Family Time Worker

Job Introduction
Are you passionate about making a difference to children's lives who are placed in local authority foster care? As a Family Time Worker, you’ll play a critical role in supporting children in understanding their birth identity and supervising their time with birth parents.

We’re looking for people to join us with the skills to encourage and help maintain positive relationships between children and parents. We work with very vulnerable children so we must ensure we maintain professional relationships whilst managing complex family needs and behaviours.

The Family Time Workers play a vital role in supporting families for them to spend quality time together. Our aim during family time is to promote a positive and meaningful time for children with their family. This could include offering support, guidance, and parenting advice or modelling positive interaction and behaviours. We also support children getting to and from school and family time in various locations. Our family time workers are required to transport the children around the county and further afield.

We currently have 2 full-time permanent vacancies, working 37 hours per week over five days. Contracted hours of work will be Monday - Thursday 8.30pm-5.00pm and Friday 830.00pm-4.30pm. However, flexibility is required as some family times involve working outside of contracted working hours, including evenings and weekends.

Main Responsibilities
You will be required:

- To facilitate therapeutic family time between children and their parents or other family members.
- To coordinate arrangements for family time for children and their parents or other family members as directed by court.
- Transport children and young people to attend family time.
- To provide parenting support and guidance during family time.
- To support the completion of accurate documentation, reports, and records in relation to children, young people, and families.
- To be available outside of traditional working patterns including evenings and weekends to provide support to children, families, and carers when it is needed.

As well as a passion for helping and supporting children and their families, you’ll need to have:

- A minimum NVQ 3 in working with children and families or equivalent experience of working with children and families.
- Experience of direct work with children, their families, and carers in a statutory or voluntary agency which provides services to vulnerable children and their families.
- Experience in the use of IT including Microsoft packages
- An understanding of child development and the effect of stress and trauma on child development.
- An understanding of the key pieces of policies, guidance, and legislation which govern children’s social care.
- Have unrestricted use of a car and a driving licence.
- Be flexible to work evenings and occasional weekends as needed.
- The ability to effectively communicate with children, their families, and carers.
- The ability to build relationships and deliver interventions to children, families, and carers.
- The ability to work effectively in conflict situations.

**Need more information?**

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 a range of benefits.

**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.