Senior Support Worker Families Plus 5

Overview

How you\\\’ll make a difference: Working alongside children and families as a Senior Support Worker, you will help them recognise the small steps of progress they make and how they\\\’ve achieved that themselves. Your work will help families get to the point where they are able to do things by themselves, without the need for professional support.

What you will be doing

• Carrying out whole family assessments, providing advice and guidance to families, and establishing plans where appropriate. You\\\’ll ensure that our services are effective and supportive for families with children/young people predominately aged 5-18.
• Reviewing and monitoring early help plans, responding to changing needs and renegotiating where appropriate in accordance with safeguarding procedures.
• Providing support and mentoring to support workers, including those who are new to the team or who need support in a specific area of practice. You may be required to contribute to or lead on an area of specialism within the team or across the wider preventative services.
• Liaising with contacts from different sectors to ensure effective communication so knowledge and best practice are shared. You will be required to travel widely within the authority, so you must either have a current driving licence and provide a car or have access to appropriate means of travel.
• Business insurance will need to be added to your current car insurance policy.
• It is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained for this post. You should hold or be working towards a professional qualification (e.g., degree, NVQ 4 or equivalent) in family work, working with children or education.
• You will have a willingness and ability to communicate and engage with a wide range of people; on occasions this will require you to take time and be patient.
• Given the nature of the role, you must be empathetic and have good judgment, knowing when and how to support, empower, listen, challenge or even step back.
• Given the complexity of working with families and the level of emotions that can be displayed, you must be resilient despite knockbacks and frustrations.
• Interviews will be held on 8 October 2025.

Benefits and environment

• As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
• We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and offering quality, breadth and depth of training and development to make a lasting difference in work.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, ensuring staff have the right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.
• We are building strong team ethos in a relatively small local authority, enabling managers to know staff well, plan services to maintain manageable caseloads, and provide effective supervision to support decision-making for the children and young people they work with.
• We are committed to safeguarding and safeguarding is embedded in our practice across teams.

About the organisation

South Gloucestershire Council is a place where teams are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. We are building and shaping communities we are proud of and working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life. We invest in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.