Families First Co-ordinator

Job Title: Families First Coordinator

Salary: £31,537 progressing to £34,434 pa - pay award pending

Hours: Full time - 37 hours per week

Location: Office BaseStevenage, covering Districts of St Albans & Dacorum

Contract type: Permanent

Do you enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, offering support, guidance, and training to professionals?

About the team

The Supporting Families Partnership Team deliver training, support, advice and guidance to professionals supporting families through early help intervention to ensure that they are receiving the right support at the right time from the right services.

This Supporting Families Partnership Team sits within Supporting Families in Children’s Services, delivering early help training and support to Families First Practitioners across Hertfordshire. The role will not be working directly with families but supporting those that do.

About the role

The Families First Coordinator will support partners and practitioners with information on core offers of services available, supporting them to navigate around the district and be knowledgeable about services. They will be visible throughout their designated districts and provide Early Help support including 1:1 coaching and support to all key worker’s supporting families across Hertfordshire.

As a Families First Coordinator, you will be required to deliver group and 1:1 training to Professionals across Hertfordshire both virtually and in person. You will hold Early Help Consultations with external partners, providing support and guidance around concerns that do not meet threshold for safeguarding, but where intervention is required. You will attend FFA Support Meetings, Team Around the Family Meetings which you may be required to Chair and or minute take. You will deliver Early Help Module System Training and ongoing support and guidance around using the system to evidence impact and undertake Families First Assessments (FFA’s). While you will not be undertaking direct work with families, you will be required to meet with them to help identify their needs and assist their Key Worker to undertake a Families First Assessment with the family and devise a SMART Action Plan to help meet the family’s needs.

This is fast-paced environment requiring you to be organised and able to move quickly between different priorities for different partners and families, while maintaining up to date records. The Families First Coordinator will need to be confident in recognising and responding to risk, referring to Hertfordshire’s Continuum of Need to support your decision-making, and continuously focus on improving outcomes for families.

Training and development opportunities are plentiful, to support your direct work with families; potentially including facilitating group-based interventions.

About you

Below are the essential skills and experience we are looking for.

Essential:

• Experience of working with children, young people and families to achieve positive outcomes.
• Knowledge and sound understanding of Integrated Practice and Multi-agency working to deliver Early Help, with the confidence to communicate across various levels.
• Experience and knowledge of using the Early Help Module System (EHM).
• Outcome focused, with excellent attention to detail using your experience in report writing to help identify needs and strengths, which in turn will help to produce action plans from the supplied assessments.
• Experience of managing professional conflict and difficult conversations using your negotiation skills for effective partnership working, and the ability to problem solve.
• Self-motivated, with the ability to manage conflicting priorities understanding the importance of the roles others play in achieving a desired outcome.
• Experience in effective stakeholder engagement across a variety of services and agencies.
• Excellent digital literacy including proficiency in Microsoft.
• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle, as you will be expected to transport yourself between appointments and meetings.

Desirable:

• Previous experience of delivering training would be beneficial but is not essential.
• Familiarity of taking minutes and chairing meetings would be an advantage.

The role does not require a social work qualification.

Why join us?
This is an opportunity for you to develop positive working relationships with a range of professionals and allow you to be an active part in supporting them to help change the lives of the families they work with for the better, ensuring positive sustainable change to local communities across Hertfordshire.

For an informal discussion and more information please contact:

Helen Whyman, Senior Families First Co-ordinator Tel: 01438 844746

helen.Whyman1@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Or

Mandi Tsamados, Senior Families First Co-ordinator Tel: 01992555808

mandi.tsamados@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Interview date: 29th and 30th July

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 8. Please locate the job profile here:

Job profiles - Health and social care

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

We are changing
Hertfordshire County Councilis undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.

LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.