Why work for us: Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk)

Family Engagement Worker - Jigsaw Team (Children with Disabilities)

“Disabled children in need of help and protection are well supported through an effective multi-disciplinary team. Good Quality assessments identify children’s needs, resulting in targeted interventions to meet those needs. Social workers use imaginative approaches to working alongside children to gain their views and understand their day-to-day experiences.” (Ofsted, November 2019)

Does this sound like the kind of team that you would wish to be part of?

Are you committed to improving the life chances and outcomes for children?

Are you enthusiastic and self-motivated about working in this challenging, stimulating and important area of work?

Whilst previous experience of working with children and young people with SEND would be useful, this is not essential. The Jigsaw team's approach to working and supporting 'with' would provide the suitable applicant the opportunity to learn and develop their skills in working with SEND and disability. This is provided through a strong network of support and training offered by experienced colleagues from the disciplines of Learning Disability nursing, Family Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Children's Statutory Occupational Therapy and Education colleagues, in addition to working with a wider network of professionals across universal, targeted and specialist services.

You will have the opportunity to learn how to communicate and engage with some of the most vulnerable children in our city, to ensure that their voice is heard and their rights are upheld, and play a vital role in contributing towards the vision for our most vulnerable children in the City as the Service expands in line with the vision for Children’s Services.

The Jigsaw team is a multi-agency aligned service funded by Southampton City Council Children’s Services and CCG. They provide a service to children, young people and their carer/parents with learning disabilities and enduring complex health needs including neuro diverse needs e.g. Autism.

You will have previous experience of working with vulnerable children and families and working alongside a team of professionals. You will have proven experience of working in a child-centred manner and understanding safeguarding issues and risk for a child and working with agencies to ensure the children’s needs are being met and risk is safely managed.

Ideally, you will also have previous experience of delivering interventions on a 1:1 basis, and in group settings with varying ages and stages of development in childhood. You will bring evidence of being part of a wider team, and recognising the importance of team work in supporting and empowering children and families to realise their potential.

Jigsaw Team, as part of the wider Children Services, model the systemic and restorative practice framework, creating a culture of high support and high challenge, keeping children at the heart of all that we do. Relationship-based and strengths-based practice is central to supporting families who are often experiencing a multitude of stress factors. Due the nature of our support and interventions, solution-focussed approaches with transparency whilst monitoring of progress is pivotal to success. Our ethos is that children are best placed with their families where they are loved, stable, secure and if it is safe to do so.

Jigsaw Team are looking for a Family Engagement Worker who is passionate about children and families, and someone who is flexible in their approach and confident to manage competing demands and complex situations. It’s imperative that the Family Engagement Worker also practices self-care to ensure emotional resilience and prevent compassion fatigue.

We will offer:

• Regular quality supervision
• Accessible, responsive and supportive management at all levels
• Excellent training and development opportunities
• Strong leadership with a clear vision for the continued development of our service
• A competitive salary – range (Grade 8 SCP 26 - 30 £32,909.00 - £36,298.00)
• Paid leave (up to 30 days excluding bank holidays dependent on length of service).
• Flexible working arrangements
• Employee benefits

For an informal discussion please contact Jacques Pilgrim, Team Manager/Service Lead on 02382 545199.

Additional information:

• This post requires an Enhanced DBS check.
• For any posts that require a DBS check, if you have lived outside the UK within the last 5 years, you will be required to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct or a police certificate from the country/countries you have resided in. Kindly note that this is at the expense of the candidate, as well as any costs involved for translating into English.
• Please note the salary quoted is based on full time hours (37 hours).

Recruitment contact details: recruitment@southampton.gov.uk

To apply for the position please select the 'Apply for this job' button at the bottom of the page.

We are proud to be #DisabilityConfident and support fair recruitment practices. Find out how you can get involved at gov.uk/disability-confident