Early Help Coordinator - AR

Main Purpose of the job:

• Partnership development: This role is critical in the development of relationships with partner agencies to ensure there is strong collaborative working to achieve positive outcomes with families. The post holder will play a key negotiating and mediation role as well as providing information, advice and support to partners. Early Help Coordinators will provide training and scaffolding support to professionals across the partnership.
• Front Door for Families: The role is also critical in relation to providing high quality information and advice and ensuring that referrers and families are signposted and supported to access the most appropriate service and support for them first time.
• Integrated Neighbourhood Working: As a main focus of this role you will be part of a team that works to support the implementation of a new neighbourhood based service in Lewisham, including the development of a Family Hub approach.
• Thrive Lewisham, Lewisham's Prevention and Early Help Strategy: The Early Help Coordinator will support the delivery of Lewisham's Prevention & Early Help Strategy: Thrive Lewisham, including supporting communities, partners and stakeholders in understanding the principles and objectives of the strategy and the i-Thrive framework.

Summary of Responsibilities and Personal Duties:

• To ensure at all times that children and their families are at the heart of service provision and development across the partnerships.
• To develop, facilitate and coordinate working relationships and partnerships with a range of front-line staff and managers across Lewisham's Children and Young People's Services and partner agencies.
• To coordinate multi agency support across services to meet the needs of vulnerable children, young people and families.
• Use negotiating and influencing skills to identify and enable different agencies to undertake 'lead professional' responsibilities.
• To provide training, guidance and advice to individuals completing FARPs and to act as a quality assurance agent.
• To undertake reviews of FARPs to ensure that progress is occurring to plan and timescales.
• Responsible for attending multi agency meetings, where required, to advise/guide and consult on the FARP.
• Design and deliver training and support to local practitioners to work as a multi agency Team Around the Family (TAF).
• To create and review guidance around TAF for practitioner use.
• To be responsible for promoting the Family Information Service and encourage use to support children's needs.
• Ensure seamless links are maintained with targeted and specialist services.
• To deliver parenting programmes alongside the wider partnership where capacity permits.
• To be responsible for promoting, championing and embedding the principles of the Signs of Safety practice framework.
• To be responsible for promoting the Family Hubs offer and raise awareness across the professional partnership and amongst service users.

General requirements:

• Undertake other duties, commensurate with the grade, as may reasonably be required.
• To carry out the duties of the post with due regard to the Council's Equal Opportunities Policy and core values.
• All employees are required to participate in the Performance Evaluation Scheme (PES) and to undertake appropriate training and development identified to enhance their work.
• Assist in carrying out the Council's environmental policy within the day to day activities of the post.
• To contribute to the development of key documents including performance frameworks, briefings, reports, and business cases.
• To work flexibly when required - including evening and weekend work as required to ensure that levels of service provision are achieved.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Awareness of and a commitment to Equality of Access and Opportunity in a diverse community.
• Understanding of how equality and diversity relates to this post and the context of family support and early intervention.