Child & Family Worker - Kinship Care Team

**Salary**: £23,080 - £25,481 (£11,540 - £12,740 pro-rata)
**Working Pattern**:Part-time (18.5 hours per week)
**Location**: Horsham

The Kinship Care Team provide an assessment and support service to kinship carers (including Connected Persons Foster Carers and Special Guardians) who offer permanence for children who are not able to remain in the care of their birth parents. This is arelatively newly formed team, bringing together assessment and support for kinship carers. The team has a strong and supportive leadership ethos and is committed to the professional development of all members. This is a fantastic opportunity to be part ofa creative team within Children's Services which is recognised for positively contributing to children's care plans.

As a Child and Family Worker, you will support registered Social Workers in assessing, planning and delivering interventions to children and families, including supporting step-down processes and transfer to Early Help services. You will develop and offera creative range of services for children and their families to meet needs as identified, for example undertaking direct work and purposeful interventions with children, young people, parents or carers, families and groups; and delivering support packagesor specific programmes.

Services will be provided in partnership with families, aiming to support them to make positive change and to enable children and young people to reach their full potential. You will need to establish effective working relationships with colleagues withinChildren's Social Care, Special Guardians and other statutory and voluntary agencies, for example staff from health and education, in order to provide an integrated service.

**Experience and Skills**

**Key Skills**:

- Good communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to organise and present information clearly, concisely and accurately in ways that promote understanding, both verbally and in writing, including the ability to persuade and successfully convinceothers of the need to take a specific course of action and gain the trust of service users.
- Ability to analyse and interpret information in order to manage casework with children / young people and their families, assessing needs, setting objectives and reviewing progress.
- Ability to engage and intervene in partnership with children/young people, their families and other external agencies in order to effect positive and lasting change. Ability to work in an empowering way, focusing on collective strengths and resources, e.g.using a solution focused approach, and responding flexibly to diverse groups and service users whilst maintaining confidentiality.
- Ability to prioritise and manage own workload, co-ordinating a range of tasks in a clear and logical way to meet agreed deadlines, whilst working towards clear goals. Able to reflect on own practice and learn from experience, taking responsibility for proactiveprofessional development.
- Ability to maintain clear, accurate records of all work undertaken and produce case reports and correspondence for a variety of audiences including meetings, conferences, court panels and other agencies.
- Sound and accurate IT skills, including report writing, maintaining accurate records, ensuring confidentiality, and protecting information.

**Qualifications, knowledge and experience**:

- 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.
- An understanding of systems, procedures and policies relevant to Children's Social Care e.g. child protection and safeguarding procedures, practice and policy. (Desirable)
- Knowledge and understanding of the development of children and young people, and age-appropriate behaviour.
- An understanding of a range of interventions that can be used with children, young people and families to achieve change.
- Sound and accurate IT knowledge e.g. Microsoft Office, in order to produce written reports.
- Experience of providing advice and guidance to others.
- Significant experience of using a range of direct work interventions in working with children, young people and their families.
- Experience of working with children/young people and their families in crisis or complex situations. (Desirable)
- Experience of using assessment planning and reviewing processes.
- Experience of working in a Social Care Environment. (Desirable)
- Experience of forming effective working relationships within a multi-agency setting.
- Requirement to communicate in English with members of the public.
- Valid and full driving licence.

**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 rewardedfor the work they do. For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, please visit our website.