Support Worker – Families Together

Overview

How you’ll make a difference

The Families Together model is all about strengthening our support to families where there is a risk of a young person coming into care. As a Support Worker, you will work with young people and their families to make and maintain changes in their lives to prevent them coming into care unnecessarily. 

You will be skilled at engaging families quickly, creating purposeful, professional relationships and agreeing realistic aims and objectives. By building on their existing strengths to get through difficult experiences, your support will help families to continue to use what they have learned once the Families Together involvement ends. 

What you will be doing

• Daily, you will work alongside colleagues in Integrated Children’s Services, under the guidance of a Practice Manager, to provide help and support to young people and families where there is a risk of the young person coming into care.
• You will enhance the current offer of support to vulnerable young people and families with a swift and dedicated response, including access to specialist support to address specific needs, with the aim of preventing long term family breakdown.
• It will be key for you to manage your own caseload of specific work to ensure specialist input and effective outcomes are achieved, with the aim of keeping young people living at home wherever possible and safe to do so.
• It will be your responsibility to ensure that records and reports are maintained and completed in accordance with professional and council guidelines.
• Regularly, you will liaise and work with contacts from different sectors including schools, health, social care and voluntary sector ensuring that communication is effective so that knowledge and best practice is shared.

What we need from you

• You must be qualified at NVQ 3 or equivalent in a relevant discipline or be working towards an appropriate qualification related to the provision of services to children and young people. 
• We require you to have previous experience of writing holistic, multi-agency assessments and plans with families.
• Given the elements of the role, you will need to demonstrate knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, codes of practice, processes and procedures relating to children and young people’s services.
• Ideally, you will have relevant experience in the use of evidence-based practice working with vulnerable and disadvantaged children, families, or young people. You may also have first-hand experience of having provided support to young people who are at risk of entering the care system.

What you need to know

• You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel. Business insurance will need to be added to your current car policy.

• Please note that due to the nature of this role it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained for this post.

• On occasion, you will be required to work flexibly and outside normal working hours such as evenings or weekend, this is to ensure the team is responsive to the needs of the families we are supporting. 

 

Interviews will be held on Monday 20th October 2025.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different

• We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
• We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.

 

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We’re building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We’re working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life
• We’re investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

 

We’ve achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We’re making a difference, be part of it!

To view the full job description, please click this link: Support Worker WAYPOINT Families Together Job Description