Location
London Borough of Islington

Hours
Full Time - 35 hours per week

Salary
£44,235 per annum

About the Role
Be a part of a service that Ofsted rated outstanding in 2024 and where we are always looking for creative ways to further improve our services to children and families. The Family Support Practitioner provides timely and flexible early help and family support to children, young people and parents/carers. You will work in partnership with families and engage informal and formal support networks in their communities to ensure lasting positive outcomes. Encouraging resilience, you will help families build strong relationships and strategies to confidently manage the ups and downs of parenting and family life.

Day to day, you will provide direct family support through a range of means including face to face in the family home, community venues and online. You will manage a caseload of families with needs ranging from practical to complex. Collaborating with families and partners, you will agree on areas of support, completing family-friendly assessments and plans that holistically address family needs and goals. Your support will strengthen family resilience, reduce stressors and improve outcomes.

You will facilitate parenting programmes and advice sessions, proactively engaging and working collaboratively with schools and community partners to validate and enhance support for families, sharing information, advice and guidance.

This role is part of a locality team delivering flexible help to families needing advice or support, providing rapid response and wrapping around universal services to address emerging needs early. The team also offers longer term support for families with multiple complex needs to cope with stress and build resilience. The aim is to enable children and families to reach their full potential and support local communities.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates to ensure a diverse workforce representative of the local community.

Main Responsibilities
- Provide a flexible, graduated approach responding to family needs, ranging from practical help to intensive support at various times including early mornings, evenings and weekends.
- Act as Lead Professional, coordinating the professional network through Team around the Family and one whole family plan, regularly reviewed and adjusted.
- Complete collaborative early help assessments and SMART family-friendly action plans to address needs and improve family functioning.
- Establish effective professional relationships with key partners such as health, employment services, targeted and specialist services, schools, housing and early years settings.
- Work in partnership with parents/carers to increase parental confidence and capacity, supporting healthy attachment and nurturing relationships that promote child development.
- Contribute to the implementation, delivery and evaluation of evidence-based early intervention models including parenting programmes.
- Maintain accurate, up-to-date records demonstrating work completed and progress towards outcomes.
- Help families develop resilience by maintaining knowledge of national and local resources including voluntary and community sector, faith-based organisations, universal services such as play and youth, and training and employment services.
- Deliver interventions to improve children’s outcomes such as encouraging early education uptake, ensuring school attendance, managing health issues, reducing antisocial behaviour and offending, addressing domestic violence impact, and supporting families towards employment.
- Work in accordance with local and national child protection and safeguarding procedures and Islington Council policies.
- Ensure interventions are trauma informed and rooted in motivational practice, participating in supervision, reflecting on practice, and contributing to quality assurance and self-evaluation.

Experience
Experience working with children, young people and families in a supportive or social care role is desirable. Ability to manage a caseload and work collaboratively with multi-agency partners is essential.

About you
Empathetic, resilient and motivated with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You should be able to engage families effectively, build trusting relationships, and work flexibly including early mornings, evenings and weekends when required. Commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and working in a trauma-informed way is essential.

Qualifications
A relevant qualification in social work, youth work, community development, health or education is desirable but not essential. Willingness to undertake training and professional development is required.

Additional Information
All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks including proof of right to work in the UK, references, occupational health clearance, and an enhanced DBS check with children’s barred list. The role requires adherence to safeguarding policies and procedures.

Islington Council is committed to equality, equity, diversity and inclusion and operates a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria. Reasonable adjustments will be provided throughout the recruitment process and employment.