Children and families worker jobs in Bristol

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to. 

Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.

Purpose of the role: 

As a Kinship Family Worker for Kinship Reach, you will deliver this online programme to families in your commissioned area. You will provide virtual one-to-one support to kinship carers and their families to help them become resilient and informed, with a strong support network to help them care for the children in their care.

Key responsibilities:

One-to-one support
Provide up to 6 one-to-one support sessions bespoke to the kinship carers and their families over a three-month intervention, working within the Kinship Reach delivery model. This may include, but is not limited to:

• Signposting or referring to relevant national and local services.
• Providing practical and emotional support to kinship carers.
• Liaising with other professionals and organisations.
• Making referrals to other Kinship services such as Advice, Someone Like Me, Peer-to-Peer.
• Providing support for carers to secure grants from local and national funders.
• Set goals for change following Kinship Reach processes, in partnership with the kinship carer.
• Monitor, review and revise these goals to ensure carers are on track and goals remain relevant.

Peer group facilitation and management

Kinship delivers virtual peer support groups which carers from Kinship’s programmes can access, coordinated by Senior Kinship Family Worker(s). This role could include:

• Developing existing groups and setting up new groups as required.
• Working closely with Kinship’s peer-to-peer service where appropriate.
• Collaborating with kinship carers, the local authority, and community partners to set up virtual and in-person peer support groups.
• Planning, preparing, facilitating virtual and in-person peer support groups.
• Promoting groups in the area you are delivering in to kinship carers and organisations who work with them, including contributing to the creation of promotional materials.

Participation

• Recruit kinship carers as volunteers to lead and support the development of virtual peer support groups.
• Work proactively to enable kinship carers to influence the design and delivery of the peer support groups delivered in their area (such as topics, time / date).
• Support Kinship’s communications and engagement strategy, such as helping to provide case studies and sourcing images for newsletters and local media to promote the programme and recruit participants.

Safeguarding and risk management

Kinship has a robust safeguarding structure. You will be supported by a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Designated Deputy Safeguarding Leads (DDSL).

• Recognise and respond appropriately to signs of abuse or neglect, following national legislation and procedures and Kinship’s own safeguarding procedures.
• Liaise with your line manager and safeguarding lead regarding safeguarding concerns, following Kinship’s policies and processes.
• Provide reports and information for managers about cases of concern.
• Ensure you are aware of and follow safeguarding policies and procedures risk of harm protocol.
• Complete risk assessments for events or groups with families in line with Kinship’s policies and processes to be signed off by a DSL or DDSL.
• Follow Kinship’s health and safety policies to keep yourself and your clients safe, such as Lone Working Policy, Home Visit Policy, risk assessment, events.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Record attendance at virtual support groups and ensure this is reported on the Salesforce database.
• Ensure casework, feedback, and other data related to service delivery are regularly and accurately recorded on our Salesforce database in line with Kinship’s policy and best practice.
• Ensure completion of carer registration forms, review forms, and closure forms, taking details that will be used to evidence impact.
• Collect case studies from your kinship carers to help demonstrate impact.
• Contribute to any reports for local authority partners as required in terms of data and case studies as required.
• Attend monitoring meetings as required.
• Engage in quality assurance processes in line with Kinship processes and policies.

Relationship and stakeholder management

• In partnership with the senior Kinship Family Worker, enable local authorities to understand the programme and pathways for how to make referrals.
• Support practitioners' meetings with local authorities to encourage referrals, discuss cases, and ensure local authority confidence in the programme.
• Where applicable, work with local authorities to raise awareness of kinship care and to reach and support kinship carers through the programme.
• Where possible and relevant, represent Kinship at external events and meetings to raise awareness of the programme and to influence other organisations.
• Where applicable, work with local authorities and voluntary and community groups supporting kinship families.

Chiva is looking for a compassionate and experienced Specialist Support Officer to provide emotional support, advocacy, and practical guidance to children, young people, and families affected by HIV across London.

