Job Title:Family Support Coordinator

Team:Family Services

Reports To:Family Services Manager

Cardinal Basil Hume founded the Centre in 1986; we offer a diverse range of services for homeless young people, families in need and the local community on one site. Focusing on four areas of need - income, housing, education and skills, and legal status - the Centre enables people to gain the skills they need to overcome poverty and homelessness. The Centre has a person focused approach to its work, providing one to one support to clients where desired, challenging and supporting them to articulate and achieve their stated goals. With an annual income in the region of £2.3 million, there are currently 54 staff members. In addition, the Centre benefits from the generous and diverse contribution of volunteers; there are currently some 130 active volunteers.

Our front line staff are dedicated to helping each client on their personal journey of development. The Centre provides childcare and family support, ESOL, IT and basic skills sessions, a range of advice and support services including employment, immigration, housing and money management advice alongside our residential services. We have active partnerships with a range of organisations and agencies, which support and complement our internally delivered services. Finally, there is a fully-fledged Medical Surgery on site.

Key Purpose:

To develop, oversee and support the delivery of parenting and family support services in order that low income and vulnerable families have improved access to services, employment opportunities and life chances.

Key tasks:

  • To develop a schedule of Family Support and Out-of-School activities that responds to the needs of low income and vulnerable families within south Westminster.
  • To play an active role in the delivery of services as required.
  • To recruit and manage volunteers to support the delivery of these services.
  • Liaise and work closely with Early Years Coordinator, Family Services Manager and other Family Services staff
  • Actively participate In regular family services team meetings
  • To develop and manage relationships with other service providers in Westminster, including statutory and voluntary sector agencies, to deliver these services.
  • To provide support to individual families, referring them to specialist services appropriate to their needs (internal CHC or external organizations)
  • To monitor the progress of services, identifying, and reporting outcomes, achieved as relevant to the service.
  • To participate in the planning and delivery of the Centre’s Holiday activity programmes
  • To play a proactive role in the ongoing development of the Centre’s Family Services.
  • To ensure that all services are delivered in line with the Centre’s policies

Person specification

Essential

  • Childcare/family worker qualification, preferably at NVQ level 6, or equivalent experience
  • Experience of delivering parenting classes using a recognized methodology e.g. triple P, and SFSC
  • Experience of working with children of primary school age
  • Proven experience of working with vulnerable families and children in a non-residential setting
  • Proven experience of participating in multi-agency working to support families
  • Proven experience of dealing with safeguarding/child protection issues
  • Proven experience of supervising staff and/or volunteers
  • Ability to provide leadership and to work as part of a team
  • Proven experience of developing services in response to emerging client needs
  • Ability to develop ideas into functioning services
  • Ability to work using his/her own initiative
  • An effective communicator
  • Familiarity with OFSTED regulations and requirements
  • Ability and willingness to be creative and innovative to ensure that families receive excellent support

Desirable

  • Ability to speak a community language in addition to English – Arabic, Bengali
  • Qualified to train Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities
  • Knowledge of the UK welfare system
  • Experience of drafting donor funding proposals and reports.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Salary: £26,500

Hours: 35 per week over 5 days to meet the needs of services. This may include some Saturdays for which TOIL will be given.

Holidays: 24 days, rising to 26 after one year’s service, and 28 after two years

Notice Period: 4 weeks

Pension: The Centre provides a stakeholder pension scheme and will match employee contributions up to a maximum of 6% after satisfactory completion of probation

Probation Period: 6 months

A Season Ticket Loan is available.

The Centre is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

The Centre requires its staff to recognise the valuable role that volunteers play in the work of the Centre and to welcome and support volunteers with whom they work.

ETHOS

Cardinal Basil Hume, our founder, was a Benedictine monk and the Centre draws particularly on Benedictine teaching looking to welcome ‘as Christ’ each person who comes to the Centre, providing sanctuary and hospitality to people from all backgrounds. We believe that each person is created in the image of God, and is therefore valuable and precious with the right to the fullness of life: In the words of Cardinal Hume: “Each person matters; no human life is redundant”.

WITNESS

The Centre, inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, puts the Gospel message into action by reaching out to and giving practical help to those people in greatest social, economic and personal need.

“The fulfillment which the common good seeks to serve is the flourishing of humanity, expressed in the phrase ‘integral human development’. Such development requires that people are rescued from every form of poverty, from hunger to illiteracy; it requires the opportunities for education, creating a vision of true partnership and solidarity between peoples; it calls for active participation in economic and political processes and it recognises that every human person is a spiritual being with instincts for love and truth and aspirations for happiness.” (Choosing the Common Good, Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales 2010)

VALUES

With integrity we strive to be true to our founding ethos and to living out our vision and mission; we are honest, and we are accountable to our stakeholders.

With respect, we seek to be non-judgemental, to listen, and acknowledge each other's worth and to put people at the centre of our work.

Through compassion we will demonstrate our care for each individual who comes to the Centre in the quality and consistency of the services we offer to them.

To promote inclusiveness we reject social exclusion and welcome diversity; we offer our services regardless of racial origin, of religion or politics; we will not discriminate on the grounds of gender or sexual orientation.

To encourage empowerment we will provide holistic support to our clients in helping them to identify their needs and in making informed choices about their lives.