Early Help Co-Ordinator

We are currently recruiting for a part-time Early Help Coordinator to join our team in Gloucester.

Reward and Support

• Between £32,115- £35,235 per annum pro rata subject to experience
• Flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
• Option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• Family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• Supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• An in-house Occupational Health service
• Cycle to work scheme
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
• Career development and qualification opportunities
• Access to our Social Work Academy

About the team

You will be joining our Advice, Guidance & Support Team which is part of the Early Help and Targeted Support service, a resource within GCC’s Children’s Services. Early Help Coordinators (EHCOs) support practitioners and partners in the community who work directly with children and families. Early Help Coordinators are non case-holding roles which facilitate community practitioners to be confident in implementing an Early Help approach to respond to emerging and escalating needs of children and families.

Your role

You will work alongside practitioners from a wide variety of organisations to identify, with children and families, their needs and resources, agree next steps and follow up to ensure practitioners are confident in leading on co-ordinated packages of support which improve outcomes for children, young people and their families using Gloucestershire’s Graduated Pathway of Early Help. You will be part of a skilled team and actively effect positive change for children and families by facilitating the right support, at the right time. You will develop and maintain positive working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders from different teams, agencies and providers in Gloucester for the purpose of coordinating Early Help services which make a positive difference for children, their families and communities. EHCOs also develop and deliver practitioner training and upskill practitioners through a coaching & mentoring approach to disseminate best practice in meeting the emerging needs of children and families effectively.

About you

You will need experience of working with children, young people, families and/or communities, along with experience of effective partnership working which demonstrates the skills and qualities needed for successful collaborative working. As well as your experience of working within a team providing preventative services, you will have an ability to problem solve and work creatively with partners in meeting the needs of children, young people, families and communities. You will be using a range of IT and case management systems and you will need to be able to prioritise your time and workload when required, to meet timescales. This role will involve a combination of agile and hybrid working, office (Gloucester) and county-wide activities determined by the needs of the organisation.

Requirements

• A full driving licence and willingness to drive
• DBS clearance

How to apply

If you feel you have the skills, desire, passion and experience required to make a positive difference then please submit your application. For an informal chat about the role, we would welcome you to contact carrie-anne.panting2@gloucestershire.gov.uk.

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications. Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees. We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior).

To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

Additional Information

This position is subject to a DBS check. Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English. Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.