About Chiva

Chiva is a charity in the UK whose mission is to ensure that children, young people and young adults growing up with HIV become healthier, happier and more in control of their own futures. Chiva works to ensure that young people living with HIV have the treatment and care, knowledge, understanding, skills and wider support needed to live well and achieve their greatest potential.

What You’ll Do

• Provide one-to-one and family support
• Advocate for young people across health, education, and social care services
• Work alongside NHS multidisciplinary teams
• Deliver engaging peer support events and group activities
• Help young people navigate their journey into adult healthcare services 

Who We’re Looking For

You will be a qualified social worker or registered health and social care professional with experience of supporting children, young people and families with complex needs. A passion for empowering young people and promoting inclusive, person-centred support is essential. 

Join Chiva and become part of a dedicated team making a real impact every day.

Please note that we are only able to accept applications submitted on our branded application form. We cannot accept CVs in respect of this post.

Please see the Job Description and Person Specification on the Chiva website for full details.

Deadline for applications: Thursday 9th July 2026.

Interviews to take place on: Monday 20th & Tuesday 21st July.

Barnardo's Adoption Midlands and South West has an exciting vacancy for a Social Worker to join its Service covering work predominantly in the Midlands, East & West.  You will be joining an experienced and stable staff group who embrace working in a creative, open and transparent manner with adopters, to provide children with permanence in a family who understand the lifelong nature of adoption and the impact of issues such as developmental trauma, attachment and neuroscience.

As a Social Worker you have the chance to make a real difference in the lives of Children, Young People and Families by:

• Recruiting, assessing and approving a diverse range of adoptive families to meet the needs of waiting children
• Matching the needs of children nationwide with the skills of appropriate adopters
• Ensuring all adopters have access to excellent training, guidance and support when they require it, including managing ongoing contact with birth family
• Working directly with adoptive families promoting a trauma informed approach and helping build and maintain family relationships
• Being part of Barnardo's undertaking to children, young people and adopters to continuously learn and improve

If you have a passion and drive to make a positive difference to children and adopters we would like to hear from you.

This vacancy is for a qualified Social Worker who is registered with SW England or is able to register with SW England.

The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK and have use of a car and business use insurance.  Barnardo's is, however, willing to consider any proposals put forward by applicants that would allow them to do the job by other means.

The applicant will need to be able to participate in an "Helpline" rota Out of Office hours. There is additional remuneration for providing this service.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work life balance we therefore offer flexible working arrangements as the role involves some evening/weekend working and travel with occasional overnight stays.

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.

When completing the application please refer to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the Service described. 

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

Join a growing Therapeutic service supporting children, young people and families.

Link Adoption & Family Support Service provides therapeutic support services for children, young people, and families across the UK. Much of our work is focused within adoption services, supporting adoptive families, children, and young people who have been adopted. We also provide therapeutic services to Special Guardians, kinship carers, and foster carers.

More recently, we have expanded our provision to support wider communities through partnerships with Barnardo's projects, health authorities, charities and voluntary sector organisations. Services are delivered both face-to-face and virtually across the UK.

We are seeking an experienced and passionate Therapeutic Social Worker to join our dynamic therapeutic services team.

This is an exciting opportunity for a qualified Social Worker to play a key role in coordinating therapeutic interventions that make a meaningful difference to the lives of children and families.

Working within a trauma-informed and attachment-focused service, you will manage referrals from initial enquiry through to case closure, ensuring children and families receive timely, appropriate support. You will work collaboratively  with therapists, commissioners, local authorities, and families to coordinate high-quality therapeutic interventions and help achieve positive outcomes.

The successful candidate will:

• Lead the assessment, planning and case management of therapeutic support packages, coordinating referrals from enquiry to closure and ensuring children, young people and families receive tailored, child-centred interventions.
• Provide safeguarding leadership, by assessing and managing risk, responding to safeguarding concerns, participating in the safeguarding duty rota and ensuring compliance with safeguarding policies and procedures.
• Offer professional consultation and support to therapists and practitioners, offering guidance on case management, safeguarding, risk management and best practice, contributing to quality assurance and continuous professional development.
• Build and maintain effective partnerships with families, social workers, health professionals and partner agencies, acting as a key point of contact and ensuring collaborative, outcome-focused service delivery.
• Develop and maintain relationships with commissioners and referral partners, providing outcome reports, attending review meetings and identifying opportunities to enhance service delivery and grow referrals.
• Contribute to the growth and development of the service by identifying and delivering new service opportunities, leading improvement initiatives, supporting business development, and deputising for the Practice Manager when required.

