Bank Waking Nights Family Assessment Worker Kirkby, Knowsley, Merseyside
Location: Kirkby, Knowsley, Merseyside
Accountable to: Senior Family Assessment Worker/ Registered Manager
Pay: £12.45-13.53 per hour dependant on experience
About the company
Lytham Lodge is a brand-new Residential Family Assessment Centre, based in Kirkby (northwest of England). We are part of a wider company which offers residential care to children, who currently cannot live with their parents. The company formed 12 years ago and is owned by the same family to this day. There is a strong commitment and passion to deliver the best service possible to enhance the lives of children.
The company has launched Lytham Lodge in response to seeing firsthand how children struggle when they are separated from their parents. It was felt that if we could support families at the earliest opportunity, there may be a chance to keep more children safely living with their parents; ultimately achieving better outcomes for children. We know from research that children in care have below average outcomes across a range of measures. We also know a delay in decision making regarding a child entering the care system can lead to detrimental outcomes. Therefore, intervening early and offering a concise, evidenced based assessment of parental capacity at the earliest stage can only be a positive measure, speeding up the decision-making process for the child.
Many of the parents that we will support and assess will have faced multiple adverse experiences as children and adults themselves and may not have experienced consistently good enough parenting growing up. As a result of their experiences, parents often do not have a good internal model of what it is to be a parent. They may not be sensitive to the emotional and/or basic care needs of their child due to emotional/psychological trauma that they may have sustained. There will be a variety of reasons why the parents are referred to Lytham Lodge with their young children, this may include a history of neglect, physical or emotional harm, abuse of drugs or alcohol, mental health, learning difficulties, or domestic abuse. We are committed, wherever possible, to providing children, parents, and families with the necessary support and intervention to rectify, address, or improve the difficulties they experience.
Lytham Care has a highly skilled staff force. The Registered Manager has extensive child protection knowledge and has worked as Local Authority social worker and team manager. They fully understand the adversities faced by parents who are at risk of losing their children; and they are fully aware of the pressures faced by local authorities in managing such cases.
The ethos behind Lytham Lodge will be to offer a nurturing and supportive environment to allow parents to demonstrate their parenting capabilities, whilst ensuring the child is always safe.
Mission Statement
'Lytham Lodge will ensure parents are provided with a nurturing and supportive environment to enable them to demonstrate their parenting capabilities and feel able to engage in the assessment process. Children's safety is paramount, and we will ensure they are always safe and thriving during their time with us.'
Description of the role
The role of the Bank Family Assessment Waking Night Support Worker will be to assist with implementing the 'family placement plan' and supporting the children and families during waking night shifts.
Bank Family Assessment Waking Night Support Workers work on a waking night shift basis to provide night time intensive monitoring and support, tailored to each family's specific needs. Observations are carefully recorded of both direct work with families and using our CCTV system. They provide parents with important feedback in a sensitive manner. Whilst thinking about each parent's individual needs, they use encouragement, teaching, modelling, and support skills to help the parents meet the child's physical and emotional needs and complete other parenting tasks.
Bank Family Assessment Waking Night Support Workers record accurate and objective information as part of a residential parenting assessment.
Bank Family Assessment Waking Night Support Worker must show many attributes:
- Be committed to making a positive difference in the lives of some vulnerable children and families
- Hold safeguarding at the heart of their actions and decisions
- Demonstrate empathy throughout their work with families
- Communicate sensitively and have good listening skills
- Build good working relationships with families: break down barriers
- Remain calm under pressure and be able to deal with conflict behaviour
- Have practical knowledge and understanding of child development and the needs of children
- Recognise when they need to seek advice or support
- Engage in the supervision and appraisal process, reflecting on their practice with a commitment to continued professional development
- Help to maintain a clean, hygienic, and homely environment for families
- Work in line with training, a range of policies and procedures, the National Minimum Standards for Residential Family Centres and relevant legislation.
An induction programme is provided for all new colleagues. This includes shadowing opportunities; relevant training; and time with various members of the team to get to know the organisation and assessment process. Regular internal training is provided to ensure that both new and established staff can work safely and confidently.
Working hours:
Bank shifts to cover sickness, annual leave and the needs of the service at that time.
Waking Night: 20:00 - 08:20. There is a twenty-minute overlap of shifts to allow for a handover period.
Qualifications and training
- Level 3 Children & Young People's Workforce Diploma or equivalent qualification achieved. (Please note, we can discuss possible equivalent qualifications with you) or if you are willing to work towards a Level 4 qualification if not already held. Please note that Lytham Lodge will fund this.
- Good communication skills
- Confidence in written skills, as they will be responsible for observing and recording the daily life of the child and parents
- Confidence in relation to intervention skills to safeguard and meet the welfare of children and vulnerable adults
- Experience within a social care/support setting; residential placement working with children and families; and/or early years experience
- A clear DBS history
- Knowledge regarding issues impacting on children and families such as domestic abuse, learning needs, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse
- Knowledge in respect of child development
- Experience in working with families and conflict resolution
- Experience of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
- Understanding of children's rights and diversity
- Car drivers with relevant business insurance
Job Type: Bank
All candidates must have a full work history and 2 references; without this we can unfortunately not consider you for this role.