Ladywood District Children's Centres/Family Hub is a targeted service for families with children aged 0-5 years. The Family Support team holds 1-1 caseload work and facilitates group work for families in the Ladywood area.
This is an exciting opportunity to become part of an established team. We are seeking a full time Family Support Team Manager to lead and manage the Family Support function and allied provision in the Children's Centre, including a team of staff, and improve outcomes for children under 5 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 Family Support Teams.
2. Be the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the Children‘s Centre and oversee the management of safeguarding at case work and family level.
3. Lead and manage staff who hold a case load of children with support 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, providing expert knowledge and guidance and assisting in decision-making
5. Ensure the provision of evidence-based parenting programmes
6. Manage a daily Family Support Drop-in service
7. Provide supervision to staff, ensuring reflective practice
8. Audit recording and report-writing, 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 partnership working and communication with partners around safeguarding children and families.
11. Provide leadership at Allocations meetings alongside health visiting
12. Ensure effective Child and parent engagement in any decision making.
13. Ensure effective support of students, volunteers and apprentices as required.
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. Extensive knowledge of Child Protection and Safeguarding issues
17. Extensive knowledge of child development
18. Knowledge of a range of interventions to meet a range of needs, including evidence-based parenting programmes
19. Understanding of the issue of domestic abuse and its impact on women and children
20. Understanding of the issue of substance misuse and how it impacts on children
21. Understanding of the complexity of poor mental health and its impact on families
22. Understanding of the impact of poverty
23. Understanding of the impact of poor parenting on child and adult well-being
24. A sound understanding of recruitment, induction, supervision and appraisal of staff and identifying training needs
25. Knowledge of the impact of discrimination on family life and commitment to equality of opportunities
Skills/Experience
26. 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 to 5 where Early Help is required
27. Significant experience of providing successful interventions with families where there is: substance abuse, poor mental health and domestic abuse
28. Significant experience of providing step up/down family support where children are on plans – CiN, CP, EHC or are in care
29. Experience of managing a team of family support workers, including students and volunteers
30. Experience of working with families in areas of disadvantage, or where they experience discrimination
31. Experience of working with families who are reluctant to engage
32. Experience of delivery of targeted ante-natal and peri-natal support services
33. Experience of advocacy on behalf of families
34. Experience of report- writing and court attendance in child protection and safeguarding situations
35. Excellent interpersonal relationships with colleagues, including from a range of disciplines
36. Proven ability to undertake intensive, direct work, with vulnerable children and their families
37. Resilience
38. Good communication and presentational skills
39. Ability to use ICT systems
40. Staff management and motivation
The working pattern for this role is Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm but may include some occasional evenings. Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance and are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
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
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
41. 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.
42. 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
43. The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
44. A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
45. Service related sick pay from day 1
46. 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
47. Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
48. Cycle2work scheme
49. Interest free season ticket loans
50. Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
51. 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
52. Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
53. Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
54. Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's