Description
We are committed to the development of our workforce. This position is only available to applicants who already work for Surrey County Council. We thank you for your interest in our roles and would encourage you to review our vacancies which are open to all.
This role has a starting salary of £33,552 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.
We have a fantastic opportunity for a Family Support Worker to join our Intensive Family Support Service (IFSS) based across Surrey.
In Surrey we believe that every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and that children are best supported to grow and achieve within their own families. By working together, we are developing flexible services which are responsive to children's and families' needs, providing the right level of help at the right time.
Rewards and Benefits
1. 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 31 days after 5 years' service
2. Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
3. An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
4. Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
5. Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
6. A generous local government salary related pension
7. Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
8. 2 paid volunteering days per year
9. Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
About the Role
In 2024 Surrey County Council launched the Intensive Family Support Service to provide intensive early help for whole families who have interconnecting needs.
Working together with partners in local communities, our vision is that more families should receive timely support in the hope that needs do not escalate, and statutory intervention can be avoided where possible. We want to ensure that expertise is shared and well-coordinated so that families have a consistent relationship with their Practitioner and are not 'passed around' multiple providers, having to repeat their stories and experiences.
We are looking to build on and maximise the potential for collaboration opportunities with a broad range of local community partners including Police, Health, Education, Housing, Employment and Benefits, Mental Health services and a wide range of local groups from the Voluntary Sector. Working together, we can enable better outcomes for children and their families, as per the national Supporting Families Outcomes Framework.
Within this service is a SEND Social Care Team where this role will sit. This small team is responsible for:
10. Providing all the social care reports and contributions to the EHC Process
11. Ensuring quality and timeliness of Social Care reports
12. Offering vulnerable families a brief Social Care Assessment for SEND
13. Liaising with colleagues across the Additional Needs and Disabilities Partnership to source potential support to families outside of Statutory social care referrals
14. Being alert to significant safeguarding issues arising from information
15. Working closely with SEND and Education colleagues to resolve queries such as late or missing reports.
On a typical day you can expect to be involved in:
16. Supporting whole families through a strengths-based and trauma-informed approach, using motivational interviewing skills and one-to-one meetings on Teams with families who are asking for Education Health Care Plans
17. Applying the Surrey Continuum of Support when assessing whether families have unmet social or care needs that require further support
18. Signposting families to Universal services
19. Writing brief focused Social Care Assessments for SEND and Writing social care reports to SEND
20. Working closely with the Social worker to ensure all work is completed to time scales
This is a rare opportunity to work with families of children with additional needs and disabilities to consider what further support they can access thus offering valuable early help support. This role can provide a platform to gain a diverse range of social care experience that could unlock further development and career opportunities within children's social care.
Shortlisting Criteria
To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:
21. Understanding or awareness of legislation, procedures and issues relating to the service user group or the willingness to learn and develop this area
22. Ability to plan, manage and prioritise a caseload, seeking guidance where necessary
23. Ability to write clear, concise and accurate reports
24. Effective communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to build meaningful relationships
25. Ability to work effectively and flexibly as part of a team, supporting your colleagues when needed
Application Questions
To apply, alongside your CV, you will be asked to answer the following questions:
26. Please tell us about a piece of work you have delivered which has resulted in positive outcomes for children and their families. What legislations and procedures did you have to apply as part of this?
27. Communication and collaboration are really important aspects of this role as you will need to work effectively with our partners to achieve positive outcomes for the families we support. Please can you give an example of where you have successfully worked in partnership with colleagues, other agencies or organisations to achieve a positive outcome. What skills did you use to make the partnership work effectively?
28. In this role you may work with children and families in complex situations. Please provide us with an example of where you have built strong relationships to successfully overcome a challenging situation.
Surrey has both urban and rural areas and Family Intervention Workers will be expected to have a valid driving licence to drive in the UK, access to a vehicle and be willing to travel across a defined geographical area. Reasonable adjustments where needed will be made for successful applicants who have a disability or long-term health condition to enable them to fulfil the requirements of the job.
We are welcoming applications from people local to Surrey and our surrounding borders with a broad range of whole-family experience to create multi-skilled teams. Full training will be provided, so if you are interested in this type of work and are committed to supporting families locally - we would be pleased to hear from you.
Contact Us
The job advert closes at 23:59 on the 22nd September 2025 with interviews to follow.
We look forward to receiving your application,