JOB ADVERT: FAMILY SUPPORT Worker (Helpline and Community)
SNAP – Multi award winning local charity
£24000-26000 per year
Full time role
Brentwood, Essex
Are you looking for a rewarding career supporting families of children and young people with SEND?
Do you want to work for an organisation that is committed to the wellbeing of its staff?
An exciting opportunity has arisen at SNAP and we are looking for a Family Support Worker to join our dedicated and empathetic team.
About SNAP
SNAP is a multiple award-winning local charity supporting families with children aged 0 to 25 with any additional needs or disability for 30 years. They support over 4400 families in Essex, Thurrock and Southend and do so in various ways, both in person at our specialist centre in Brentwood and remotely via telephone and email.
At the heart of our work, we aim to help and empower the whole family, enabling them to meet their challenges. As a result, they have developed various services in response to the needs of local families, as seen on their website, www.snapcharity.org.
They are looking for an empathetic, compassionate person to join the team of Family Support Workers. This role will be primarily desk-based, helping to answer incoming helpline calls and emails, providing supportive listening to parents, and providing practical advice and signposting. You will also meet with families to provide information, support, and guidance, working with the Family Partnership Model of good practice.
If cover is required, there may also be some opportunities to support the services team during the family activity sessions.
Another critical aspect of this role is to represent SNAP in the community. This will include attending school parent coffee mornings and external information events and giving short presentations about SNAP and our work to a range of audiences. Confident, articulate, and professional speaking abilities are essential. You will need to be able to travel to locations across Essex independently.
Key responsibilities of the Family Support Worker role
- Understanding of disability and the range of common issues that can arise for families.
- Previous experience working with families or children and young people with additional needs is essential, and a good background knowledge of various conditions and disabilities is desirable.
- An understanding of SEND support in Education is also desirable.
- Ability to provide supportive, active listening with patience and empathy to prioritise and independently manage a varied workload.
- Excellent written and spoken communication skills,
- Confidence using a computer and telephone
Working for SNAP
- When it comes to working for SNAP our external evaluation summed it up; “There is a strong sense of a close team with a shared set of values that they put into practise. They reported that they pride themselves on providing a high level of care that focuses on the parents/carers. Also, they are willing to go over and above because they have a passion to help families.”
- SNAP is committed to the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff, and we are currently working towards a level two Working Well Essex Accreditation after recently achieving level one.
- We value lifelong learning with opportunities to access training relevant to your role.
- All staff are responsible for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people in line with SNAP’s child protection and safeguarding adults’ policies and procedures.
- Appropriate safeguarding training will be completed every three years.
- Company pension
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking