At Catch22, we are proud of our reputation as a modern and progressive employer. Our 1,300 colleagues and 300 volunteers work at every stage of the social welfare cycle, supporting over 60,000 individuals from cradle to career. Our work spans education, social justice and rehabilitation, children's social care, family support, social action and getting people into work.

Our Young People and Families hub works with those in trouble, providing early intervention, targeted and specialist support services to those in crisis, leaving care, missing from home or with substance misuse or mental health problems. Services support people no matter what their situation – and have demonstrated a high success rate.

Our Crewe and  Macclesfield services are forward thinking and person-centered, with a high level of credibility among the young people we work with. We work with young people to help them achieve the "3 Ps" of our vision. To have a purpose in life, to have a good place to stay and to have good people around them. 

In 2014, the Department for Education (DfE) made a commitment to supporting local authorities and other organisations to try new approaches to the way in which social care services are delivered and to learn from best practice. Their intention was to stimulate and support innovation in the delivery and structures of children’s social care and help spread proven innovations more rapidly.  To this end, they set up the Children’s Social Care Innovation Fund.

In response to this, Catch22 developed and tested a new approach to better support Section 17 children in need in Crewe. The work has been tested by a Randomised Controlled Trial and the published report highlighted the positive impact on families in Crewe. The full report can be found here.

Two Children in Need Teams operate in independent Pod structures, comprising of social work and non-social work qualified family practitioners who will deliver through solution-focused brief therapy, planning and engagement with families.  Supported by volunteers, the service aims to improve the quality of support and intervention to families at this end of the continuum of need. 

The success of the project has created further opportunities nationally to continue to test the model and in Cheshire East we are soon to be entering our 5th year of successful service delivery.

We are looking for up to six Family Practitioners, in both our existing Crewe "pod" and a newly created pod in Macclesfield. You will be delivering targeted and intensive engagement to families with children who are identified with unmet needs. You will be delivering interventions using whole family assessment and professional methods to effect and sustain positive change.

As a Family Practitioner your  will:

1. Lead the delivery of the partnerships’ Children in Need service across the town of Crewe/Macclesfield, working with children and their families reallocated from Children’s Social Care.
2. Practice within a dedicated Pod, working closely with other team members to appropriately pool resources, skills and ensure continuous case file management procedures, professional development and performance in line with the partnerships’ target for achievement.
3. Lead in the delivery of cases, taking on responsibility of dedicated key worker and undertaking all associated work with allocated children and their families. To assess family situations and plan, deliver and review individual programmes of support; ensuring that children and families especially those who are harder to reach, are prioritised in terms of receipt of services.
4. Practice with children and families using the principle approach of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, working with children and families through group or individual solution focussed methodology to enable them to repair, and move on in their lives towards improved and sustainable outcomes.
5. Record all service user information and intervention on the Liquid Logic data management system to ensure work is timely and completed to the partnerships’ case management standards.
6. In addition to using the principle evidence based programme of Solution Focused Brief Therapy, draw on other forms of evidence based training and expertise to develop parents’ skills and promote effective parenting.
7. Work in partnership with other local agencies and services, supporting families in order to maximise resources to support them at a universal level.
8. Work in partnership with children and their siblings and parents/carers, promoting their involvement and ownership in planning service delivery which meets identified needs.
9. Maintain appropriate case management records and to assist in the provision of regular written case studies/reports to evidence outcomes and progress to funders and management.
10. Ensure that protocols regarding child protection, confidentiality, equality of opportunity and risk management are maintained at all times.
11. Where safeguarding concerns are identified, respond appropriately by supporting the child and their family and referring the information to Children’s Social Care in accordance with the requirements of the partnership’s safeguarding policy and guidance, and working in collaboration with the Children’s Social Care team thereafter to de-escalate the risk and need
12. Carry out a holistic family assessment of need and to agree with the family a series of outcomes to be achieved and the means by which this will be done. To track the progress of children and families against the prescribed outcomes using the outcomes star self assessment tool supported by professional assessment recorded within the case file.
13. Keep personal development needs under review, keep informed of current issues and be alert to the partnership’s training programme and policies.
14. Safeguard the Health and Safety of all persons and premises under your control and in accordance with the guidance and provisions of Health and Safety Legislation, and Authority and Departmental Codes of Practice and Procedures.

Essential Qualification:

• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent
• There is no essential professional qualification required for the role. Candidates who demonstrate strong motivation, a willingness to be innovative and try a new approach to working with children and families and those who are clearly solution focused, tenacious, able to challenge and persistent in their work will be scored most highly.

Essential Experience:

• A proven track record of working creatively with children and families identified at level 2-4 on the continuum of need.
• Experience of assessing family situations using a holistic family assessment tool, developing individual packages of support and translating them into effective support plans aimed at supporting children and families.
• Experience of working with a range of issues affecting children and their families, such as substance misuse, domestic violence, school exclusions, offending behaviour.
• An understanding of key local and national policy frameworks relating to children with unmet needs;
• Experience and understanding of effective engagement methods and techniques
• Experience and understanding of safeguarding
• Experience of leading and delivering group work with families
• Ability to use information technology and software programmes

Desirable Experience:

• Experience of delivering effective services to children and their families using a solution focussed therapeutic approach.
• Experience of delivering evidence based programmes
• Experience of working in a small dedicated team

Essential Knowledge and Skills:

• An understanding of the risk factors, which may prevent children and families from achieving outcomes.
• Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and data protection legislation and guidance.
• Knowledge and understanding of influences on parenting and parent-child relationships
• Ability to represent and justify a professional viewpoint to both professionals and parents based on the assessed needs of a child/young person in challenging circumstances.
• Effective written and verbal skills of communication to a range of audiences including children, parents and professionals.

Desirable Knowledge and Skills:

• Knowledge of the Crewe area and local provision within Crewe

Personal Qualities:

• Ability to work independently as well as part of a small dedicated team to achieve shared performance targets.
• Creativity, and willingness to work in new and different ways to engage, support and enable improved outcomes for children.
• Strong implementation skills and the ability to drive changes.
• Ability to form positive professional relationships with children families, using language that is appropriate to the development of children, family culture and background.
• Ability to challenge parents when risks and concerns are identified
• A confident individual with the ability to advocate on behalf of service users and staff including appropriately challenging others.
• Ability to respect the contribution of others, working with children and families, establishing positive working relationships and promoting participation in the development of programmes and services.
• Able to recognise and to demonstrate an awareness of the need to ensure equality in opportunity and outcome

The service is currently funded until March 2020 with the potential to extend therefore this position at this time is being offered on a fixed term contract until 31st March 2020. 

We are lookign to fill this role ASAP, and therefore encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible. We will unpublish the role once we have filled it.

Location: Macclesfield Town Hall, Market Place, Macclesfield, SK10 1EA

Salary: Up to £24,047

27 days annual leave, rising to 33 after 5 years service

This role is subject to an  Enhanced DBS check 

Due to the nature of the role, access to a personal vehicle with business insurance will be required.

This post may involve occasional travel around the UK

This post will involve evening and weekend work as part of a regular pattern of working to meet identified needs of children and families. On-call duties may also be required.