Job Description for Young Fathers’ and Supervised Contact Practitioner

Responsible to:Senior Manager for Young Parents’ Outreach Service

General Aims

  1. To ensure appropriate support is available to fathers and mothers in the ante-natal and post-natal period.
  2. To enable young fathers to access mainstream services, particularly those which support the health and development of their children.
  3. To support early bonding between young fathers and their babies, helping young families to function.
  4. To address issues of domestic abuse and work to prevent further incidents.
  5. To encourage young fathers involvement in their local community, and their ability to use the facilities available within the community.
  6. To implement the programme in culturally sensitive ways, recognising the diversity of Lambeth.
  7. To train professionals raising their awareness of the needs of young fathers and how to make their services more accessible.
  8. Through work with young fathers to reduce the number of repeat pregnancies.
  9. To support the delivery of a supervised contact service for parents and their children, which may include extended family members.

General

  1. To work in partnership with young fathers, voluntary and statutory services.
  2. To develop a service, which is sensitive to the cultural needs of all sectors of the community, ensuring the work promotes equality and multi-cultural practices.
  3. To liaise with colleagues, in particular young parents midwifery teams, Health Visitors and social workers, ensuring that young fathers receive services appropriate to their needs within the ante-natal and post-natal period.
  4. To find out and keep abreast of developments within the local community.
  5. To acquire knowledge of resources appropriate to the needs of young fathers and their children.
  6. To keep abreast of current legislation which informs and prescribes the work, in particular the Children Act 1989 and 2004, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013, Safeguarding Children procedures and the Common Assessment Framework. .
  7. To work in accordance with the Fellowship’s Health & Safety Policy.
  8. To work in accordance with the Fellowship’s Equal Opportunities Policy.
  9. To work flexible hours to meet the needs of young families to include occasional weekends.
  10. To perform such additional tasks as may be required by your supervisor.

Work with young families

  1. To identify young fathers under 25 years of age, in particular by liaising with Midwives, Health Visitors, and by using creative methods to target hard-to-reach parents.
  2. To offer young fathers a one-to-one service that addresses their individual needs such as housing, benefits, training or job opportunities.
  3. To work as an advocate for young fathers as appropriate.
  4. To work with colleagues to offer mediation work to young couples where appropriate.
  5. To enable young fathers to develop the skills of parenting and independent living.
  6. To raise awareness amongst young fathers of the value and importance of early involvement with their children.
  7. To explore with young fathers-to-be what fatherhood means.
  8. To raise awareness amongst young fathers of Domestic Violence and its impact on the child and to co-facilitate the Caring Dads programme.
  9. To encourage young fathers-to-be to support one another through the development of a young fathers’ group.
  10. To develop and facilitate a group that promotes the engagement of fathers and their children.
  11. To refer families to children’s social care where there are concerns that there may be a risk of significant harm to a child, working in partnership with the parent.
  12. Where it is necessary to compile reports, to share the contents with the parent before wider distribution.
  13. To be sensitive to the needs and requirements of parents or children with special needs, such as disabilities, learning disabilities, gay or lesbian parents or parents who are care leavers.
  14. To work sensitively with non-resident parents having contact with their children ensuring that as far as possible the experience is positive for the children.

Administration

  1. To keep records of all planning for support groups and outcomes.
  2. To record planning for training, detailing programme, exercises and resources.
  3. To complete monitoring forms and database entries as required.
  4. To write reports as necessary.
  5. To attend child protection conferences, planning meetings, core group meetings, reviews, working agreement meetings etc. as necessary.
  6. To develop systems with line manager for evaluating the service to young fathers.
  7. To provide concise, relevant and accurate recordings of contact sessions in a timely fashion.

Staff Development

  1. To attend supervision with line manager, and yearly appraisal sessions, participating in the production of own appraisal.
  2. To attend appropriate training courses as arranged in order to meet those training needs identified by appraisal and to enhance professional development and skills in line with the Fellowship’s training policy.
  3. To attend team meetings.

These are the normal duties which the employer requires at the date of appointment. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible and all employees may be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by the employer for the efficient running of the organisation.

This job description does not form part of the contract of employment.