Family Support Volunteers (based upon family allocation)

**Benefits**: Entry into Peoples Pension, death in service benefit (3 x salary), out of pocket expenses, free on-site parking, free access to confidential and extensive wellbeing support, generous holiday entitlement (26 days plus bank holidays rising to 31 days after 5 years for a full time employee, pro rata for part time), an extra days holiday for your birthday, free tea / coffee, sight tests and flu jabs and excellent learning and development opportunities.

**OVERVIEW OF ROLE**

Families caring for children with life-shortening and highly complex health conditions tell us their lives can feel really challenging and chaotic. Accessing and navigating palliative care or help with symptom management, dealing with multiple agencies and health professionals alongside practical issues around finances, getting the right equipment or adapting the home can be exhausting, stressful and scary.

Forget Me Not childrens hospice has been here for over 10 years, providing CQC-rated outstanding support for children and families across West Yorkshire. But we want to do more to enable families to live well. We are developing new ways to assess and meet families needs to ensure every member of each family gets the support they need at the right time. And thats where you come in. As part of our family support team, youll help us to pilot this new way of working.

Youll support a caseload of families, providing information, advice, advocacy and handholding. And youll link families to and help them navigate tailored support, both inhouse and by collaborating with local partners. Youll also work to build partnerships with external services, including by tapping into community groups across our region to ensure support is culturally appropriate and accessible to all.

Youll be experienced in working with families with complex needs and in complex circumstances, providing support that is person-centred and strengths-based. You might currently be working in education, health or social care but youll have an understanding of palliative care and have experience of multi-agency collaboration.

To find out more about working for Forget Me Not Children's Hospice please see our recruitment pack

For an informal chat about the role, please contact Stacey on 07889 726198

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**Role Summary**

Our vision is to deliver pioneering care through pregnancy, childhood and loss, wherever families need us, whatever the future holds. This role supports our vision by providing holistic family centred care to babies, children and young people with life limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families within the family support team, as well as working collaboratively with external providers within local communities.

Working as part of our family support team, youll be a key point of contact for a caseload of families, supporting them to navigate the complex systems of palliative care and bereavement; providing information, advice, advocacy and handholding, with the aim of increased independence, resilience and empowerment.

In this family link role, your specific focus will be to help develop and embed a new way of working with families, focusing on further developing our holistic, outcome focused family assessment, support and review pathways. Youll help to link families to personalised support, and enablement through both our in-house services and by collaborating with local partner agencies and organisations.

**Main Duties and Key Responsibilities**
- Undertake holistic, parent-centred family assessments, ensuring that there is a clear understanding of the needs and goals of each family member, with a coproduced outcome focused plan put into action.
- Working alongside members of the care team, midwife or other members of the family support team to co-ordinate the support offered to individual families.
- Navigational support and signposting for parents/carers and other immediate family members to access support and services outside of Forget Me Not, this may include information, advice and support in respect of home and family life, financial and employment matters, education, health and community inclusion.
- Develop partnerships and collaborations with key external organisations to further develop and enhance our support to families.
- Support signposting to partner organisations through building up knowledge and links in the local community. Family support
- Help assess, plan, deliver and review holistic family centred care and support to a caseload of babies, children and families in the community or in the hospice, working with alongside other family support team and care coordinators.
- Deliver practical and emotional support that is best practice, evidence based and meets all statutory