Salary: £33,143 – £36,363 a year plus £963 essential car user allowance
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Permanent
As a Family Support Worker within Luton Council’s Family Wellbeing Service, you will play a key role in supporting children, young people and their families to improve outcomes and build resilience. You will work directly with families to complete assessments and develop tailored family support plans, delivering regular face-to-face support in the community and within family homes. Through strengths-based practice, you will help families address a range of challenges including parenting skills, self-confidence, managing challenging behaviours, parental mental health and understanding child development.
Working in partnership with families, you will co-produce and deliver support plans alongside statutory and voluntary sector partners. You will take a lead role in coordinating multi-agency support, organising and chairing meetings and acting as Lead Professional where appropriate to ensure that interventions are well planned and effectively delivered. A strong emphasis will be placed on ensuring the voice of the child is heard, understood and reflected in all planning and decision-making.
The role also involves delivering targeted individual and group interventions, including evidence-based programmes such as parenting and family strengthening initiatives. You will regularly review progress with partners, monitoring outcomes and evaluating the extent to which families are developing resilience and improving their capacity to provide safe, consistent care for their children.
Family Support Workers are responsible for managing risk appropriately and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and colleagues at all times, in line with the Council’s safeguarding policies and procedures. You will also contribute to the wider objectives of the Family Wellbeing Service by supporting managers in delivering service priorities, operational plans and performance targets.
This is a rewarding opportunity for someone passionate about early intervention and collaborative working, who is committed to empowering families and improving the wellbeing of children and young people across Luton.
Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.
We are looking for a committed and compassionate individual with experience of working with children, young people and families within a social care, education or health setting. You will have a strong understanding of the challenges families may face and be able to build positive, trusting relationships with parents, carers, children and young people to support meaningful and sustainable change.
You will be confident working in partnership with professionals across a range of agencies and services, contributing effectively to multi-agency working. Your ability to engage families, agree shared goals and deliver planned interventions will be key to supporting improved outcomes for children and strengthening family resilience.
You will have the ability to assess and analyse the needs of families in collaboration with them, producing clear and concise support plans, targets and reports that reflect the needs and safety of children. Strong organisational skills are essential, with the ability to manage your own workload, prioritise tasks and work on your own initiative while maintaining high standards of practice.
With appropriate guidance and supervision, you will be able to contribute to decision-making processes where safeguarding, child protection and family support are critical considerations. You will also demonstrate a clear understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion, including the impact discrimination can have on individuals and communities, and apply this awareness sensitively within your practice.
Above all, you will be motivated to make a positive difference in the lives of children and families and committed to delivering supportive, respectful and inclusive services.
Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.
The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?
We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough
Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.
On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.
We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:
– From 25 to 32 days’ annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
– Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
– Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
– Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
– Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
– Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
– Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
– Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
– Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
– Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel
We understand that job applications take time and effort, but a high-quality application shows that you are professional with a good attention to detail. The recruiting manager may receive a number of applications for each job advertised so you want yours to stand out!
Our ‘How to apply’ page has more tips to help with your application: How to apply
