Family Group Conference Lead - Kingston & Richmond

Join a team that's officiallyOutstanding! Achieving for Children's Children's Services have now been rated Outstanding by Ofsted in both Richmond and Kingston. Our overall services are praised for exceptional care and a workforce that puts children at the center of everything we do. We are proud of this success and note that our specialised Fostering Service has been separately inspected and graded 'Good' by Ofsted, highlighting the quality of our dedicated fostering provision.

If you want to be part of a team that's setting the standard for excellence, we want to hear from you. To find out more click here.

Achieving for Children (AfC) is a community interest company (a not-for-profit social enterprise) created in 2014 by the Royal Borough of Kingston and the London Borough of Richmond to provide their children's services. In 2017, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead joined AfC as our third owner. We now deliver social care, education and health services to children and young people across all three boroughs. AfC also operates as an Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) across these three localities. AfC early help and social work teams prioritise safeguarding children and work closely with families and partner agencies to support children and families so that children can live safe and happy lives.

AfC is currently seeking to recruit an experienced Family Group Conference Lead to work across Kingston and Richmond.

This is a full-time, 12-month fixed-term role.

AfC is currently seeking to recruit two experienced Family Group Conference Leads, this role will work in Kingston & Richmond, we are also advertising the same post to work across Windsor & Maidenhead in a separate advertisement. This role combines direct practice in facilitating Family Group Conferences (FGC), supporting the coordination of FGC as needed across the organisation and leading on practice development and training to develop AfC's approach to Family Led Decision Making (FLDM), including FGC for colleagues across our services.

The FLDM model is used to bring family members and friends together to look at how they can collectively provide safe, supportive, and sustainable solutions to the problems being experienced in caring for children within the family.

You will prioritise facilitating the participation of children and young people and their families, when they are working with agencies and work alongside frontline professionals to embed practices around FLDM and FGC.

The role will involve:

• Coordinating Family Group Conferences - working with children, young people, families, and their wider networks, alongside partners and practitioners, to explore strengths, develop safety/support plans, and ensure family voices are central to decision making.
• Developing best practice - support, mentor, and train other practitioners to develop skills in exploring family and kinship networks, with a focus on early identification of support options and alternative care arrangements.
• Promoting a Culture of Family Engagement - champion best practice in family led planning and contribute to embedding practices that prioritise family connections within children's social care.

The post will require some working in the evenings and weekends, as well as working across Kingston, Richmond and Windsor & Maidenhead offices.

Please refer to the job profile for more information, for an informal discussion on any queries about the role please contact Claire Hunt at .

The successful candidate will be:

• FGC accreditation is an essential requirement
• Experience of arranging and completing family group conferencing.
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of Children Act 1989 and 2004, Fostering Regulations and National Minimum Standards; including awareness of current national policy, evidence based research and best practice that affects children's social care.
• Skilled in designing and delivering training sessions to a range of children's social care professionals.
• Experienced in coaching, mentoring, and reflective practice, supporting colleagues to build confidence in family network exploration.
• Experienced in keeping and maintaining records and producing accurate reports, presentations, written updates to a range of stakeholders.
• Strong mediation skills in order that differences of opinion can be expressed constructively.
• Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with.
• Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them.