This is a hybrid role, primarily home-based with occasional travel for training, team meetings and service-related activities. The successful candidate will become an integral member of our multi-disciplinary team, working collaboratively to deliver high-quality therapeutic services to children, young people and families.

About You

We are looking for someone who has:

• Professional Social Work qualification and registration.
• Experience of safeguarding practice and risk assessment.
• Additional training or qualifications in therapeutic practice, trauma informed approaches, attachment, adoption support, or related areas would be desirable.
• Experience within adoption, fostering, kinship care, Special Guardianship, or related children's services would be desirable.
• Excellent assessment and analytical skills.
• Strong organisational and case management abilities.
• Ability to manage a complex caseload and competing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills.

If you are passionate about therapeutic social work and want to work in a role that combines safeguarding, relationship-building, service development, and therapeutic coordination, we'd love to hear from you.

Additional Information

You must demonstrate within your application how you currently use, or have previously used, the skills outlined above and within the Job Description and Person Specification. This may be through employment or other relevant experience. Applications should demonstrate an understanding of the context and demands of the service described.

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

Today, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer. We’ll stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.  

• Salary: c. £56,000 
• Full or Part Time – Open to both options 
• Permanent
• Location: We honestly don’t mind. You’ll be expected to travel between our London (Farringdon) and central Bristol offices as well as other locations across the UK. Either of our office locations or remote home working is acceptable. Please clearly state your preferred location in your application. 
• Closing date: 19 July 2026 (11:59pm) 
• First stage interviews: w/c 10 August
• Second stage interviews: w/c 17 August 

Change lives in a life-changing career

When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain.

The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer. We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise wellbeing. And we stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.

We challenge the systems and policies that surround children and young people, we highlight gaps and campaign for change. Because we know what a better future could look like. And we know what we need to do to make that future a reality. We need to push harder, reach further and work smarter. And we need the right people on our team to help us get there. People like you.

About the role

We’re looking for a Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) with experience of designing and embedding organisational DEIB strategies and leading culture change at a senior level to join our CEO Office.

This is a pivotal leadership role at a critical moment in our DEIB journey. You will lead the development of our next DEIB strategy, building on our ‘Brave, Not Perfect’ commitments and driving forward meaningful, measurable change across the organisation. Working closely with the CEO and Executive Team, you will shape the vision, influence decision-making and ensure DEIB is fully embedded across our culture, systems and ways of working.

You’ll act as both a strategic lead and an organisational change expert – engaging colleagues, supporting leaders, and ensuring our work reflects the diverse needs of the children and young people we support. This role does not have direct reports but carries significant influence across the organisation, requiring strong leadership, resilience, and the ability to bring others on the journey.

What will I be doing?

No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing, but you’ll find more details in the job description.

The next step in Young Lives vs Cancer’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging journey 

• Building on the work in ‘Brave, not Perfect’ to develop the next iteration of DEIB strategy at Young Lives
• To engage the organisation in the development and context of this work, and to deliver a programme model for the delivery of the goals within the strategy, including monitoring and evaluation 

Build on strong foundations

• To evaluate and develop our programme of internal DEIB engagement ‘DEIB Confident’ to reflect the goals within the next phase of DEIB strategy
• To support and develop our existing staff led networks, and the creation of new ones
• To lead and develop our approach to Equity Impact Assessment
• To coach, advise and challenge senior leaders and allies within the organisation

Leadership

• To role model the culture we want to see at Young Lives vs Cancer, through your behaviour, ways of working and approach to leadership 
• As a Head of department, you will be a key senior leader and manager, providing visible and confident leadership for all of our workforce at Young Lives vs Cancer, and taking a holistic organisational view in all matters – holding our strategy and vision for young cancer patients at heart.

