Support Worker

**How you'll make a difference**
By using a strengths - based, whole-family approach, you will be supporting families with children aged 5 -18 to make and maintain changes in their lives.
Here are some comments from parents who have been helped by Families Plus workers:
‘The work we’ve done with you means our daughter is communicating her feelings more easily than before, which is helping enormously.’
‘After Families Plus worked with our son, he is a lot more confident with school and in himself’
‘The parenting course we completed with Families Plus helped us massivelyI can honestly say it has made us better parents’

**What will you be doing?**
- You will carry out whole family assessments of need, providing advice and guidance to families, in order to establish plans where appropriate. You’ll ensure that services are effective, and supportive for families with children/young people aged 5-18years old.
- You will review and monitor Early Help plans, responding to the changing of needs and renegotiating where appropriate in accordance with safeguarding procedures.
- You will manage your own caseload of specific work to ensure specialist inputs and effective outcomes achieved. Records and reports will need to be completed in accordance to professional and council guidelines.
- You will liaise and work with contacts from different sectors; including schools, health, social care and voluntary sector ensuring that communication is effective so knowledge and best practice is shared.
**What we need from you**
- Qualified at NVQ 3 or equivalent in a relevant discipline or working towards an appropriate qualification related to the provision of services to children and young people.
- Considerable relevant experience of the use of evidence-based practice working with vulnerable and disadvantaged children, families or young people
- Experience of writing holistic, multi-agency assessments and plans with families
- Knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations and codes of practice; processes and procedures.
- Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills to build relationships and engage successfully with colleagues, service users and partner organisations.
- We seek applicants who are skilled at engaging families quickly, creating purposeful, professional relationships and agreeing realistic aims and objectives. Building on their existing strengths to get through difficult experiences, our support helps families to continue to use what they have learned once the Families Plus involvement ends.
**How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different**
- We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our **training and development **offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work.
- What’s special here is the strength of the **team ethos**. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan their services to ensure teams have **manageable caseloads** and have effective supervision so **feel supported** to make decisions which are right for the children and young people they work with.
Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.
- We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of
- We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life
- We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.
We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

**We’re making a difference, be part of it**

Please note we have 2 Limited Term Contracts at various lengths available, we will ask your preference at interview.

Location: 175 Rodway Road, Bristol BS34