Early Help Officer in Widnes

Job Introduction

Early Help Officer

Our Story:

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It\’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what\’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been \’our colleagues\’ .

Halton was one of 75 local authorities to be awarded Family Hub funding and we have developed 6 Family Hubs across the borough building on our strong and well established children\’s centres.

We are proud of what we have achieved in Halton and we have a strong offer to families ensuring good access to services to give young children the best start in life and providing early intervention & support where concerns emerge. Breaking the cycle of poor outcomes and providing early help and preventing issues becoming entrenched by building resilience in working alongside parents and communities.

Our offer supports access to strong universal entitlements to ensure children are ready for school, ready for life.

Our Team:

Halton Family Hubs are a busy front-line service who support complex families with multiple needs. We are looking for 3x Early Help Officers to join our team who have a wide range of skills, expertise and professional backgrounds.

This is an exciting time for the team as we prepare for Halton\’s transition to a family help service which will bring together targeted early help and child in need provision into one service

Your Contributions:

As an Early Help Officer within the Family Hubs, the role involves case management, home visiting and working with families to prevent problems from escalating by providing practical and emotional assistance. You will be the Lead Professional for Multi Agency Assessment/Plans (MAPs), this includes coordinating services, implementing, and reviewing action plans. You will complete direct work with families and be able to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of work undertaken. You will be knowledgeable on such areas of positive parenting, behaviour management and family relationships.

Key responsibilities include:

• Delivering the \’Start for Life\’ program, focusing on the 1001 days (from conception to age 2)
• Provide case management and make referrals to other services as required
• Ensuring the child\’s lived experience is central to practice
• Supporting a preventative approach for vulnerable families
• Delivery of parenting interventions
• Contributing to effective supervision
• Contribute to planning and delivery of community events for children and families

You will have substantive experience working with families of children aged 0-5 years facing issues such as substance misuse, domestic abuse, neglect, child exploitation, poor health, SEND and financial difficulties.

Hours: 2x 25 hour posts based in Runcorn Family Hubs and 1x 29.6 hour post based in Widnes Family Hubs. Flexible working hours over a 3 or 4 day working pattern.

Salary: HBC6 £32,061-£34,434 per annum FTE, (29.6hrs £25,648-£27,547pa pro-rata, 25hrs £21,662-£23,266pa pro-rata)

Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including