What do I need? 

Diverse perspectives and unique skillsets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.

The key skills we’re looking for in this role are:

• Experience of developing and implementing an EDI strategy at a senior level 
• Understanding and knowledge of EDI legislation, policies and best practices 
• Experience of managing change initiatives and a practical approach to culture change including through systems, policy and procedures 
• Experience of leading, inspiring and motivating staff 
• A good leader with ambition and conviction and the ability and desire to inspire staff at all levels. 
• Demonstrable influencing skills and ability to develop networks both internally and externally 
• Experience of facilitating activities across geographically dispersed operations
• A respected project and change expert with personal confidence
• Understanding of oppression and the barriers that marginalised people face, and strong commitment to deliver anti-oppressive practices
• Demonstrate that Young Lives vs Cancer’s values are at the heart of everything you do: Curious, Creative, Collaborative, Changemaking, and Courageous

What will I gain?

For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:

• Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage
• Wellbeing days: four days a year to do what works for you – from catching up on training to going for a walk
• Generous annual leave allowance
• Great family/caring leave entitlements
• Enhanced pension
• Access to our employee savings scheme

To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website.

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it.

We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more.

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value AI adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to tell us about your skills and experiences in your own voice.

Accessibility

We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible.Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview.

#ShowTheSalary #NonGraduatesWelcome

Are you a highly motivated and experienced fundraiser and communicator who is looking to join an exciting organisation that’s truly making a difference?

The Jon Egging Trust are seeking an exceptional Fundraising & Communications Officer to help generate income and raise our profile. You will be joining a fantastically motivated and committed team of home workers who are all passionate about improving the lives of young people through our specialist youth programmes.Your role will be to support a portfolio of events, develop compelling content and generate awareness of JET’s mission and impact to engage new and existing supporters and inspire them to give and/or fundraise for us. the role is temporary for six months with potential for permanent employment.

The successful candidate will have experience supporting or delivering fundraising activity across multiple income streams, developing and delivering communications plans and content across multiple channels with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

We are looking for a person who is highly motivated, organised and used to working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and multiple stakeholders. Across the JET team we cultivate a culture of inclusion that respects individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better outcomes for our young people. We welcome applicants whatever your background and whatever your stage in life, so if you are returning to the workforce after a period away, or even seeking a change of pace, please get in touch.  

About the Jon Egging Trust (JET)

At JET, we support vulnerable young people to get back on track and realise their potential; more than 45,000 young people right across the UK to date, and there’s so much more we can do. We’re an organisation that really values its people and we’re immensely proud that our team culture is based on caring and raising each other up.

Our benefits package includes:

• Flexible working

• Enhanced annual leave

• Homeworking allowance 

• Occupational pension scheme

• Occupational sickness scheme

• Special paid leave provision

• Enhanced family leave 

Download the Candidate Information Pack  

Read our Applicant Privacy Notice 

Child and adult at risk protection policy statement 

The Jon Egging Trust is committed to providing a safe and positive environment for everyone involved in its services and activities. The Trust takes its extended moral and legal duty of care very seriously in relation to children, young people, staff and volunteers. We seek to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children and to protect them from harm or abuse when they engage in any of our activities. JET expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. The suitability of all prospective employees or volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. 

To apply 

Please complete our online application form.

The closing date is Sunday 12 July at [23:59].

Preliminary interviews to be held week commencing 20 July. 

In-person interviews likely to be held in Birmingham or London (tbc) on Wednesday 29 July. 

Questions? 

Contact us through our website. 

Please note:

Due to our anonymised recruitment process, if your application is not shortlisted, we are unable to provide personalised feedback. 

To become an employee at JET, you must be able to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK and a satisfactory DBS check – enhanced with children's barred is required for this role. As part of our recruitment process, we want to make clear that we are not able to offer visa sponsorship for this position. 

As part of our safer recruitment process, all candidates invited to a final interview will also be required to complete a confidential self-disclosure form, which allows any relevant information to be discussed in line with our safeguarding policy.