Family Link Worker

Salary: £27,000
Hours: Full Time 37.5 Hours
Location: Russell House, Huddersfield
Responsible to: Family Support Team Leader
Responsible for: Family Support Volunteers (based upon family allocation)

Benefits: Entry into Peoples Pension, death in service benefit (3 x salary), out of pocket expenses, free on-site parking, free access to confidential and extensive wellbeing support, generous holiday entitlement (26 days plus bank holidays rising to 31 days after 5 years for a full time employee, pro rata for part time), an extra days holiday for your birthday!, free tea / coffee, sight tests and flu jabs and excellent learning and development opportunities.

Families caring for children with life-shortening and highly complex health conditions tell us their lives can feel really challenging and chaotic. Accessing and navigating palliative care or help with symptom management, dealing with multiple agencies and health professionals alongside practical issues around finances, getting the right equipment or adapting the home can be exhausting, stressful and scary.

Forget Me Not children's hospice has been here for over 10 years, providing CQC-rated outstanding support for children and families across West Yorkshire. But we want to do more to enable families to live well. We are developing new ways to assess and meet families' needs to ensure every member of each family gets the support they need at the right time. And that's where you come in.

As part of our family support team, you'll help us to develop and embed this new way of working. You'll support a caseload of families, providing information, advice, advocacy and handholding. And you'll link families to and help them navigate tailored support, both inhouse and by collaborating with local partners. You'll also work to build partnerships with external services, including by tapping into community groups across our region to ensure support is culturally appropriate and accessible to all.

You'll be experienced in working with families with complex needs and in complex circumstances, providing support that is person-centred and strengths-based. You might currently be working in education, health or social care but you'll have an understanding of palliative care and have experience of multi-agency collaboration.

We welcome applications from all candidates, particularly those who have experience of engaging with families from diverse cultural, ethnic and faith backgrounds. We value a strong understanding of how cultural, religious and spiritual beliefs may influence care, communication and support needs. The ability to speak additional community languages relevant to our local population is highly desirable and would support our commitment to inclusive, accessible family care.
Most of all, you'll be excited to be part of a new approach to supporting families that will make a positive difference to their lives. If that sounds like you, then please apply now!

To find out more about working for Forget Me Not Children's Hospice please see our recruitment pack

For an informal chat about the role, please contact Stacey on

JOB DESCRIPTION

Role Summary

Our vision is to deliver pioneering care through pregnancy, childhood and loss, wherever families need us, whatever the future holds. This role supports our vision by providing holistic family centred care to babies, children and young people with life limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families within the family support team, as well as working collaboratively with external providers within local communities.

We recognise that families across our local area come from a wide range of cultural, spiritual and socio-economic backgrounds, each with unique experiences and needs. The Family Link Worker plays a key role in ensuring that all families, particularly those who have historically faced barriers to accessing care, feel welcomed, understood and supported. This includes actively promoting access and inclusion, adapting approaches to reflect cultural and spiritual values, and working in partnership with community groups and networks to reach underserved populations. Through this work, the role will help ensure our care is equitable, culturally competent, and responsive to the rich diversity of the communities we serve.

Working as part of our family support team, you'll be a key point of contact for a caseload of families, supporting them to navigate the complex systems of palliative care and bereavement; providing information, advice, advocacy and handholding, with the aim of increased independence, resilience and empowerment.

In this family link role, your specific focus will be to help develop and embed a new way of working with families, focusing on further developing our holistic, outcome focused family assessment, support and review pathways. You'll help to link families to personalised support, and enablement through both our in-house services and by collaborating with local partner agencies and organisations.

Main Duties and Key Responsibilities

Family link responsibilities
•Undertake holistic, parent-centred family assessments, ensuring that there is a clear understanding of the needs and goals of each family member, with a coproduced outcome focused plan put into action.
•Working alongside members of the care team, midwife or other members of the family support team to co-ordinate the support offered to individual families.
•Navigational support and signposting for parents/carers and other immediate family members to access support and services outside of Forget Me Not, this may include information, advice and support in respect of home and family life, financial and employment matters, education, health and community inclusion.
•Develop partnerships and collaborations with key external organisations to further develop and enhance our support to families.
•Support signposting to partner organisations through building up knowledge and links in the local community.

Family support responsibilities
•Help assess, plan, deliver and review holistic family centred care and support to a caseload of babies, children and families in the community or in the hospice, working with alongside other family support team and care coordinators.
•Deliver practical and emotional support that is best practice, evidence based and meets all statutory requirements.
•Undertake specific family support tasks during pregnancy, birth into childhood and during the initial period following a child's death aimed at supporting the needs and emotional wellbeing of families, including parents and the wider family.
•Provide initial immediate and practical help and signposting to families at times of need including changes in circumstances, wellbeing and bereavement.
•Support families in making an informed choice regarding options during palliative, end of life care for their child and post bereavement.
•Work seamlessly with clinical, care and family support team members, responding promptly to any identified needs or changes in the circumstances of the individuals or families supported.
•Participate in the in-reach service alongside other team members including, but not limited to, initial hospice visits, support appointments, delivering presentations, transportation of baby/child and family as appropriate including the transportation of family and deceased patients from hospital to the hospice family suite (snowflake) /home.
•Facilitate memory making opportunities for the families with both colleagues and external professionals. This includes but is not exclusive to tribute funds, grants and wishes and linking families in with the fundraising team when appropriate.
•Undertake high quality system recording to support the family journey, as well as service performance indicators and family case studies.
•Complete and maintain core competencies associated within the role and to use this knowledge to safely undertake care delivery.
•Share knowledge and skills with care team colleagues, providing support and training where appropriate.
•Be responsible for your own on-going practice development and life-long learning, including actively participating in appraisal, practice supervision, reflective practice, education and training.
•Contribute to the development of current and new services and other initiatives.
•Ensure that family feedback is sought, outcomes for families tracked and reported through agreed channels.
•Where appropriate, manage a small budget.
•Work with, and support volunteers, assisting in family support activities.
•Support the organisation to meet CQC fundamental standards (for example in safeguarding, infection prevention and control and health and safety).
•To work within the guidelines of the Local Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB) procedures.

We expect all staff to undertake any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job, the title of the post and its grading, as requested by your line manager or their higher level of authority on behalf of the charity.

For all of our roles we expect employees to abide by the expectations set out within the Together for Families Framework. Complying with Together for Families means that we will all act with integrity to ensure we are trusted the people we care for, the people we work with and everyone who supports Forget Me Not.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Skills and experience

Essential:
•Experience of working with families and children with complex needs in a professional setting such as early years, education, health or social care . click apply for full job details