Peer advocate worker jobs in Birmingham, west midlands

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.