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Job Introduction

Are you passionate about making a difference to children's lives who are placed in local authority foster care?

As a Sessional Worker, you’ll play a critical role in supporting children in understanding their birth identity and supervising their time with birth parents.

We’re looking for people to join us with the skills to encourage and help maintain positive relationships between children and parents. We work with very vulnerable children so we must ensure we maintain professional relationships whilst managing complex family needs and behaviours.

You’ll play a vital role in supporting families for them to spend quality time together. Our aim during family time is to promote a positive and meaningful time for children with their family. This could include offering support, guidance, and parenting advice or modelling positive interaction and behaviours. We also support children getting to and from school and family time in various locations. Our Sessional workers are required to transport the children around the county and further afield.

This role is casual to support the service as and when required.

You will be required to be flexible with your working hours including early mornings, evenings and weekends.

Main Responsibilities

You will be required:

• To facilitate therapeutic family time between children and their parents or other family members.
• To coordinate arrangements for family time for children and their parents or other family members as directed by court.
• Transport children and young people to attend family time.
• To provide parenting support and guidance during family time.
• To support the completion of accurate documentation, reports, and records in relation to children, young people, and families.
• To be available outside of traditional working patterns including evenings and weekends to provide support to children, families, and carers when it is needed.

The Ideal Candidate

Children and their families are the centre of everything we do, and we’re looking for people to join us who have the skills to encourage and help maintain positive relationships between children and parents.

As well as a passion for helping and supporting children and their families, you’ll need to have:

• A minimum NVQ 3 in working with children and families or equivalent experience of working with children and families.
• Experience of direct work with children, their families, and carers in a statutory or voluntary agency which provides services to vulnerable children and their families.
• Experience in the use of IT including Microsoft packages
• An understanding of child development and the effect of stress and trauma on child development.
• An understanding of the key pieces of policies, guidance, and legislation which govern children’s social care.
• Have unrestricted use of a car and a driving licence.
• Be flexible to work evenings and occasional weekends as needed.
• The ability to effectively communicate with children, their families, and carers.
• The ability to build relationships and deliver interventions to children, families, and carers.
• The ability to work effectively in conflict situations.

Need more information?

If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach us at clare.evans@staffordshire.gov.uk or 01782 296290

Interviews are expected to be held: Monday 3rd August.

Our Recruitment Process: To ensure fairness, we anonymise applications during shortlisting so that only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement to highlight the skills, experience, and values you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.