Missing Support Worker

The Cambridgeshire Adolescent Service is focused on safeguarding vulnerable young people who are facing risks outside the home. We achieve that by building:

• Relationshipswith children and their networks, using a trauma-informed approach.
• Safety,through direct work with children and addressing the contexts of harm.
• Connections with community resources that can move children towards positive futures.

The service is comprised of two Adolescent Social Work Team and the Missing and Exploitation Team (M&ET), which is our specialist team for supporting children at risk outside the home. Missing Support Workers undertake a key role in offering return home interviews to children who have been missing from home or care, to help inform responses that will promote safety and prevent harm. The M&ET works alongside all colleagues in Children’s Services, but particularly the Adolescent Social Work Teams and Youth Justice Service. As a result of these close links, you will be working alongside social workers, youth justice officers, police, psychologists, education officers, substance misuse workers and health workers.

F lexibility in working times and a willingness to travel both inside and occasionally outside of Cambridgeshire county are required for this role.

In Cambridgeshire we strive to ensure that children are at the heart of everything we do and to provide practitioners with the tools and resources they need to do their best practice.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

What will you be doing?

As a Missing Support worker, you will be line managed by the Senior Practitioner within the team.

As a Missing Support Worker, you will be assigned a number of children daily, who have been reported missing in order to complete return home interviews. You should have experience of working directly with children and be skilled in establishing a rapport with the young person and their parent/carer in order to gain their voice in relation to the missing episode.

Prior to meeting the child, you will need to gather relevant information from agencies working with them and historical concerns around risk. You will need to communicate with those supporting the child, to organise and carry out the return home interview according to the needs of the child but within timescales where possible; this may occasionally include travelling outside of the county.

Missing Support workers collaborate closely with partner agencies, attending meetings and sharing relevant information as needed, and giving advice on next steps for support and safeguarding.

The Missing Support Team also facilitate training for children and professionals covering a wide range of subjects; including risk assessment, missing protocol, risk outside the home, and transforming lives. We also provide support packages for parents whose children are frequently missing.

About you

You will be ideally educated to A Level/NVQ level 3 standard or equivalent with GCSE level C in Maths and English.

You are a compassionate and resilient individual with a strong commitment to safeguarding and supporting vulnerable young people. You have experience working with children and families, particularly those who may be at risk or have gone missing, and understand the complexities and sensitivities involved.

You are knowledgeable about child protection laws, safeguarding procedures, and trauma-informed practices, enabling you to respond effectively and empathetically in crisis situations. Your excellent communication skills help you build trust and rapport quickly, even with hard-to-reach young people.

You are confident in advocating for the child’s voice in multi-agency settings and work well both independently and as part of a team. You are adaptable, able to manage changing demands and work under pressure, while maintaining high standards of confidentiality and data accuracy.

Additionally, you are willing and able to travel to support young people wherever needed, always prioritizing their safety and wellbeing. Your dedication to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion underpins everything you do, ensuring all young people feel respected and valued.

Please use the attached job description to outline in your supporting statement how your skills and experience match the essential criteria required for this role.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network \’IDEAL\’ and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

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