Job Title:Family Engagement Worker

Salary:£22000 (Pro Rata)

Reports to:Family Engagement Coordinator / Manager

Direct reports: Project volunteers and student placements

Contract:17.5 hrs/week

Context, Job Description & Person Specification

Introduction

The Prison Family Support Alliance is a partnership of four leading charities working in prisons and in the community to reduce re-offending. Together, we support people affected by imprisonment, including prisoners, their children & families, and ex-offenders. We keep families together, strengthen relationships, and work to reduce the risk of people re-offending when they leave prison.

We have joined forces with the long term ambition of placing dedicated specialist ‘Family Engagement Workers’ in every prison in England & Wales.

The aims of the Family Engagement Service are to improve the outcomes for children and families of offenders, to support and foster the maintenance of positive family relationships and champion a ‘Think Family’ approach to reduce re-offending.

Job Purpose

To provide support to ensure that children, families and prisoners are treated with respect, dignity, courtesy and care. To help ensure families are able to gain greater access to support and early help within their local community and services and families work together to decrease the chance of intergenerational crime.

Key tasks, duties and responsibilities

  • Ensure that offenders, their children, carers, and other relatives have access to appropriate information, advice, guidance, learning opportunities, care and support to better enable them to maintain or enhance positive relationships.
  • Develop referral pathways for families, offenders and other professionals and practitioners to access the service as well as information sharing and routes of referral into community based services
  • Provide support and to ensure that children, families and offenders are treated with respect, dignity, courtesy and care.
  • Provide families with information, advice, guidance and signposting to sources of help and information
  • Working with and through prison, and other case managers and key work staff as appropriate, provide support to offenders with regard to family issues, in accordance with prison’s rules and procedures regarding security, safeguarding and public protection, and to support the prison in developing applications, referral process and casework-based approaches.
  • Contribute to case work meetings (case discussion, support and guidance) appropriately and share information to support sentence planning and risk management objectives, to include locally agreed access to case recording systems, including the use of CAF.
  • Work with the Offender Management Unit to ensure an effective and targeted response to identified and assessed offender need and risk and , where appropriate, ensure and enable active family participation in sentence planning and resettlement activity.
  • Engage purposely with the concept and practice of “EVERY CONTACT MATTERS” and in particular ensure the recording of all relevant encounters via the use of appropriate case recording systems, including P-Nomis.
  • Ensure that local agency and LSCB Safeguarding Children policies are adhered to at all times and that children feel welcomed, valued and safe.
  • Actively promote and support the development of extended prison visit arrangements, child-centred visits and all-day family visits appropriate to offending behaviour and risk management considerations.
  • Promote and support the development of good practice, consistent with NOMS Prison and Probation Instructions, Commissioning Intentions and good practice guidance, whilst also securing core delivery requirements to support all offenders` families
  • Support the prison/s and Probation Trusts in developing co-commissioning partnerships with local authorities, in developing and delivering core services for families and also in particular the Troubled Families Programme in England and the Families First and Integrated Family Support Service in Wales, through sharing data where appropriate, good practice and developing effective interventions.
  • Promote opportunities for families of offenders, (where they claim out of work benefits and present complexity of needs), to benefit from the DWP Families with Complex Needs provision and, where appropriate, refer offenders and their families to Employment Benefit Advisors for support and advice.
  • Support the recruitment, vetting, training, and supervision of placements of volunteers drawn from local communities and/or student placements, to support the delivery of services by providing the establishment’s People Hub with necessary / required information.
  • Develop and maintain positive, professional and effective working relationships with local authority officers, prison staff and other partners and providers.
  • Take responsibility for identifying training needs in support of continuous professional development
  • Maintain accurate records as required and records of own annual leave, TOIL and (where appropriate) use of flexi-time.
  • Undertake any other duties commensurate with the post as required.
  • Ensure prison security policies and rules are adhered to by self, staff and volunteers at all times. Personnel must comply at all times with prison security regulations and engage with mandated prison security and health and safety training.

Employee Responsibilities

  1. To behave at all times in a professional manner and to be a good role model to other staff, volunteers, students and our clients;
  2. To adhere to Pact’spolicies and procedures, including confidentiality, safe working practices, equal opportunities, child protection and health and safety;
  3. To be pro-active in keeping up to date with good practice and policies and ensuring that these are communicated and adhered to;
  4. To promote Equality of Opportunity and Diversity through own work;
  5. To attend relevant internal and external meetings;
  6. The post-holder is responsible for their own self-development on a continuous basis, which should be regularly reviewed with their line manager through supervision and appraisal.

