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About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SHOFA’S MARKET

Children’s Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where courageous and inspiring professionals bring everything to their work.

Sometimes this even includes heartbreak. Shofa is a shining example. Shofa’s brother suffered with his mental health and died tragically young. She uses his memory as motivation to give Westminster Youth Council members the opportunity to have a voice and get involved in decision making. This passion resulted in in her innovation: The Westminster Youth Market. Here local teenagers learn about entrepreneurship and develop their personal skills. This is an inclusive platform where everyone’s contribution and abilities are celebrated. Inspired by a promising life cut short, Shofa believes without vision there is no direction and every young person should be supported to realise their dreams.

Please view the extraordinary story of Shofa’s Market here.

The Role:

As a Family Practitioner you can make your own powerful contribution by undertaking meaningful and intensive work with families who are experiencing significant challenges – all while developing your skills in an innovative range of techniques

Taking on a manageable caseload of families (with children aged 10-18) who are experiencing significant difficulties and disadvantages, you will have the scope to transform multiple life outcomes. First and foremost, we want you to be able to support everyone who comes to our attention, so we will provide you with sector-leading training in a variety of approaches, including compassion focussed therapy (CFT), trauma-informed approaches, systemic family therapy, non-violent resistance (NVR), and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). With this knowledge – which will constantly be updated to meet the needs of the young people that you are working with – you will work collaboratively with families from a vast array of backgrounds. Building the relationships they need to keep children out of the care system, you will be focused on improving parenting skills, improving relationships at home, increasing school attendance and/or employment options, and reducing re-referrals to our social care colleagues.

The families we work with are often labelled as ‘hard to work with’ and are affected by challenges such as poor mental health and other safeguarding issues such as substance misuse and domestic violence – but with your support, they will have the chance to secure better futures for themselves and their families. One post will also take a leading role in working with young people using CBT training and funded activities on the “Your Choice” pilot programme, aimed to divert young people from youth violence.

Working collaboratively as part of a multi-agency network, you will connect with social work teams, CAMHS and schools as you assess the needs of each family and determine the best interventions for their individual needs. Seeing each family up to three times a week, you will work with them both in their own homes and in the community, delivering one-to-one sessions, parenting work, whole family therapy and group work. This will also include working with younger children in these families as needed. Across all that you do, you will maintain a close eye on safeguarding issues and you will manage risk, recording your work on the relevant database.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

With the support of a friendly, dynamic and experienced team that includes a dedicated Clinical Psychologist, this is a unique chance to deliver creative integrated solutions to families who often have highly complex needs and vulnerabilities – as such, the scope for job satisfaction is immense. To be equal to the challenge, you will therefore have experience of working with families from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds who have complex needs, and it is desirable that you have a recognised qualification in a related discipline (e.g. family support, early years, youth work, youth justice, social care). With the capacity to assess individual cases and manage identified areas of risk, you will enjoy working in partnership with multi agency colleagues to support children and young people and devise and deliver the services they need to excel in life.

It goes without saying that you will have exceptional verbal and written communication skills, and that you will have the ability to work sensitively with families – but you will also be a resilient individual who can manage boundaries. You will also have the flexibility to work later than your core hours on occasion in order to suit the needs of individual families, and you will have a good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, with great analytical capabilities.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to over 250,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.