Family Worker

**Family Worker**:
Job description

We provide children, young people and families with the right service at the right time. Put simply, we change lives for the better.

Bracknell Forest Council have a nationally recognised practice model - the ‘Family Safeguarding Model’. In a recent Focused Inspection Ofsted stated **_“Implementation of the chosen social work model provides a collegiate, holistic and dynamic practice environment, allowing social workers to make quick inroads into addressing long-standing parental issues which impact on the experiences and progress of children”_**_, _July 2021.

Favouring a relational approach in all that we do, over 80% of our workforce are permanent employees, caseloads are manageable and caring for ‘you and your family’ is a priority for the Council.

Working collaboratively with families to keep them together, where it is safe to do so, is at the heart of the embedded Family Safeguarding Model and our approach is underpinned by Motivational Interviewing (MI). This ensures families, children and young people feel empowered and enables parents to make the positive changes needed, to achieve improved outcomes for their children and their own wellbeing. Therefore, parents are motivated to identify the changes needed within their own families which results in them achieving better outcomes for children.

Because we’re Bracknell Forest

**What it's like working in our team...**:
We know that working with children and families, whilst rewarding, is not always easy. To support high quality consistent work, we have a comprehensive learning and development offer, driven by our passionate Principal Social Worker. We have resilience groups, well-being days and events, group supervision as well as peer support.

We are graded by Ofsted as “**_Outstanding”._**

**_ “they have continued to ensure the delivery of high-quality social work practice that has a positive impact on children’s experiences”._**

Overall, Inspectors found that social workers and other frontline practitioners benefit from manageable caseloads, good training and powerful and highly reflective supervision that ensures children are at the heart of decision making.

Our teams of qualified social workers and family workers are supported by specialist workers in domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse, meaning no lengthy waits for much needed services for our families. It is all here, accessible and underpinning the planning and work being delivered to mitigate against risks, build resilience in families and enable families to meet their own children’s needs more effectively. Access to family group conferences and mediation work with families is additionally available and supports all involved, to secure decisions and outcomes in children’s best interests.

We have a good early help offer and work in collaboration with statutory partners and voluntary agencies in the community. Supporting families to access these services and support is also part of our daily morale purpose to enable families to secure safety and confidence in their own abilities to look after their children.

Our workforce tells us:

- There is a supportive and approachable leadership and management team.
- All teams offer each other good peer support; there is a strong focus on shared problem solving.
- They feel appreciated and their development is prioritised.
- Supervision is of high quality, reflective and routinely provided.

As we continue our Covid recovery journey; our main priority is to provide our workers with a secure physical and psychological base from which to work safely and effectively.

**You will be supported to carry out the following duties, responsibilities and training...**:

- To support the provision of services to children and families, including parenting programmes and interventions.
- To support, arrange, and supervise Family Time between children looked after and their families.
- To work alongside other professionals and Adult Workers as part of a multi-disciplinary team
- To take part in the team duty system to support social workers on time critical work.
- To make effective use of time and be able to prioritise workload, ensuring timeliness in visiting, report writing and other deadlines
- With the Supervisor, be able to set clear goals and strategies as part of individual and group case supervision
- To contribute to service development and learning of others

The roles we have available are challenging and interesting and will enable you to continually develop your skills and knowledge, as well as contribute to the ongoing improvement of the services and support we deliver.

**The benefits you will experience are...**:

- A comprehensive induction and excellent ongoing training programme
- Regular, reflective one to one and group supervisions
- Generous holiday allowance with the option to buy, sell and bank annual leave
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- An interest free l