Family Connector

Birmingham Children’s Trust are committed to child-centered practice. We are focused on keeping children safe and meeting their needs whilst involving parents, or carers, and wider family members at every stage. Our involvement should always be collaborative and reflect the expertise and resources of families and local community networks.

Our practice model is based on relationships and defines the practice within the Trust and the Family Connector role has been developed to ensure that we are doing everything we can to bring a child’s whole support network together to find safe solutions that respect the values, traditions, beliefs and customs of the community within which the child is supported.

**The Family Connector Role**

If you have always fancied yourself as a budding detective and feel you’ve got the skills that it takes to track people down then this will be an exciting opportunity for you. The new** Family Connectors will be part of the Family Group Conference team and will have** the responsibility of searching for family members, fictive kin or natural supports for children and young people referred by social care practitioners. It is a neutral role and the **Family Connector will **use a range of tools and techniques to locate and engage relatives of children and young people to the greatest possible extent. This could include indirect methods such as deep file searches, using social media and genealogy tools to complete a family tree through to direct methods such as DNA testing, mobility mapping and interviewing family in order to ensure that no stone is left unturned. The information found will be collated and shared with the referring practitioner so that they can, where appropriate, involve them in future planning and decision making.

The goals are to:

- Promote safe, stable and healing connections for children and young people, preventing unnecessary family separation.
- Support children and young people in developing a healthy sense of identity and provide family members with the opportunity to meet the needs within a family system
- Promote a timely and permanent exit from formal care systems for children who have to live away from family
- Enhance family led decision making such as family meetings, Family Group Conferences and Lifelong Links

What skills and experiences are we looking for?

All families have strengths and **Family Connectors **will play an important role in finding positive supporters for children so we are looking for someone who shares our passion for ensuring that children and their families are always be involved in planning for care and protection where it is safe to do so.

Ideally, you will have developed research and investigative skills, particularly in the field of genealogy and will be able to work efficiently and accurately with a range of tools including family history data bases, responsible social media searches and other online sources of data. Experience of deep file searches as well as other archives and records, particularly social care records would also be an advantage.

As you will be visiting children and their families to gather information about the support network, you will need to have experience of working directly and with kindness, sensitivity and empathy with families in crisis and be able to remain neutral in your role. A level 3 qualification in Family Support or similar, along with proven experience of working in homes and community is therefore required.

As a good team player, you will be able to work collaboratively with the referring practitioner ensuring that information found is presented clearly and within agreed deadlines. So we are looking for someone with strong communication skills who is able to use their initiative in order to organise their work and manage their time effectively.
- Have a working knowledge of child protection practice and child care legislation and understanding of the role of other agencies / professionals who work with children and families.
- Demonstrate ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with a good level of computer literacy.
- Willingness to work flexible hours including some evenings and weekends and to be able to travel across a wide geographical area in a timely and flexible manner at various times of the day.
- Demonstrate a willingness to attend relevant training courses to improve job skills and to meet business objectives. Continuing professional development and participate in on the job training as required.
- An Enhanced DBS will be required for the role