Do you have a strong track record of working with children, young people, and their families to achieve positive outcomes?

This is an exciting time to join Leicester City Council and to be part of our ever-improving service ensuring children are at the heart of our work. With impressive strengths highlighted in direct work, participation and care leaving services, we are committed to working in partnership with children, families and young adults and developing brilliant relationships.

We use Signs of Safety as a model of intervention to support sound practice and our work is underpinned by the Lundy Model of Participation. As an authority we are committed to addressing racial injustice both for the families we work with and across the workforce.

We prioritise support, learning, development and wellbeing across our workforce with strengths in practice regularly recognised. We also offer agile and flexible working that supports a healthy work life balance.

We are committed to supporting your continual professional development and offer various training, whatever the stage of your career.

The Early Help and Prevention Service: Children's Centres and Family Support Service, operate city-wide to provide and deliver high quality childhood and family support services to improve children and young people's emotional and physical development, to address issues to prevent escalation and the need for statutory service involvement.

Working hours and location will be confirmed with manager at interview stages.

What you’ll be doing

You will be working with children and young people who are considered vulnerable, playing a key role in improving the lives of them and their families, to secure improvement in children's outcomes for learning and development.

You will assess the needs and use evidence-based interventions for a caseload of families, monitoring & recording the impact and results of these. This will include assessment of risk and lone working at times. With good knowledge of children and young people’s development you will support the development of positive attachments/relationships between the parent, children and young people that have a measurable impact on emotional resilience, well-being and mental health. Being able to work as part of an integrated multi-agency team, you will be able to bring about change and improve family functioning.

You will have the opportunity to work with education and health services, from schools to health visitors and SEND teams to name a few. You will lead Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings to bring a whole family approach to the support we can provide for families.

In addition to the above, you may support families who have or are experiencing issues such as Domestic Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation, low mental health, lack of education opportunities or attendance, Child Criminal Exploitation and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Collaborating with teams across Children’s Social Care will be required at times.

As part of a wider Family Support Service, you will work with other agencies to ensure families receive the support and resources required to achieve their full potential. In addition, you will be required to attend meetings across the city and to visit service users in their home as well as other locations.

What you’ll need

As a respectful and empathetic person who can recognise the impact poverty and disadvantages can have on the outcomes for children. You must be a person who takes pride in their work.

With significant practical experience of providing support to families in a group or home-based environment, you will also have experience of providing support to families experiencing disadvantage and or discrimination. You will have experience of working with children who have a disability or additional needs, to help support the family and child by understanding their need. Having a minimum of NVQ3 level qualification in relevant childcare/learning/social care field would be advantageous. Using your excellent verbal and written communication skills, and practical interviewing skills, you will be able to effectively work with families to understand and establish their needs and wants. With proficiency in the use of IT software such as Word, Excel, you will be able to maintain electronic records to a high quality.

Due to the nature of this role, you will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

What we can offer you

As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. You’ll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. We’ll also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including discounts on city buses and trains. For an illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at our benefits calculator.

Join us!

We are committed to recruiting a diverse and highly talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we’ve designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. We’ll do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To help you with your application, take a look at the ‘our approach to recruitment’ page.

If you’d like to have a chat before applying, feel free to contact: Gaynor Burrows – Teams Manager on 0116 454 5978.