Background and Service Specifics
Sandwell Family Hubs: Black Country Locality
Barnardo's is proud to lead the delivery of Sandwell Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies across the Borough. These hubs provide a wide range of high-quality, locally designed services for families in the six town areas:
Oldbury, Smethwick, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich.
Our commitment is to create strong, resilient communities by:
- Promoting easy access to services
- Reducing barriers to engagement
- Building lasting connections with families
The Role of the SfL Practitioner
Responsible for: No line management responsibility, however, will support volunteers and students.
Responsible to: Team Manager for SfL
Job Purpose: To provide services and support for perinatal mental health, parent infant relationships and infant feeding during first 1001 days.
Your base location and designated towns will be agreed upon appointment.
Objectives/key activities
In addition to duties outlined in the generic job description, the SfL Practitioner will be expected to:
- Deliver focussed activity for antenatal stages through to the age of 2
- Provide activities and deliver sessions promoting healthy Parent-Baby and Parent-Infant relationships
- Have meaningful contact with families of new babies, welcoming them to Family Hubs and providing information
- Delivery of universal access sessions to support perinatal mental health and parent infant relationship.
- Ensure a wellbeing telephone calls are completed for all identified families and connecting to Family Hubs
- Organise and deliver events such as cluster-based ‘bump to baby'
- Help, encourage and connect families with 1001 initiatives.
- Support with Early Identification of need, connecting families to appropriate services including internal services; Early Years, Family Support, Father's service, Health and Wellbeing and wider family hub network provision
- To have an understanding of identification and support pathways to Family Support for neglect and reducing parental conflict
- Promotion of ELT/NEF
- Provision of Baby Bundles to care experienced young parents, encouraging access to antenatal services and Family Hubs.
- To complete Unicef Baby-Friendly training, promoting initiatives, infant feeding, breast pump loan scheme and connecting to Breast Feeding Network
- To actively engage in reflective case and personal supervision, Performance Growth Cycles and be responsible for updating learning, implementing into practice and develop skills to meet service needs.
- To participate as part of wider rota for Saturday/evening service delivery
- Undertake additional duties consistent with the role and services objectives.
values.
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
- *T&C's apply based on contract
- Reference number:23718
- Job Title:Start for life Practitioner
- Location:Smethwick
- Locality:Sandwell
- Contract type:Permanent (Fixed term funded post)
- End date:31/03/2029
- Hours:28.5
- Salary:£26,003.00 FTE
- Closing Date:24 September 2026
- Interview Date:To be confirmed
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