Pact is a developing organisation and consequently this job description will be reviewed and duties may change over time

Pact Standards

Equal Opportunities: Pact has a strong commitment to achieving equality of opportunity for all, and expects all employees to implement and promote our policy in their own work.

Health and Safety: Pact is committed to a healthy and safe working environment and expects all our employees to co-operate to implement and promote our policy in all aspects of their work.

Conduct: All staff are required to conduct themselves in a lawful, professional, courteous and respectful manner, in accordance with the charity’s values and ethos and code of conduct. Our work within prisons and other secure establishments, with ex-offenders in the community, and with children and adults with multiple and complex needs, requires all staff to operate at all times with due regard to security, protecting & safeguarding children and adults at risk, and public protection. Pact staff are expected to provide supportive, caring, and non-judgemental services, in accordance with our charitable ethos, but within a clear framework of professional boundaries and conduct which must be maintained at all times. All staff are required to conform with policies and procedures detailed on the Pact intranet, which are outlined to you during induction. It is your responsibility to ensure that you remain familiar with these and are aware of any changes that may occur to them from time to time. You are also required to comply with all rules and regulations as required by the Ministry of Justice, National Offender Management Service, and local rules which may be in force at individual public or private sector prisons or other commissioning bodies. Staff are also required to comply with detailed policies and guidance regarding confidentiality, Data Security and use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), and maintaining privacy of all its staff and service users. Staff are required to ensure that they maintain an up to date awareness of all relevant policies and procedures, and to take a positive approach to their own learning and development.

Service User Participation: People who use our services are at the heart of everything we do. We strive for a culture in which prisoners, ex-offenders and their families are listened to, their opinions are respected and they are actively involved in decision making which leads to change. This change can be in prisoners, ex-offenders and their families (skills, knowledge, development or attitude), the services they get and use and the wider society.

Pact is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults at risk and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Post Title:Family Engagement Worker

  • Items highlightedMUST be referred to in your application

Knowledge, skills and abilities / Selection Criteria / Essential / Desirable
Education / Relevant degree level / professional qualification in social care or equivalent, and or experience / *
Personal Effectiveness / Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
Good negotiation and advocacy skills.
Excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage a demanding work load.
Ability to use initiative
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work in partnership with a range of agencies, at both strategic and operational service delivery level.
Ability to work in a challenging environment and remain calm.
Demonstrable ability to work with diverse group of staff and service users / *
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Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviours / Respect for the values and ethos of Pact.
An awareness of and respect for the founding principles of Pact as an organization created within the Catholic Christian community in England and Wales.
Commitment to working in a manner which respects diversity and promotes equality ensuring that everyone is treated with respect and dignity and no one suffers discrimination.
Willingness to take responsibility for personal development and a positive attitude towards undertaking training and development activities to meet the changing requirements of the project.
Results orientated, flexible, adaptable, with a ‘can do’ attitude. / *
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Other Requirements / Availability to work flexible hours including weekend working.
Ability to travel to attend meetings and events. / *
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Experience
Work with families and disadvantaged groups in a multi agency environment and demonstrable understanding of it.
Interagency work, building partnerships, promoting positive relationships between different agencies, and developing new approaches to service delivery
Casework with clients/service users, and of maintaining clear, up to date records in accordance to the Data Protection Act (1998).
Demonstrable Experience of working in a team and delivering front line services.
Work with volunteers is desirable.

Terms and Conditions:

Length of contract:Fixed Term (August 2017)

Salary: £11,250 pa

Pension:Contributory pension scheme with employee contributions of 1% matched by the employer, enrolment after 3 months of service

Hours of work: 18.75 hours per week

Annual Leave: 30 days annual leave and 8 days Bank Holidays per year (pro rate)

Location: HMP Brixton

Benefits:Employee Assistance Programme, free eye tests, cycle to work scheme, childcare vouchers and season ticket loans.

Pact operates a flexi-time system. Weekend and evening work may be required of the post holder for which Time Off In Lieu is available.

This post is subject to a 6 month probationary period, verification of identity and proven right to work in the UK, satisfactory references from previous employers covering a 3 year period, prison security clearance being granted an enhanced Disclosure (DBS), and a declaration of any criminal convictions (and where appropriate a satisfactory risk assessment).

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