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Homelessness affects many families throughout the UK. In Birmingham there are thousands of children currently living in temporary accommodation.

Birmingham Forward Steps offers family support services across Birmingham, including within areas which have a high concentration of temporary accommodation provision., delivering early intervention services and additional support for families through casework and 1:1 intervention whilst working in partnership with, and alongside Birmingham Community Health Care NHS Trust.

The Family Support work offers a variety of intervention and supportive help to families in the community, as well as those in temporary accommodation. We are looking to extend this offer by establishing a dedicated team whose focus will be to support families living in temporary accommodation sites.

This is an exciting opportunity to become part of a new team. We are looking to recruit 3 full time - 37 hours per week - Senior Family Support Workers, for a fixed term period, to deliver the Family Support function and allied provision in temporary accommodation and improve outcomes for children and their families, including pregnant women.

Please note that this is a locality-based role, and frequent on-site presence will be required, along with travel within the Birmingham area. It will not be possible to undertake this role on a virtual/remote basis.

The successful candidate will be required to:

To be a Designated Safeguarding Lead ensuring compliance with relevant policies, procedures and legal requirements
To lead on the provision of community engagement programmes within TA settings
To produce reports for management and other stakeholders in relation to activity, casework and other service areas as required
To hold daily Family Support Drop-in services in TA settings making onward referrals as appropriate
To support localities and provide advice where existing casework is underway
To co-ordinate services such as speech and language and SEND; delivering key messages in TA settings
To create - and build on existing - relationships with other partners and agencies in relation to housing
To viit localities periodically providing updates and information on TA activity within the area

To create and build relationships with the management/controllers of TA settings within the service to introduce and improve existing family support services

To work closely with the TA Team Manager, Operations CSM and CSM Workstream Lead for TA to improve services and outcomes for children and families living in temporary accommodation
To attend multi-agency meetings as required and provide reports
To work flexibly and deliver services across the city as directed

It is essential that you have:

Education/Knowledge

Qualification in relevant field or equivalent knowledge and experience
Sound knowledge and understanding of the issues displaced families and those living in temporary accommodation face
Sound knowledge and understanding of available housing services within Birmingham and surrounding areas
Extensive knowledge of Child Protection and Safeguarding issues
Extensive knowledge of child development
Knowledge of a range of interventions to meet a range of needs, including evidence-based parenting programmes
Understanding of the issue of domestic abuse and its impact on women and children
Understanding of the issue of substance misuse and how it impacts on children
Understanding of the complexity of poor mental health and its impact on families
Understanding of the impact of poverty
Understanding of the impact of parenting capacity on child and adult well-being
Knowledge of the impact of discrimination on family life and commitment to equality of opportunities

Skills/Experience

Significant experience as a practitioner of undertaking assessments, identifying appropriate interventions and providing case work and group work support to families with children from pre-birth upwards where Early Help is required
Significant experience of providing successful interventions with families where there is: substance abuse, poor mental health and domestic abuse
Significant experience of providing family support where children are on plans – CiN, CP, EHC or are in care
Experience of working with displaced families and families living in temporary accommodation
Experience of working with families in areas of disadvantage, or where they experience discrimination
Experience of working with families who are reluctant to engage
Experience of delivery of targeted services
Experience of advocacy on behalf of families
Experience of report- writing
Excellent of multi-agency work
Proven ability to undertake intensive, direct work, with vulnerable children and their families
Resilience
Good communication and presentational skills
Ability to use ICT systems

The working pattern for this role is Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm but may include some occasional evenings.

At Barnardo's we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and we expect all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment. Our safer recruitment processes mean that the safety and welfare of the child is paramount at every stage of the process and therefore, we adopt rigorous scrutiny in our pre-employment checking. This post is subject to a range of pre-employment checks including a Criminal Records Enhanced Disclosure for the successful candidate.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values