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Family Support Co-ordinator - Cheshire East (Crewe, Congleton, Macclesfield, Sandbach)

Cornerstone Resources Ltd are recruiting for this role on behalf of our clients Pure Insight www.pure-insight.org.uk

17.5 hours to be worked over a min 3 days - please note that whilst there will be occasional weekends / evenings required, this role could be worked flexibly, including during school hours

This role is based in Cheshire East and requires significant face to face interaction and therefore successful applicants MUST live within 1 hour drive of the area. Please note that this role is not suitable for hybrid working.

Are you passionate about supporting young parents (who are also care leavers) to thrive through delivering practical support to them and their children (often in their own homes) to learn skills and develop confidence in parenting. This is a face-to-face outreach role which also involves supporting young parents who have children on child in need or child protection plans to have a voice (through advocacy) and access to the resources/support they need to flourish and keep young families together wherever possible. Working in partnership with other health and social care professionals to get the best outcomes for young families is another key area. This role also utilises volunteers from the local community who require training and support to offer short term wrap around support or long-term support offers to young families in their local community.

It takes a village to raise a child – would you like to be part of growing our village in Cheshire East?

The need

Young Care leavers are some of the most vulnerable young people in our society; many leave school with few qualifications and a significant number are unemployed, living in inadequate housing, and experience poor health and levels of poverty. Nationally 25% of female care leavers become parents between 16 -18 years of age and 50% by the age of 24.

Adjusting to parenthood must happen simultaneously whilst they are still in the process of transitioning out of care or adapting to independent living. Coping with the stressful demands of learning to take care of themselves and a baby at such a young age, whilst often still struggling to make sense of unstable, often chaotic childhoods, can leave little space for engaging with services in the wider community. Instead, many care leavers struggle with poor self-esteem. Isolated and lonely, they may lack the confidence, social skills and social network to join new parenting groups in their community.

Additionally, time spent in the care system can make care leavers reluctant to ask for and accept support. Becoming a parent can be the most rewarding experience in the world, but all parents need support networks to thrive as a family.

The post of Parent Coordinator is an established role. The role is to take full responsibility for certain aspects of the projects work, as detailed below. All duties are to be carried out in line with current operating policies and procedures and any procedures of the partnership agency. In the first instance the post holder reports to the area manager.

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  To develop trusting relationships with young parents (care leavers).
• Work alongside the family to identify what support they feel will meet their needs and create a plan around this.
• To take responsibility for volunteer recruitment, training, selection and matching via the existing mentoring programme, identifying volunteers passionate about supporting young families.
• To deliver volunteer supervision, evaluation and support, including some out of hours activity.
• Liaise and work in partnership with professionals in health and social care and other local organisations around the needs of the parents.
• To ensure that all live documents Care Leaver Parent Referral, Family Plan and Risk Assessment, monitoring data and case notes are completed and recorded electronically.
• To interpret monitoring data and produce and present evaluation reports, share good practice - the voice of children and parents is central to this.
• Identify and train a team of Pure Insight volunteers who will take on different roles depending on their strengths and skills.
• To ensure that there is clear definition of the roles and expectations of each person within the Plan.
• To effectively manage the Plan through the provision of accessible sound advice, practical and emotional support including a WhatsApp group for the Angels Team and regular communication with the care experienced parent.
• To review the progress and development of the plan at the end of the agreed timeframe, record the outcome and identify further support needs where required.
• Provide advocacy in formal meetings such as child protection, team around the child and support parents to engage with statutory services in their lives.
• Support parents to access other support in the community.
• Deliver Pure Insight parent support groups via face to face and online, also explore peer support options locally – give and receive approach.
• To liaise with referral agencies, build and maintain positive relationships to ensure the best possible outcomes for young families.
• To provide information and advice to other project staff on specific areas of project activity that the post holder has responsibility for.
• To cover any appropriate aspect of other team members roles in their absence.
• To contribute to the development and promotion of Pure Insight.
• To be self-administrating.
• To contribute to meeting project or departmental targets and objectives.
• To take part in regular supervision with line manager.
• To participate in the general development of the organisation through meetings, training and attendance of other events.
• To carry out any other duties within the scope of the post.

The ideal candidate will have the following:

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  Resilience.
• Be self-motivating and self-administrating.
• Experience of coordinating a project.
• Experience of managing volunteers or a team.
• Excellent understanding of Safeguarding Procedures.
• Excellent understanding of child development/positive parenting strategies (experience or knowledge).
• Excellent understanding of the issues faced by young people in care and care leavers/care leaver parents (experience or knowledge).
• Minimum of 2 years experience working with vulnerable or disengaged groups/parents/children.
• Willing to deliver training.
• Ability to form trusting relationships with young people.
• Passionate and committed to improving the lives of young parents (care leavers) and their children.
• Open minded.
• Non-judgemental and non-assuming.
• Ability to be solutions focussed and has a “Can Do” positive attitude.
• Excellent listening, communication and organisational skills.
• Ability to write and present reports.
• Ability to use Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
• Ability to use Social Media and manage social media groups.
• Ability to self motivate and lone work.
• Good team player, willing to cover and support team.
• Flexible and adaptable to changes in service requirements.
• Prepared to work evenings and weekends when required (infrequently and planned in advance).
• Car driver and has the use of car for work.

PLEASE CAN YOU ATTACHED A COVERING LETTER TO YOUR CV STATING WHY YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE ABOVE ROLE.

CLOSING DATE - 13th March 2023*

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  Please note, we encourage all those interested in applying, to send in their application as soon as possible and not wait until the closing date as if we receive sufficient applications we may hold the interviews earlier.