Family support worker jobs in birmingham

Job Title: Independent Visitor Co-ordinator

Service: Coventry & Warwickshire

Reporting to: Senior Independent Visitor Co-ordinator

Salary: £8,329.21 per annum (£24,293.53 FTE)

Location: Home based (with travel across the region)

Hours: 12 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Job Introduction

• Are you passionate about supporting and developing volunteers?

• Are you looking for an opportunity to help make positive differences to the lives of children and young people who are looked after or care leavers of the local authority?

• Do you want to work with a leading national independent children’s charity?

Then come join us here at Coram Voice. We have an exciting opportunity for you to become a co-ordinator of our independent visiting service in Coventry & Warwickshire.

We are seeking candidates who are committed to our objectives for children and young people and equally committed to the organisation and the development of our services. We recognise we are a predominantly white workforce and are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from diverse communities in order to improve the services to the children and young people we help.

Our work

Coram Voice is a national independent children’s charity established in 1975 and has grown to become one of the leading organisations for children and young people in the UK.

Coram Voice is a leading children’s rights organisation. We champion the rights of children. We get young voices heard in decisions that matter to them and work to improve the lives of children in care, care leavers and others who depend upon the help of the state.

We provide:

• Advocacy services direct to children and young people in care, in need, in custody and to care leavers and children and young people with severe and complex mental health problems. Advocates around the country support children and young people to get their voice heard in decisions about their lives. This may be through the telephone helpline or through an advocate working directly with a child, for instance, to support them at a review meeting or to help them make a complaint about their care. Coram Voice provides visiting advocacy services to most of the secure units nationally, to Secure Training Centres, Juvenile Young Offender Institutions, psychiatric hospitals, residential special schools and children’s homes.
• Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) to advocate for young people as qualifying patients under the Mental Health Act, in order to fully support them to get their views heard in matters relating to their mental health.
• Independent Visitor services offers a child or young person in care an adult volunteer who provides independent, one-to-one visiting, advice and befriending support. Our independent visitors can become the only long-term, consistent source of support throughout a young person's time in care.
• Independent services provide independent person services for complaints by children and for reviewing whether children should be locked up in secure units on welfare grounds.
• Policy and campaigning to create a better system for all children and young people looked after by the state, for their care to be more child-centred and to give young people a greater say in decisions about their lives.
  • Participation services to ensure children and young people have a voice in the development and delivery of services and campaigns, and through the process, provide the opportunity to develop relevant skills which will be of benefit to them in their future lives.
  • Training, development and information for young people, advocates and child care workers, offering courses in advocacy, children’s rights and child-centred practice across a range of areas including the National Advocacy Qualification.

About the Role

You will co-ordinate and deliver a statutory independent visitor service to children and young people in care or care leavers of Coventry & Warwickshire.

You will recruit, assess and train volunteers to become independent visitors, who are volunteer befrienders to children and young people looked after or care leavers. You will manage a cash flow to fund suitable activities for independent visitors to enjoy with the young person. You will manage data and reporting for this statutory service so that service leads and other stakeholders can understand the activity in the service.

We are a child led service, you will not act outside of the young person’s instructions (except in matters of child protection and safety.)You will build strong relationships with the child or young person, independent visitors and other significant adults, you will support Independent Visitors to develop long term, meaningful friendships with the young person.

You will work in partnership with other parts of the service, organisation and external agencies and professionals. This is to ensure there are pathways to attract and retain Independent Visitors in the area and sometimes out of area.

What you will receive

We wish to reward and recognise the valuable contributions our staff make to the organisation and offer an attractive benefits package to do so. Coram Voice benefits package includes a competitive salary, a matched pension scheme up to 5% of salary, generous leave entitlements of up to 25 days’ annual leave plus an additional 3 days paid leave between Christmas and New Year. A supportive work environment fostering a good work/home life balance and a suite of family friendly policies, which promote employee wellbeing.

You will get a genuine opportunity to make a difference every day.

Recruitment process

Shortlisting will be undertaken by Leanne Hughes, Children’s Rights Manager and Debbie King, Senior Independent Visitor Co-ordinator. Successful candidates will then be invited for interview. The interview process comprises of a written exercise and a panel interview. Successful candidates will have a further one to one interview in accordance within Warner recommendations. Internal candidates will need to notify HR of their interest in the post and they will provide further information on the internal application process.

Returning your application:

• We cannot accept general CVs. When completing your application form, you need to address each point of the person specification and demonstrate how you meet it.
• Applications must be fully completed.
• If you are a current Coram Voice employee you may submit a supporting statement only addressing the person specification requirements for the post.

Please return your application to: via Blue Octopus.

Closing Date: 10th December 11:59.

Proposed Interview Date: 18th December.

Coram is an equal opportunities employer and we believe a diverse workforce enables us to improve the services to the children and families we help. We are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from all sections of the community we seek to support. This includes those from global majority ethnic backgrounds, those that identify as LGBQT+, those with disabilities, those with lived experience of care, those with neuro-diversity, and those from other groups who are underrepresented at Coram.

If applicants feel comfortable, we would encourage them to draw on lived experience as well as professional experience in their personal statement as part of their application.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.

Catch22 exists to help build a society where everyone has a good place to live, good people around them, and a fulfilling purpose. We call these our '3Ps'.

