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• Location: Kirkby, Knowsley, Merseyside
• Accountable to: Senior Family Assessment Worker/ Registered Manager

An exciting opportunity has arisen for Family Assessment Workers to join our brand-new Residential Family Assessment Centre, based in Knowsley: Lytham Lodge. We are part of a wider company which offers residential care to children. The company formed 12 years ago and is owned by the same family to this day. There is a strong commitment and passion to deliver the best service possible to enhance the lives of children.

The role of the Family Assessment Worker will be to assist the Senior Family Assessment Workers with implementing the ‘family placement plan’ and supporting with the day to day running of the centre. Candidates may come from an Early Years background or Care background and have the desire to now offer their knowledge to a whole family unit.

Some of the direct aspects of the job will entail:

• To work with families on a day-to-day basis, observing and recording the parents’ abilities to meet the immediate safety and care needs of their children. This will be completed through daily observations.
• To ensure parents/carers prioritise the safety and welfare needs of their children, and promptly respond to any safeguarding worries.
• To create a supportive learning environment for parents and children.
• To provide individual sessions with families, specific to their individual needs.
• To promote and deliver a clear and planned parenting support offer.

Staff at Lytham Care are well supported by a highly skilled staff force. The Registered Manager has extensive child protection knowledge,and has worked as Local Authority social worker and team manager; and the Responsible Individual has extensive knowledge with regards to Residential support.

The Family Assessment worker will be offered regular formal supervision and encouraged to partake in lots of reflective discussions. The company have invested in a therapeutic service who will facilitate regular group supervisions, and staff views and input will be listened to and valued. They will be supported by the work of a multi-disciplinary team; all working together for the best outcome for babies/ children.

If this sounds like something, you would be interested in then take a look at our detailed job description below or contact the registered manager on 0151 523 9851 for further discussion.

About the company

Lytham Lodge is a brand-new Residential Family Assessment Centre, based in Kirkby (northwest of England). We are part of a wider company which offers residential care to children, who currently cannot live with their parents. The company formed 12 years ago and is owned by the same family to this day. There is a strong commitment and passion to deliver the best service possible to enhance the lives of children.

The company have launched Lytham Lodge in response to seeing firsthand how children struggle when they are separated from their parents. It was felt that if we could support families at the earliest opportunity, there may be a chance to keep more children safely living with their parents; ultimately achieving better outcomes for children. We know from research that children in care have below average outcomes across a range of measures. We also know a delay in decision making regarding a child entering the care system can lead to detrimental outcomes. Therefore, intervening early and offering a concise, evidenced based assessment of parental capacity at the earliest stage can only be a positive measure, speeding up the decision-making process for the child.

Many of the parents that we will support and assess will have faced multiple adverse experiences as children and adults themselves and may not have experienced consistently good enough parenting growing up. As a result of their experiences, parents often do not have a good internal model of what it is to be a parent. They may not be sensitive to the emotional and/or basic care needs of their child due to emotional/psychological trauma that they may have sustained. There will be a variety of reasons why the parents are referred to Lytham Lodge with their young children, this may include a history of neglect, physical or emotional harm, abuse of drugs or alcohol, mental health, learning difficulties, or domestic abuse. We are committed, wherever possible, to providing children, parents, and families with the necessary support and intervention to rectify, address, or improve the difficulties they experience.

Lytham Care has a highly skilled staff force. The Registered Manager has extensive child protection knowledge and has worked as Local Authority social worker and team manager. They fully understand the adversities faced by parents who are at risk of losing their children; and they are fully aware of the pressures faced by local authorities in managing such cases.

The ethos behind Lytham Lodge will be to offer a nurturing and supportive environment to allow parents to demonstrate their parenting capabilities, whilst ensuring the child is always safe.

Mission Statement
‘Lytham Lodge will ensure parents are provided with a nurturing and supportive environment to enable them to demonstrate their parenting capabilities and feel able to engage in the assessment process. Children’s safety is paramount, and we will ensure they are always safe and thriving during their time with us.’

