Relief- Community Family Worker in Hailsham

Do you want to make a positive difference to children’s lives? Are you empathic, organised, kind and assertive?

If you have answered ‘yes’, you might be suited to the role of Community Family Worker.

The Children We Care For - Family Time Service offers reunification family support and supervised contact for children looked after in East Sussex.

We are pleased to advertise an exciting opportunity for Community Family Workers to join our large and busy service. Our countywide teams are based in Newhaven, Hailsham, and Hastings. We currently have six Relief Community Family Worker vacancies available. Successful candidates may be based at different locations across the county, and we ask applicants to specify their preferred location within their application. This role offers flexible working hours, including weekends, after-school periods, and school holiday work.

The successful candidates will be a warm and motivated individuals with clear professional boundaries and the capacity to work with families to written agreements under Children's Services policy and protocol. Community Family Work is at times challenging and sometimes requires emotional resilience therefore our new colleagues will need to be a great communicators, empathic listeners and flexible problem-solvers. CFWs must have excellent time management skills. This is an essential car user position. A good standard of written English and IT skills is essential.

CFWs encourage positive relationships between children and their families during the period in which assessment is undertaken and decisions are made about a child's future. We promote play, healthy eating and respectful boundaries in the course of our intervention. Neutrality and accuracy about what is seen and heard is imperative.

We are looking for candidates who:

• Have knowledge and understanding of child protection and safeguarding procedures.
• Have ability to drive across the county, including transport of children as contracted car user
• Have experience of direct work with parents and children, for example, youth work, nurseries etc.
• Able to make decisions under pressure

Please download the Job Description and Person Specification for more information.

To apply for this role, please follow the ‘Apply Now’ button above, when submitting your CV and cover letter please be sure to address how you meet all the criteria in the person specification, drawing on any relevant work/life experience, education, or personal interests. This is an ideal entry level position to Children’s Social Care; we welcome both more and less experienced applicants, please be sure to highlight your experience either professionally or personally, in dealing with children and families.

For guidance on how to write an application see our how to apply page and our statement on the use of AI.

Interviews will take place face to face on Monday 19 October, Tuesday 20 October and Wednesday 21 October in one of the 3 venues listed above. We will confirm this in due course.

Candidates who meet certain criteria are given priority when we shortlist. See our priority status page for details.

We offer regular, reflective supervision, guidance and support. There is always a strong base to return to, providing humour and support when CFWs have been working independently. We provide the opportunity for training and development following a period of thorough induction.

We offer a diverse range of benefits to help and support you during your employment. More information can be found on our benefits page.

For an informal discussion, please contact Sharon Harper on 07880400897 or Michelle Barrow on 07701394599.

A workforce for the community, from the community

We warmly welcome applications from all sections of the community. We particularly encourage those from group that are underrepresented in our current workforce:

Black and ethnic minority backgrounds, those who are disabled, men and those who identify as LGBTQ+. We are working towards recruiting a workforce that reflects our community because we recognise the unique skills, experience and perspective that each individual brings.

For a team that supports you choose East Sussex.

“I feel very supported here. Ever since I started, I’ve had great managers. They are always there even when you’re working from home. They always push you to do their best. We’re like one big family.“ Abbie, Training Events Organiser