Specialist Caseworker Families

Safer London provides consistent, trauma-informed support to children and young people who have already experienced harm - helping them move from crisis to stability, and from harm to hope. We support young Londoners affected by a range of harms, including criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation and sexual violence, violence in the community and peer-to-peer harm. Our work happens in the community - wherever the young Londoner feels safe and comfortable. This could be a school, park, cafe, or another safe place. Each child or young person is matched with a caseworker based on their unique needs and circumstances. They meet with them weekly and support typically lasts between 6 months and 18 months, but support can last for as long as needed. Each intervention is tailored to the young Londoner's identity, experiences and needs, and may focus on safety planning, emotional wellbeing, healthy peer relationships and family dynamics. We also help young Londoners access education, training, employment opportunities, and safe, stable housing.

The team includes:

• Specialist workers for girls and young women
• SEND and complex harm specialists
• A dedicated families team who works one to one with parents and carers

Through our work, we are helping young Londoners heal, rebuild and move forward - so they can live safer lives and have the positive futures they deserve.

In this impactful role, you will cultivate strong trusting relationships with parents and carers, offering personalised support on a one-to-one basis. Your responsibilities will encompass a diverse range of direct support and advocacy, with a focus on safeguarding and the wellbeing of parents and carers whose child/ren are affected by violence and exploitation.

At Safer London we work as one team across the entire organisation. This cohesive working allows us to realise our vision of helping to create a safer city for everyone who lives here. We choose to invest heavily in our direct practice work, with practitioner Caseworkers making up the majority of Safer London's workforce. Safer London's Caseworkers are supported by a team of practice managers and safeguarding professionals. We have Caseworkers who are Specialists and Experts in the following areas:

• Violence and exploitation
• Sexual violence
• Neurodiversity and SEND
• Harmful Sexual Behaviours
• Families (parents and carers)
• Education, training and employment

At Safer London we encourage a culture of shared learning and collaborative working. We work together to support the presenting needs of the young Londoners and families we work with. Our work is grounded in the AMBIT approach of working, with the team working to the AMBIT principle of mentalization. Collaborative working with multiple different external organisations and agencies is critical in this role. In order to effectively safeguard and address the complex challenges faced by young Londoners, you will be required to work alongside a variety of professionals, each with their unique expertise.

By fostering effective communication and information sharing, multi-agency working allows for:

• Enhances overall effectiveness of safeguarding young Londoners and families.
• Intervention and prevention of potential risks.
• Provides a holistic understanding of a young Londoner's situation.
• Creates a coordinated effort, preventing duplication of work and ensures resources are used efficiently.

Main purpose of the role:

In this role, you will work alongside parents or carers whose children have been exposed to or are at risk of exploitation or violence. Within your role as a Specialist Family Caseworker, you will provide support to parents and carers to help them gain a greater understanding of the challenges young Londoners and their families often face and work alongside them to secure the safety and positive outcomes they want for their children and family. You will be expected to provide robust risk and needs assessments that reflect the contexts within which harm has occurred, and to work collaboratively with partnership agencies to reduce risk and secure services and support. The context that many children and their families are living within can be challenging and a key part of your role is to support families to manage their own emotional wellbeing in what can be difficult circumstances. Alongside this, you should be able to demonstrate how you manage your own wellbeing to enable us to offer the very best services to parents and carers.

Key responsibilities:

• Delivering effective one-to-one support to families in line with Safer London's Service models and in collaboration with them so that their voice is at the centre of all we do, and they receive the support they need.
• Carrying out robust risk assessments and strengths-based needs assessments, with safeguarding as the priority, to ensure the most appropriate intervention is offered and risks are managed and escalated appropriately.
• Accurately maintaining essential records, ensuring high-quality case recording, utilising our in-house bespoke case recording system.
• Completing reports (which may be shared with statutory bodies such as the police, courts, and children social care, and which can be shared with the family that accurately reflect the work undertaken in a professional manner.
• Maintaining effective communication, both written and verbal, whether this is virtual or face-to-face.
• Identifying and completing risk assessments for spaces, places and services where families and young Londoners feel safe enough to engage in meaningful interventions/activities.
• Making appropriate onward referrals and signposting children, young people and their families to support services and positive activities as and when required.
• Where necessary, advocating for them to get the services they are entitled to.
• Working with partners, communities and other key stakeholders to deliver the service effectively.
• Acting in accordance with safeguarding legislation and guidance in addition to Safer London's practice guidelines and wider pan-London processes and protocols.
• Undertaking any other duties as required and commensurate with the level of this post.

Person Specification:

• Relevant qualification in social care, health, youth/community work, criminal justice or demonstrable equivalent experience - e.g. Registered and Qualified Social Worker (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Experience of managing complex safeguarding issues with children, young people, families and adults at risk, including being able to demonstrate effective partnerships working (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• Experience of working with and effectively engaging children and young people in trusting relationships (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Extensive knowledge of the impact of context on children, young people and adults, with a clear understanding of the principles of contextual safeguarding (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• Experience of high-quality case recording (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Recognition of the importance of resilience in coping with the emotional demands of the role and demonstrable experience of managing your own wellbeing (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, in order to communicate and influence a wide range of internal and external colleagues on matters relation to the service, and produce reports for a variety of audiences (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• IT literate (Excel, Outlook, Word etc.) and experience of using databases (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• Knowledge of best practice around contextual safeguarding and those experiencing harm outside the home (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Knowledge of trauma-informed practice and how trauma - including from their own lives - can impact on how practitioners manage cases (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Knowledge of best practice in and understanding of the importance of good quality care (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview)
• Knowledge of safeguarding legislation (Essential, assessed at Application/Interview/Test)
• Commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and experience of applying these principles in the workplace.
• Ability to demonstrate, with examples, your alignment to Safer London's values.
• Ability to prioritise own workload and work without close supervision.
• Ability to be flexible with work location.
• Ability to draw on a range of strategies to support your wellbeing, help you cope with pressure and ambiguity and continue to build resilience.

Additional Considerations:

We are committed to protecting and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect anyone who works and volunteers with us to share this commitment. An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is required for this role. The successful candidate will be required to travel to different locations around London. Safer London Caseworkers sometimes work extended hours to meet the needs of young Londoners/parents/carers. Therefore, the successful candidate may occasionally be required to work evenings. Safer London is an agile working organisation. This means employees are able to work from different locations, e.g. from home, our office premises and community locations such as libraries/co-working spaces, where the work allows. Agile working arrangements will be agreed with the line-manager. Safer London understands that resilience is a skill that can be learnt over time and recognises and supports the role of self-care in developing resilience.