The role of the Family Assessment Worker will be to assist the Senior Family Assessment Workers with implementing the ‘family plan’ and supporting with the day to day running of the centre. Candidates may come from an Early Years background or Care background and have the desire to now offer their knowledge to a whole family unit.

Family Assessment Workers work on a shift basis to provide intensive monitoring and support, tailored to each family’s specific needs. Observations are carefully recorded of both direct work with families and using our CCTV system. They provide parents with important feedback in a sensitive manner. Whilst thinking about each parent’s individual needs, they use encouragement, teaching, modelling, and support skills to help the parents meet the child’s physical and emotional needs and complete other parenting tasks.

Family Assessment Workers record accurate and objective information as part of a residential parenting assessment; this may be from observations within the communal house, when out in the community, or supervised contact. The information that is recorded is crucial in informing the Court’s decision-making around the child’s future.

• Be committed to making a positive difference in the lives of some of vulnerable children and families
• Hold safeguarding at the heart of their actions and decisions
• Demonstrate empathy throughout their work with families
• Communicate sensitively and have good listening skills
• Build good working relationships with families: break down barriers.
• Remain calm under pressure and be able to deal with conflict behaviour
• Recognise when they need to seek advice or support
• Engage in the supervision and appraisal process, reflecting on their practice with a commitment to continued professional development
• Help to maintain a clean, hygienic, and homely environment for families
• Work in line with training, a range of policies and procedures, the National Minimum Standards for Residential Family Centres and relevant legislation.

A thorough two-week induction programme is provided for all new colleagues. This includes Shadow shift; training opportunities; time with various members of the team to get to know the organisation and assessment process. Regular internal training is provided to ensure that both new and established staff can work safely and confidently.

For applicants who do not hold a relevant qualification, Lytham Lodge will provide funding and support for staff to complete this course.

• Career Development – We offer many career paths, recognising hard work & supporting you into senior roles
• Competitive Salary - Using structured pay grades based on your training and experience
• Wellbeing – Access to group therapeutic wellbeing sessions delivered by our commissioned specialist services led by a clinical psychologist
• Increased Holiday entitlement
• Extra annual leave for birthday and years of service
• Company pension
• Act of Kindness programme (financial gift) in recognition of staff achievement and attendance incentives

Working hours: Working hours at Lytham Lodge can feature evenings and weekends/ part time and full time. Hours /shift patterns can be discussed further at interview or prior (on request).

• Qualifications and training Level 3 Children & Young People’s Workforce Diploma or equivalent qualification achieved. (Please note, we can discuss possible equivalent qualifications with you) or if you are willing to work towards a Level 4 qualification if not already held. Please note that Lytham Lodge will fund this.
• Candidates must have good Communication Skills
• Candidates must be confident in their written skills, as they will be responsible for observing and recording the daily life of the child and parents.
• Candidates will need to be confident in relation to intervention skills to Safeguard and meet the welfare of Children and Vulnerable adults
• Candidates have experience within a social care/ support setting; residential placement working with children and families; and or Early year's experience
• A clear DBS history
• Qualifications and training Level 3 Children & Young People’s Workforce Diploma or equivalent qualification achieved. (Please note, we can discuss possible equivalent qualifications with you) or if you are willing to work towards a Level 4 qualification if not already held. Please note that Lytham Lodge will fund this.
• Candidates have knowledge regarding issues impacting on children and families such as Domestic Abuse, Learning Needs, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Misuse
• Candidates will have knowledge in respect of Child Development
• Candidates have experience in working with families and conflict resolution
• Candidates have experience of Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults
• Candidates understand children’s rights and diversity
• Candidates are Car Drivers with relevant Business Insurance

Job Type: Permanent

All candidates must have a full work history and 2 references, without this we can unfortunately not consider you for this role.

We are committed to making a difference for every child, when they reside with us, we are their family.

Lytham Care offer a high quality of care to some of society’s most vulnerable children and all our homes are Ofsted registered with the majority having good gradings. We have an excellent reputation for providing bespoke, child-centred care packages that offer quality and value for money.