Cafcass - Family Court Advisor - Early Intervention Team EIT

We have several interim opportunities at the Cafcass Stevenage office covering Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

• 1 x Early Intervention
• 3 x Work After First Hearing

The Early Intervention Team role involves:

• You are considering risks to children subject to private law applications only.
• The work is fast-paced and time limited and tends to focus solely on the work undertaken leading up to the first hearing to help the court consider how to proceed.
• FCAs review applications, gather and analyse information from the police and local authorities and (usually via telephone) interview the parties to consider the risks and alert the court to any safeguarding concerns.
• The role requires excellent skills in analysis, leading to Cafcass providing advice to the court about next steps. They may also need to consider referrals to other services to support families.
• FCAs may also attend private law First Hearings and give evidence as required.
• It’s your role to consider the impact of these allegations and support the court to consider what this means for children and what needs to happen to resolve these issues.
• This is a fast-paced team. It means we need to be highly organised and highly motivated to ensure arrangements proposed to the parents, carers or other family members are in children’s best interests.

The Work After First Hearing roles involve:

• Private Law - If in a private law case after the first court hearing there is not an agreement about children or there are concerns about the welfare of children the court may ask us to write a Section 7 report to help the judge make a safe decision and the responsibility for doing this will transfer to the WAFH team.
• Public Law - In public law a local authority has made an application to the court for authority to intervene in a child’s life as it is believed they are at risk of significant harm. FCAs are often referred to as ‘Children’s Guardians’ – they are the independent person who is there to promote the child’s welfare and ensure the arrangements made for the child are in their best interests.

Face-to-face visits

We are an approved supplier to Cafcass, achieving this status through a competitive process and retaining it by delivering quality, timely and compliant services. Being one of Cafcass’ preferred partners ensures we will always be given priority access to any Social Work vacancies they ask external agencies to support them with.

Requirements of the role:

• Social Work qualified
• Social Work England registered
• Minimum 3 years’ post-qualifying experience in social work with children and families at risk
• For EIT: Experience of child protection work, preferably within a statutory agency. The nature and speed of the work means experience of working recently in a MASH / Duty team (or similar) is helpful as there is a need to respond to and analyse high levels of information quickly.
• For WAFH: A commitment to seeing and hearing the child or children concerned and undertaking direct work to engage with children and families and ensure they are at the centre of your report writing, ability to write focused and analytical reports, excellent time management – court deadlines are non-negotiable and court experience, confidence in the court arena.

We are offering £250 joining bonus for new starters with Reed. Alternatively, we are offering £250 if you refer a friend or colleague and they are placed successfully into this or any other QSW role.