We achieve this in two ways. First, we improve lives on the frontline through delivery of public services. Secondly, we use our knowledge to change 'the system', to fix the complex web that can trap and disempower those it was set up to help. With the heart of a charity and the mindset of a business, we are uniquely placed to deliver on this challenging agenda.

Our Young People & Families (YP&F) Operational Hub delivers a wide range of integrated support services designed to help resolve complex difficulties experienced by young people and their families/carers.

Support is provided to people who find themselves in a range of circumstances; they may be missing from home or have emotional, housing or substance misuse issues. We also support families where parents/carers are experiencing domestic abuse, substance misuse, emotional issues, youth violence, exploitation, homelessness or unemployment. Whatever the situation, we work alongside young people and their carers to find a way of stabilising their lives.

Redthread is one of our services delivered as part of the Young People and Families Hub within Catch22. 

Job Description

Redthread is a hospital based youth work service, working alongside NHS staff and other professionals in emergency departments.

Our experienced, specialist youth workers engage with and support young people, aiming to reduce serious youth violence. We often meet young people at a moment of change and work with them to find a positive way forward.

We provide long-term, holistic support. We consider every aspect of a young person’s life and build support around them.

The Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner role is to be part of the youth work team within Redthread with a primary focus on youth violence interventions in a health care setting. In this role you will be part of the Youth Violence Intervention Programme team in Birmingham. You will be based within two hospitals: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Heartlands Hospital. You will support young people aged, 11-25 years old, who present to hospital following an incident of violence of for whom them there are concerns around exploitation or extra-familial farm. You will work with the young person in the hospital as well as supporting them post discharge to ensure they have the support in place that they need and want. 

Main responsibilities include:

• Holding a caseload of young people and support them in a range of settings and support their personal, emotional, educational and health and social development through all interactions 
• Work within a multi-disciplinary team to safeguarding young people 
• Ensure young people's details and case records are kept up to date on our case management system
• Support the delivery of training to clinicians

Key Skills and Qualifications are: 

• Significant professional experience of working with vulnerable young people in a range of activities and settings
• Experience of working as an effective team member
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of working autonomously
• A thorough knowledge and understanding of the physical, social and emotional developmental needs of young people
• Understanding of the issues faced by young people living in inner city areas
• An awareness of child protection and safeguarding issues and knowledge of current best practice within the youth work sector
• A knowledge of best practice in case recording

Additional information

Contract: Permanent

Hours & work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week including regular weekend and evening working. Week day shifts cover 9am - 9pm, with one late shift a week from 1pm - 9pm.  Weekend shift is 9am -5pm. 

Salary: £26,302

Location: Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham 

Closing date: Applications for this role will close on Wednesday, 26th November. If we receive a high number of applications, applications may be closed sooner than this date. We suggest applying as soon as possible. 

Interviews: An online first round interview will be held on Friday, 5th December. 

Screening: Successful admission to post subject to enhanced DBS check, and employer Right To Work in the UK check. The post-holder must have right to work in the UK. Catch22 does not currently provide a licence to sponsor visas but please see this register to see those that do.

To Apply: Please provide your CV and cover letter, along with the completion of the screening questions to express your interest in this opportunity. Please note, in the interest of safer recruitment and ensuring that applicants are a right fit for the role, submitted applications must contain a CV, satisfactory responses to the screening questions, and information detailing interest in the role, to be considered for this position.

AI generated applications are not acceptable and could lead to a disqualification of your current and future applications across Catch22 jobs. In order to ensure that applications are fair, genuine, and representative of the candidate applying, our teams may use a number of tools to identify occurrences where candidates have not given an honest response during the application process. 

Founded in 1823 by Samuel Codner as a mission to support English-speaking people in Newfoundland, the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) has grown into a dynamic Anglican mission agency. For over two centuries, ICS has supported evangelism, church planting and chaplaincy across the globe, particularly among English-speaking people living, working or travelling outside their home countries.

With over 1.5 billion English speakers worldwide our mission is global, reflected by our chaplaincy congregations which are richly multinational.

We currently have 48 Mission Partners in 17 countries over 4 continents.

Our foundations are strong. We are financially stable, spiritually vibrant with a highly engaged Council and committed team.

We feel that the time is ripe to pursue growth. This is a watershed moment.

Under The Reverend Canon Richard Bromley’s leadership, as Mission Director, our governance, relationship with the Diocese of Europe and our partnership with our chaplaincies have been greatly strengthened.

In this season we are launching a new 10-year vision to plant 50 English-speaking Anglican churches in major cities and towns across Europe, to proclaim the gospel in culturally relevant ways, foster collaboration with other denominations and congregations, and become catalysts for further church plants.

We are now seeking to appoint a dynamic Mission Director as Richard’s successor.

This post is subject to an occupational requirement under Schedule 9 of the Equality Act that the post holder be a practising Christian.

You will be a Christian with a vibrant evangelical faith embracing a generous orthodoxy, with a breadth of senior strategic leadership experience in a cross-cultural Christian mission setting, pastoral and relationship building skills and compassion and wisdom to navigate the opportunities and challenges of the season ahead. You will also be passionate about our vision to reach people for Christ.