Job responsibilities
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title:
Family Support Worker (12 months fixed term contract)
Team/Directorate:
Family
Support Team
Salary range/pay band:
Band 4: £30,944 - £31,004 per annum
Reports to:
Lead
for Counselling and Family Support
Direct reports:
None
Hours:
37.5
hours per week
Location:
Christophers
(Guildford) and work out in the community
Job holder:
Vacant
Introduction to Shooting Star Childrens Hospices
Shooting Star Childrens Hospices
provides specialist care and support to families who have a baby, child or
young person with a life-limiting condition, or who have been bereaved. Rated
Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, we support families across
Surrey, north-west London and south-west London from diagnosis to end of life
and throughout bereavement with a range of nursing, practical, emotional and
medical care.
Our specialist care and support is
free of charge to families and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It
includes specialist nursing in the community, symptom management and pain
relief, overnight respite stays, end-of-life care, specialist bereavement care
and a comprehensive range of therapies, groups and clinics for the whole
family.
At the heart of what we do are our
dedicated staff; their exceptional commitment and professionalism means every
family has the opportunity to make every moment count.
It costs £10 million a year to run
Shooting Star Childrens Hospices. Just 30% of our funding comes from the
government, so we rely on our supporters generosity to keep the service
running. We employ 175 members of staff, including 98 nursing and medical
staff, and support around 700 families.
Introduction to Team
SSCH
provide care to children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and
family members known to the hospice. Depending on their need, hospice families
access respite care, community nursing interventions and specialist palliative
care. All families can access SSCHs core psychosocial care from point of
referral/diagnosis, at end of life and bereavement care provided to the family
for 3 years and 3 months after the death of their child. This encompasses a
holistic and flexible offer of family support, a pathway of care through
bereavement and a substantial program of therapeutic support groups and events
provided at both hospices, in order that families can benefit from building a
network of support with others who have lived experience.
Family
Support Workers (FSW) are the frontline of our psychosocial care. Each FSW
holds a caseload of end-of-life and bereaved families. They get to know their
families, and check-in regularly with phone calls and home visits and can
provide enhanced emotional support where required through more regular contact
and interventions. Our FSWs inform families about the different psychosocial care
and many services they can access at Shooting Star, assess their needs and make
recommendations to our specialist psychosocial MDT. They work hard to support
families of different ethnicities and families living in poverty, so that our
service is as inclusive as possible.
Our
dedicated team of FSWs work closely with our Therapists, Counsellors, Social
Workers, Transition Team and our Care Events Team. Weekly specialist
psychosocial MDT meetings bring the team together to think of ways to help
families in crisis. The work is varied and creative, taking place at the
hospices, in family homes and hospitals, allowing the support to be where the
families need it. Our Family Support Workers are hugely appreciated by the
families we support.
Main duties and key
responsibilities
Family Support Worker duties and
key responsibilities:
To help children, young people and families receive holistic care
that considers all aspects of health and wellbeing, from the point of referral
through the three years and three months after a child dies.
To build connections with families from different backgrounds,
delivering culturally competent care.
To be a first responder at the time of a childs death, providing
emotional and practical support.
To be the allocated worker for end-of-life and bereaved families
To conduct pre-bereavement risk assessments that identify risk and
important pre-emptive work and action appropriate care plans in bereavement.
To carry out memory-making with skill and respect, with use of
correct materials and personalisation within the design where possible.
To visit family homes to carry out initial assessments for those
referred to the specialist bereavement service (and those for whom an enhanced
pathway is required). To gather relevant details about a family, and support
the completion of assessment tools screening for psychological distress and
safeguarding concerns.
To present cases at the Specialist Psychosocial Multi-Disciplinary
Team (SPMDT) welcoming and responding to issues identified by the wider team.
To deliver core care outlined in the bereavement pathway, ensuring
touchpoints enable a re-assessment of needs and communication of the service
offer.
To design, propose and deliver bespoke bereavement plans for
families requiring a higher level of care, suggesting frequency of contact and
support measures. To seek longer-term solutions to benefit the family. To
personalize care thoughtfully, in order that families of all backgrounds are
able to engage with support that is helpful to them. To take time to transition
families from our bereavement service to appropriate support in their locality,
personalized to their needs.
To assess, propose and
deliver FSW interventions such as Emotional Support Plans and Targeted
Interventions,
To discuss all work with children, young people and families
openly in SPMDT, clinical supervision and with appropriate professionals,
enabling reflective practice and development of knowledge, understanding and
skills.
To
bring work to the SPMDT on completion for review.
To act as an advocate for families, making sure their views and
needs are heard.
Teamwork
To participate in the duty roster as either first or second duty.
Responsibilities include answering queries from families seeking support in
person or via the Family Support Line and email, acting as referral response
for post-death referrals and daily check-ins of families resident at
Christophers or those utilising facilities.
To be part of the events teams for a variety of groups and events
for supported and bereaved children and their families.
To support communication with families concerning event
attendance, to strive to increase engagement and access. To ensure all services
are inclusive and accessible to families.
To strive to engage with statutory partners through proactive
communication, joint caseload reviews, attending and participate in internal
and external meetings, and contributing to external professional
multi-disciplinary discussions.
To form effective inter-agency collaboration with schools, social
care, GPs, hospital trusts and other agencies.
To ensure that the wider team is informed of any relevant changes
in the family, child or young persons needs or circumstances.
To act as an ambassador for Shooting Stars Specialist Bereavement
Service, supporting other Named Team Members with their learning and delivery
of the bereavement pathway, and continually seeking ways to improve quality.
To attend inter-agency meetings such as Child Death
Review meetings and Child in Need meetings.
Learning and safeguarding
compliance
To
complete competency skills development as required for the role.
To engage in learning and development of knowledge and
understanding to enhance SSCH delivery of psychosocial care.
To be a responsible and independent learner, taking responsibility
for identifying learning opportunities.
To share skills, knowledge and learning with members of the direct
and wider team.
To safeguard children, young people and adults, adhering to
Safeguarding policies and the mental health escalation pathway.
To ensure accurate and contemporaneous notes and records of all
contacts are recorded within the electronic notes system.
a)
Other
duties
The post holder must be able and
willing to get to and work in both hospices.
The post holder will need to travel extensively throughout the SSCH
catchment.
Twice a month, the FSW will be scheduled to work 1-2 weekend days with
advance notice. This is in place of a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or
Friday that week. The hours are predominantly worked 9am to 5pm.
The post holder must hold a
driving license and be able and willing to work from Shooting Star House
(Hampton) and Christophers (Guildford), and to be able to travel when required
throughout the Shooting Star catchment.
The post holder
will be required to apply for a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.
The post holder will be working in a developing environment,
and he/she will therefore be expected to undertake other appropriate duties as
required for the effective operation of Shooting Star Childrens Hospices.
