Job Description
Job Title: Parent Carer Participation Worker
Grade: NJC Scale Point 29-34
Responsible to: Amaze CEO
Hours of Work: 12 hours per week
Amaze provides information, advice and support services to families with disabled children (learning disabilities, mental health need, physical disabilities or complex health needs) in Brighton and Hove. We are committed to listening to the needs and experiences of parent carers in order to shape our own services but also to try to positively influence the design, development and delivery of services to disabled children across the city.
We know that ‘co-producing’ services with parents from the start (parent participation) improves services for disabled children as:
• It minimises waste - parents get involved in service planning and decision making so that services meet the needs of families with disabled children and resources are not wasted on services which parents and families do not take up.
• It can help save money. There are examples of how it has produced simple, low cost solutions to local problems
• It leads to realistic expectations. Effective parent participation is based on joint working between parents and professionals. This enables parents and professionals to develop a shared view of how services can best be provided to support families. Informed parents are generally realistic about their expectations and the reality of delivering services within funding limitations
• It offers parents opportunities to build new skills and transfer old ones, often leading to further opportunities in employment, training and volunteering.
Supported by Amaze, the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC) is the parent carer forum representing the needs of these children and their families. It is the ‘voice’ arm of Amaze and encourages debate, questioning and partnership working with key services aiming to maximise our children’s opportunities to flourish by working with all organisations to champion equality and raise standards of services and support for carer families. The Parent Carer Participation Worker’s chief role will be to support the PaCC to run effectively ensuring our parent participation work delivers the above benefits.
Main Purpose of the Job
The purpose of this role is to promote the benefits and value of, and develop best practice in, co-producing services for disabled children with their parent carers, extending the involvement of parents in decision making and service planning. In particular via:
a. Providing support to the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC)
b. Building relationships and developing good practice with key services locally (including local parent support groups) and with regional and national colleagues
c. Managing the Parent Partnership Charter assessment and feedback process
d. Parent Participation in Amaze
A. Providing support to the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC)
1. To support and develop an inclusive and representative parent carer forum in Brighton and Hove (the PaCC) ensuring it identifies and responds to the needs of local parent carers.
2. To develop the governance structure, roles and responsibilities of the PaCC, providing support and supervision to the elected co-chairs of the PaCC, their elected steering group members and other parent carer representatives.
3. To support the co-chairs to effectively run the PaCC steering group meetings: developing agreed priorities/strategic plan, ensuring there are transparent decision making processes and clear lines of communications.
4. To ensure all elected parent ‘representatives’ are supported to attend and contribute to decision making/strategic meetings (including pre-meetings/debriefs). This will include providing coaching support or arranging training where necessary, to develop the skills and confidence of parent ‘reps’.
5. To specifically target parents whop are isolated and seldom heard e.g. those from black minority ethnic communities, travellers, dads, parents with mental health problems of their own (and others) and to work with them (and others in Amaze) to identify their needs. To also provide, as appropriate, ways in which these ‘harder to reach’ groups can either access or develop a ‘voice’ to express their views.
6. To support the PaCC in writing up findings from focus groups and events into appropriate report formats.
7. To manage the effective use of social media to support and promote the aims of the PaCC.
8. Act as the first port of call for all enquiries about the PaCC and PaCC events.
B. Building relationships and developing good practice
1. Working with the Amaze CEO, identify and build relationships with key statutory services and practitioners locally e.g. Schools, Health, Social Care, Integrated Youth Services, as well as other voluntary sector organisations and groups within the City in order to ensure a robust parent participation network.
2. Identify ways in which consultation opportunities are maximised within the statutory services, creating opportunities for open debate and discussion in decision making processes – developing roles for parent carers on relevant strategic, decision-making or service delivery/monitoring groups across the city as resources allow and where parent participation is valued and effective.
3. To attend and contribute to regional and national groups representing parent carer forums and to research good practice in other areas and consider improvements locally.
4. To project manage events, such as training seminars, workshops, conferences and network events. Aim to plan one large PaCC event every 18-24 months.
5. To ensure all project work with partners is designed and delivered in ways that empower parents and assist them to develop their skills and confidence to care for their children.
C. Managing the Parent Partnership Charter assessment and feedback process
1. Develop, maintain, train, support and supervise a team of Parent Ambassadors to carry out the assessments.
2. Make links with service providers prior to the Partnership assessment to explain the purpose of the assessment and the part it plays in the service development. Following the assessment give feedback to the service about the strengths identified and the areas for improvement in partnership working.
3. Take a lead on the strategic development of the Partnership Charter by meeting with the planning team six monthly to identify services to be assessed and make adjustments to the on-going project as required.
4. Liaise with services on an ad hoc basis to support their continuous improvement and use of the Partnership Charter.
D. Parent Participation in Amaze
1. To research and assist with funding applications for parent participation and project monitoring and reporting, by assisting with project costings and maintaining spending within agreed budgets.
2. To monitor the impact of parent participation activities and write the relevant sections on Participation/PaCC for the Amaze newsletter, annual reports and for funders. Regularly report back on the impact of their participation to parents through variety of communication channels.
3. To maintain accurate paper and database records on all event activities (including budgets and correspondence) and prepare detailed post-event evaluations.
4. To oversee the delivery and support of the organisation’s parent participation work, encouraging innovation and improvement throughout.
5. To regularly provide the CEO and Trustees with project work updates.
6. To ensure compliance with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements and in particular those specified by the Charity Commission, Companies House, Health and Safety and the Data Protection Act
7. To work within the Amaze Policies and Procedures.
8. To demonstrate and promote a commitment to professional development, team working and the principles of equal opportunities.
Revised and updated May’13