Overview
Are you looking to make a positive difference in children’s lives? Are you dynamic, solution-focused, and enjoy working with people from all backgrounds?
An exciting opportunity has opened up to work for the Buckinghamshire Family Group Conference (FGC) team and we are looking for FGC coordinators to help support children on the edge of care, through FGCs, Mediation and Advocacy for children and young people.
About Us
Buckinghamshire has a well-established Family Group Conference service offering FGCs, mediation and child advocacy to families who are working with children’s social care.
Set up in 2007, our FGC Service works creatively to ensure that the child’s voice is pivotal to the decision-making processes that impact their lives, within a variety of contexts. The Bucks FGC team prides itself on its high practice standards and the expertise of its Independent FGC Coordinators, Mediators and Advocates, who are the ambassadors of the service, promoting best practice, collaborative working, positive, safe, and sustainable outcomes for children and their families.
We are passionate and committed to strengthening and supporting families to make realistic, safe, and robust plans to protect their children, and to enable families to care for their children within their own family networks.
We are looking for self-employed FGC Coordinators and mediators to join us and expand our team to meet the growing need for our services in Buckinghamshire.
The FGC team is now part of the newly formed Adolescent/Edge of Care service, offering intensive support to young people in Buckinghamshire who are most at risk of entering care. There will be opportunities to work with these children, where restorative FGC and mediation work can support them to remain living within their families whenever they can.
Buckinghamshire Council brings together the best of the previous five councils to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.
Buckinghamshire is an ambitious, rapidly growing county, and our economy is one of the strongest in the country. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ranks as one of the top rural areas to live in the UK and yet it is incredibly well connected– only an hour from London on the train. The county has a rich history and heritage and is the birthplace of the international Paralympic movement.
We are looking for motivated, ambitious and inspiring people to join us on our journey.
About The Role
The Family Group Conference Coordinator, Mediator and Advocacy role is pivotal to the successful engagement and outcomes of the Family Group Conference service. Successful candidates will be required to evidence their existing expertise in this field or demonstrate that they have at least three years’ experience and expertise working with vulnerable families and children in a variety of settings.
As an independent Family Group Conference Coordinator, you will be self-employed and work flexibly to manage your own case load and building relationships with families, where there are worries about their children’s safety.
You will work closely with children, parents, and wider family members to hear their views and address these safeguarding worries, with the goal of facilitating Family Group Conferences (family meetings), where families are encouraged to work together to make safe plans and improve life for their children at home.
The FGC service also offers mediation for families, to help resolve conflict and improve relationships and communication, as well as advocacy for children to allow their voices to be heard at Child Protection conferences. You will have the opportunity to work across these services, to build skills in different disciplines and maintain variety.
As part of the Adolescent / Edge of Care team, your FGC and mediation skills will also feed into an intensive way of working with young people identified as most at risk of entering care.
You will be expected to work between 20-30 hours per week minimum on a sessional basis. However, it is likely that more hours will be required as referral rates increase. You will be offered a self-employed contract and will be home-based in line with the Council’s working at home policies and procedures. The posts will require some working in the evenings and possibly weekends, so a degree of flexibility is required.
In this rewarding and dynamic role, some of your responsibilities will be:
* Following the FGC/Mediation process to support children, young people, and their families to make safe plans when there are worries about the children at home in their parents’ care and/or there is a risk of children/adolescents entering the care system.
* Work in a variety of settings (home visits, schools) taking a holistic approach to listen to and consider the views of children, young people and their families in order to guide them towards making safe family plans / agreements.
* Identify and explore family networks and relationships in order to build on strengths, support, and safety within families, and prepare and guide family members towards working together in a family meeting (FGC) or mediation meeting.
* Organise and facilitate FGCs / Mediation sessions, sourcing suitable venues, liaising with a range of professionals to share information and leading FGC / mediation sessions so that they are positive, safe, welcoming, and constructive for families.
* Manage your time flexibly to meet the needs of individual young people and their families. This may include some evening working and occasional weekend work.
* Work with young people and families across Buckinghamshire - access to or use of a vehicle being an essential requirement of the role.
About You
This role will suit someone who is passionate about supporting families to build on their strengths and develop resilience in order to improve the lives and outcomes for children and young people. You will have the ability to quickly build rapport and develop effective relationships with young people and adults as part of a holistic whole-family approach, in order to facilitate difficult conversations and support families to make safe plans that are sustainable and realistic for them.
* You will be a confident communicator with excellent people skills, able to relate to families and children in a no-nonsense way.
* You will be child-focused and strengths-based in your approach to working with young people and their families.
* You will be comfortable managing a diverse caseload and adopting a flexible working approach – agile, resourceful and creative, fitting around families’ needs and schedules with possible evening and weekend work.
* You will have the ability to encourage participation, enable and empower families, with information from other agencies, to find their own solutions.
* You will possess strong organisational skills, with the ability to listen, negotiate, mediate, and manage conflict.
* You will have experience working with vulnerable children, young people, and families (in Childcare, Health, Social Care, Youth Justice, Education, Youth Work, or another relevant field) with a Diploma (NVQ or BTEC Level 3) or Degree in Social Work, Youth Work, Health, Education, Advocacy, Mediation or related discipline.
Other information
If you would like to find out more about this role, please contact Farin Robets-Mudie (Adolescent Service Coordinator (FGC)) on email@example.com.
Closing date: 23:59 Sunday 13th April 2025
Interviews: to be held face to face – dates TBA
We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.
Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.
You will be required to apply for a DBS at an enhanced level. Further information about the DSB Scheme can be found at www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check.
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:
* All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
* All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020).
For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro Guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).
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