Family Support Worker

NHS; England; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job description

Hope House Children’s Hospices have an opportunity for a Family Support Worker to join our team to work across Cheshire. You will join us on a full-time, permanent basis. In return, our Family Support Worker will receive a competitive salary of £28,118 to £29,929 per annum. The role will be based out of Leighton Hospital.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a Family Support Worker who:

• Excels in working as part of a Multi-Professional Team in order to meet the needs of the individual child and family and to contribute positively to maintaining a person centred service at all times ensuring that family’s voices can be heard throughout intervention.
• Able to work autonomously liaising with parents and supporting families.
• Is an effective coordinator in order to plan interventions, which individually meet the needs of the child and family, and to evaluate their effectiveness.
• Is innovative and open to new approaches and ways of working in order to develop pre and post bereavement services in line with the individual needs and views of the child and family.
• Is confident in acting as an advocate for the child and family in a range of situations and meetings.

About us

Hope House Children’s Hospice is a centre of excellence for children’s palliative care ensuring every family facing the death of a child gets the very best care and support when and where they need it. No one should face the death of a child alone.

About the Family Support Worker role:

We are recruiting for a Family Support Worker, to work in the community across Cheshire. Our Family Support Worker will work closely with our Cheshire Community Nurse and play a key role in supporting the comprehensive pre and post bereavement service for each identified child and their family, this would include anticipatory grief support, end of life planning and advocacy. You will work alongside the wider teams at Hope House and T Gobaith, and you will also work with external care providers within the local communities and professional networks in Cheshire.

You will need to be a compassionate, caring and organised individual who can demonstrate a versatile approach to your work, to ensure the holistic palliative care needs of the family are met. You will need to demonstrate excellent communication skills with the ability to work in collaboration with families and a variety of different professionals.

In return for your commitment, we offer a great reward package, which includes:

• Generous annual leave entitlement, starting at 34 days per annum with service increments
• NHS pension scheme or organisational pension scheme
• Blue Light Card and Staff rewards programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Wellbeing services which includes staff counselling
• Funded Medicash - Health Care Cash Plan
• Flexible working arrangements

And more. We are proud to be a diverse and inclusive organisation and to be a disability confident employer.

If you think you have what it takes to be our Family Support Worker and help us deliver our mission then please click ‘apply’ now! We are welcoming informal discussions with our Community Support Manager, Sian Brookes, contact us on 01691 671999. We’d love to hear from you!

The successful applicant will be required to obtain an enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (paid for by Hope House).

Person Specification

Essential Qualifications

• GCSE Maths and English A-C
• A Levels or NVQ level 3
• Personable and compassionate with an ability to engage others
• Able to work under pressure and within a high emotive service where individuals can present with acute distress
• Effective and confident communicator, demonstrating active listening skills, empathy and respect
• Good organisational skills, demonstrating effective time management, whilst using available resources efficiently and productively
• Ability to manage your own time and co-ordinate the workload of others
• Work independently in a lone working position
• The ability to communicate in the Welsh language (for the post based in Conwy) would also be an advantage
• Confident in representing families/Hospice to health care professionals within meetings / MDTs
• Willing and able to travel to meet the needs of the service
• Good time management and ability to organise own workload
• Ability to prioritise care
• Ability to work independently alongside working as part of a team
• Recognising limitations and seeking support/advice as required
• Experience of working in a community setting and or a multidisciplinary setting with children and families with complex needs
• Experience of working with vulnerable families and managing crisis situations
• An understanding of the needs of children with life limiting conditions and children’s palliative care
• An understanding of consent, GDPR and confidentiality management, Caldicott Principles and Duty of Candour
• A working knowledge of the principles and implementation of Safeguarding processes and procedures

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.