Job Description

Family Services Worker –HMPPS Families and Significant Other Services

Job Title: / Family Services Worker - Prisons
Salary Range/Grade: / £16,491 - £17,419 rising to £18,070 per annum pro rata (salary based on a 37 hour working week)
Hours: / Flexible working on a rota is required, including regular weekend working.
Work base: / HMP BURE
Reporting To: / Family Services Manager
Responsible for: / No direct line reports.
Main Purpose of Job:
  • To provide a welcoming and professional first point of contact for Families and Visitors inPrisons
  • To provide administrative support in efficiently dealing with enquiries and responding to challenges and individual circumstances for the prisonvisiting serviceactivities.
  • Maintain the reception and booking facilities for all visits to prisoners to include taking email and telephone bookings using the prison PNOMIS computer system where required.
  • To support the prison visiting serviceensuring the environment is safe, clean and able to fulfil its service requirements including maintaining and restocking facilities and communication materials in a flexible and responsive manner.
  • To work with families and other agencies to assess, provide and co-ordinate interventions to meet identified support needs of families with children and or requiring support.
  • To work with prisoners both on an individual and group work basis, liaising with other agencies both within the prisoner and the community

Performance Fundamentals:
Spurgeons has identified three performance fundamentals applicable to all roles in the organisation:
  • Providing Excellent Services
  • Managing Self and Others
  • Managing Resources
All job tasks and competencies are aligned with these performance fundamentals.
Performance Indicators and Targets:
  • Safeguarding incident reporting to timescale
  • Customer satisfaction is 85% or above
  • Delivery of service as set out in contract
  • 100% Health and Safety Accident reporting
  • Compliance with organisation audits and internal reporting requirements
  • Full compliance with Complaints policy

Providing Excellent Services
  1. To provide a high standard of reception services where all prison servicevisitors(children, parents, carers, family,professionals and other agencies)are warmly met and welcomed to the service.
  1. To be responsive and effectively communicate with visitor centre service users (families of prisoners, including children and young people), colleagues, professionals and other agencies face-to-face and through electronic message systems. This includes being responsive in listening to visitors on a 1-to-1 basis who may be distressed, forwarding them on to relevant staff member, providing intervention and accurately recording case for follow up as required.
  1. To support the service in the co-ordination of the Visits offer and responding to change within the day-to-day running of the visiting environment (eg. parking, pushchairs, support with lockers, cleaning up as required, use of meeting rooms – this list is not exhaustive).
  1. To work within the ethos and procedures of Spurgeons which include safeguarding, confidentiality, anti-discriminatory practice, and Health and Safety, effectively building and managing case files as appropriate.
  1. To adhere to security policies, have a good relationship with prison staff to ensure the efficient reception and support of visitors which includes: Visits staff team; Prison booking staff; Security staff
  1. To work flexibly and deliver services across the Spurgeons as directed, including partaking in play and catering elements of the service as requested by the Family Services Manager.
Managing Self and Others
  1. To confidently use office equipment within occupational and safety guidelines and ensure the office/reception facility is an effective environment for all using it, this includes the administering of parking and traffic challenges linked to the service.
  1. To use IT software including word processing, spreadsheet and web-based software to produce required documents for use within the service. This includes operating within Spurgeons financial systems as required.
  1. To be an effective team member who is able to work in the service environment, able to communicate and negotiate appropriately and professionally with service users, colleagues and multi-agency partners, contributing to the running of the service, responding to ongoing change and solving problems within the service.
  1. To be responsible for own performance, regularly identifying areas to improve own performance, attending regular monthly supervision, participating in appraisals and undertaking identified learning and development identified in Personal Development Plan.
Managing Resources
  1. To perform service administrative tasks including capturing service user information, storing, retrieving and archiving information;administering case file records; managing service diary; handling mail and mailouts; maintain and order stationary stock and service products.
  1. To collate, organise and report data using systems required by the service, including performance monitoring tools and internal performance report card data tracker.

