Job Description
Job Title: Young Carer Family Support Officer
Employed By: St Helens Carers Centre
Reports To: Young Carer Family Support Manager
Hours: 37 Hours per week, flexible hours, occasional evening and weekend work.
Base: St Helens Young Carers Centre
Essential
Requirement: Car Owner/Driver Essential
Job Purpose: To provide a service for Young Carers resident in St Helens aged between 6 – 18 yrs old, which will allow them to feel supported, informed and recognised.
Job Context: St Helens Carers Centre is a registered charity that is governed by Carers for Carers. The Centre has extended its services to support Young Carers to ensure they are properly valued and supported by the government and the community, thus being enabled to perform their caring role as effectively and happily as possible.
Young Carer Family Support Officers are the first point of contact for Young Carers accessing the Centre, and represent Young Carers issues in the community, the services they provide will contribute to the overall vision of the Centre.
Key Responsibilities:
1.1 To respond, within tight deadlines to referrals of Young Carers to the service and ensure appropriate assessments are undertaken and action plans are put into place for both the Young Carer and other family members
1.2 With colleagues in the service and also the adult carers service, respond appropriately to the needs of families of Young Carers including signposting to other services
1.3 To carry out one to one work with Young Carers and families in line with the Centre’s policies and procedures
1.4 To lead and/or attend organised activities for Young Carers. These will take place on a regular basis either in the Young Carers Centre or at other pre organised venues during term time and school holidays. This will involve occasional evening and some weekend working
1.5 To maintain all appropriate records required by the Centre both electronically and paper records in an accurate manner
1.6 Raise awareness with both the public and other agencies to encourage the identification and/or recognition of young Carers and ensure they are appropriately supported
1.7 To liaise with other organisations and advocate for Young Carer’s, either collectively or on a casework basis, in cases where services provided are either not appropriate or not available.
1.8 Provide emotional support, maintaining a professional but empathetic approach to Young Carers
1.9 Undertake Pro-active work to ensure Young Carers are involved in review and planning of services
1.10 To participate in and/or facilitate training events as required by the Line Manager
1.11 To provide Carer Awareness presentations, when required, to ensure the role of Young Carers is understood in the community, and to identify hidden Carers
1.12 To help plan, organise and become involved in Young Carer Centre events such as open days, evenings, Carers Week etc. To promote the services of the Centre and raise awareness of Carers issues
1.13 To assist Senior Management in identifying areas of work to be undertaken and in the planning and development of these
1.14 To take part in and support team working this will include active participation in supervision and support sessions, team meetings and appraisals
1.15 To contribute to the collection of data about Young Carers, their needs and the provision of services
1.16 To maintain accurate records and files of on-going work and participate in monitoring and evaluation, including providing written reports and statistics
1.17 To assist in the production and development of publicity sources such as newsletters, web pages
and leaflets
1.18 To identify new services or changes to current services, and report these to ensure information is
current and specific
1.19 To maintain and update an information resource library to enable team to provide current, specific
service to Young Carers
1.20 To share information in a professional manner, maintaining strict confidentiality
1.21 To work responsibly, complying with all policies of the Centre
1.22 To be responsible, with other members of staff, for ensuring the work undertaken complies with the
Centre’s Health & Safety Policy
1.23 To work flexibly to ensure support is available during core hours, and Centre activities meet the identified needs of Young Carers, which will require occasional evening and weekend working
1.24 To explore and develop contacts with other service providers to ensure that Young Carers are accessing universal services within their local area
Scope and Limits of Authority:
Planning and organising of workload will be done in consultation with Line Manager and team.
Additional Duties:
It is the nature of the work that tasks and responsibilities are, in many circumstances, unpredicted and varied. All employees are therefore required to work in a flexible way when the occasion arises, so that tasks which are not specifically covered by their job description are undertaken. These additional duties will normally be to cover unforeseen circumstances or changes in work and they will normally be compatible with the regular type of work. If the additional responsibility becomes a regular and frequent part of the employee’s job, it will be included in their job description after consultation with the employee.
The details contained within this job description reflect the content of the post at the date it was prepared. However, it is inevitable that over time, the nature of the post may change. Existing duties may no longer be required and other duties may be gained without changing the general nature of the post or the level of responsibility entailed. Consequently, St Helens Carers Centre will expect to revise this job description from time to time and will consult the post holder/s at the appropriate time.