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 seeking a full time – 37 hours per week - Family Support Team Manager, for a fixed term period, to lead and manage the Family Support function and allied provision in temporary accommodation, including a team of staff, 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:
1. Provide excellent leadership, management and coordination responsibilities for the Temporary Accommodation Family Support Team.
2. Be a Designated Safeguarding Lead and oversee the management of safeguarding at case work and family level.
3. Lead and manage staff who provide support to, and hold a case load of, children with needs to include Early Help, Child In Need, Child Protection and SEND.
4. Lead and manage staff in undertaking effective 1 to 1 and group-based interventions with complex families in temporary accommodation, providing expert knowledge and guidance and assisting in decision-making
5. To work with managers in established localities to ensure that evidence-based parenting programmes are delivered in temporary accommodation locations
6. Manage a daily Family Support Drop-in service in temporary accommodation settings
7. Provide supervision to staff, ensuring reflective practice
8. Audit recording and report-writing, monitor family plans and interventions and ensure good practice
9. Ensure that good information systems are established and maintained that reflect effective monitoring and tracking of family outcomes.
10. Ensure effective Child and parent engagement in any decision making.
11. To be first point of contact for TA settings within the service regarding family support services
12. To liaise with locality CSM's and Team Managers periodically providing updates and information on TA activity within the area
13. To work closely with Health, City Early Help and VCS partners across the service engaging with strategy and model
It is essential that you have:
Education/Knowledge
14. Qualification in relevant field or equivalent experience
15. Possession of Management qualification or working towards one (desirable)
16. Sound knowledge and understanding of the issues displaced families and those living in temporary accommodation face
17. Sound knowledge and understanding of available housing services within Birmingham and surrounding areas
18. Extensive knowledge of Child Protection and Safeguarding issues
19. Extensive knowledge of child development
20. Knowledge of a range of interventions to meet a range of needs, including evidence-based parenting programmes
21. Understanding of the issue of domestic abuse and its impact on women and children
22. Understanding of the issue of substance misuse and how it impacts on children
23. Understanding of the complexity of poor mental health and its impact on families
24. Understanding of the impact of poverty
25. Understanding of the impact of parenting on child and adult well-being
26. A sound understanding of recruitment, induction, supervision and appraisal of staff and identifying training needs
27. Knowledge of the impact of discrimination on family life and commitment to equality of opportunities
Skills/Experience
28. 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
29. Significant experience of providing successful interventions with families where there is: substance abuse, poor mental health and domestic abuse
30. Significant experience of providing step up/down family support where children are on plans – CiN, CP, EHC or are in care
31. Experience of managing a team of family support workers, including volunteers
32. Experience of working with displaced families and families living in temporary accommodation
33. Experience of working with families in areas of disadvantage, or where they experience discrimination
34. Experience of working with families who are reluctant to engage
35. Experience of delivery of targeted services
36. Experience of advocacy on behalf of families
37. Experience of report- writing and court attendance in child protection and safeguarding situations
38. Excellent interpersonal relationships with colleagues, including from a range of disciplines
39. Proven ability to undertake intensive, direct work, with vulnerable children and their families
40. Resilience
41. Good communication and presentational skills
42. Ability to use ICT systems
43. Staff management and motivation
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 . 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 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
44. 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.
45. 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
46. The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
47. A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
48. Service related sick pay from day 1
49. 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
50. Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
51. Cycle2work scheme
52. Interest free season ticket loans
53. Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
54. 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
55. Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
56. Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
57. Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's