Person Specification
Attainments / In order to be considered for this post you will have to demonstrate that you already have: / Criteria

Qualifications

/ General education to GCSE standard including Maths and English Language
NVQ 3 Health and Social Care or relevant field
Evidence of recent and ongoing professional development/training relevant to the post / E
E / D

Experience

/ Experience of working in a team environment
Experience of customer service and reception duties
Experience of collating and maintaining computerised statistical and monitoring information
Experience of advocating on behalf of families and engaging in the delivery of family support
Working within secure, confidential and data protection boundaries
Experiencing of facilitating group sessions/family support programmes / E
E
E
E
E / D

Work Based Knowledge

/ An understanding of the needs of families affected by imprisonment
An understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and procedures
Awareness of Health & Safety practice in a service environment
Some working knowledge of sourcing supplies and services, obtaining quotes, orders, purchasing, checking and invoice processing, handling petty cash / E / D
D
D

Skills

/ Demonstrates IT skills and ability to use Microsoft Office, Word, Excel and Outlook
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills – effective with a range of people within the service setting
Demonstrates an excellent customer service approach
Demonstrably accurate, methodical and organisedin an office and service environment
Proficient time management skills
Skills in collating, sharing and interpreting data / E
E
E
E
E / D

Special Job

Circumstances

/ This post has the following special circumstances:
Regular travel within the designated service region
Flexible approach to hours due to possible travel and supporting the needs of colleagues and service users. This includes weekend and evening work.
Appointment is subject to prison security clearance.
Note: If you have difficulty in meeting these conditions because of a disability or family circumstances, the Chair of panel will discuss it with you in order to consider reasonable adjustments to the job or working conditions. / E
E
E

Competencies (expected behaviours)

Within the main performance fundamentals Spurgeons identified ten core competencies that describe expected behaviours for which staff are required to work within, at the level of their role. For eachpost there are essential competencies that are key in ensuring the role is done effectively which are complemented by desirable competencies.

Please refer to Spurgeons Competency Framework for detailed descriptions.

Competencies / Level / Job Critical Competencies / Other Core Competencies
PROVIDING EXCELLENT SERVICES
Focusing on the Customer
To meet customers’ (service users and colleagues) needs and aims to continuously improve the services they provide to make sure customers receive an excellent service. / 2 / X
Safeguarding People
To ensure that all service users are appropriately safeguarded and that all staff are kept safe whilst working; safeguarding being always recognised as of paramount importance. / 2 / X
Delivering Outcomes
To ensure agreed outcomes are delivered in the most efficient and timely way by embracing a creative and entrepreneurial approach. / 2 / X
MANAGING SELF AND OTHERS
Providing Direction
Leading and providing direction to individuals, supporting and enabling them to make a positive contribution to the current purpose and future vision of the organisation. / 2 / X
Working as a Team
To work effectively with other people and use the diversity of the team to create a working environment which helps achieve the tasks. / 2 / X
Developing Self and Others
To behave ethically and professionally within your role, being aware of your own and other people’s strengths and weaknesses, and take steps to learn, develop and achieve high levels of performance in yourself and others. / 2 / X
Embracing Change
To embrace change effectively within services and departments through reflective, motivating and flexible leadership and team working. / 2 / X
Communication
To ensure the effective use of written and oral communication skills to convey information and ideas to individuals and teams within and outside the organisation and create opportunities for individuals to respond and provide feedback. / 2 / X
MANAGING RESOURCES
Making Evidence Based Decisions
To identify and use various sources of evidence, making meaning of it to understand how relevant and valid it is, to enable effective decision making that improves performance and delivers outcomes. / 2 / X
Planning and Managing Resources
To make sure the organisation delivers its key priorities, tasks and forecasts; effectively manage risks, relationships and use resources in efficient ways to deliver outcomes. / 2 / X

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