Are you an experienced practitioner looking for high autonomy and a meaningful impact? If you're passionate about making decisions and supporting families, this is the perfect opportunity for you. The Family Support and Advice Line is a telephone-based service with all requests for support being encouraged to call to speak directly to our practitioners to discuss their concerns. This allows the practitioner the opportunity to ask key questions about the needs, risks and strengths within families and then agreeing together who is best placed to meet the needs of a child. Thus, ensuring the right service is offered at the right time, first time. Why join us? flexibility: Split your time between our office in Wareham and working from home. work 37 hours per week over 4 days, 9.25 hours per day, covering 8am - 10pm in shift patterns. There will be a requirement to work some weekends on a rota basis, currently 1 in 9. supportive environment: thrive in a team known for its collaborative and positive culture professional growth: opportunities to grow both professionally and personally in a nurturing environment wellbeing support: access to talking therapies, a network of Mental Health Champions, and workshops by our Employee Wellbeing Team What You Will Be Doing: Family Workers are part of an expert and professional team, offering advice and consultation to partner practitioners, parents/carers and individuals, signpost to appropriate support services available in the localities and take requests for support to Children’s Services. The role of the Family Worker at the Family Support and Advice Line will be varied, we need practitioners who can work flexibly, providing service cover and support for children and young people. Predominately office based, answering calls and taking new requests for family support, supporting Family Workers and Adviser colleagues and where appropriate deputising for the Team Manager. There is also direct working alongside our social work practitioners and linking with our partner agencies. As noted in the Job Description, this will involve working directly with children, young people and their families who may be in crisis. This is a valued and important role, as the aim will be to work with children, their families, and their support network to agree the right support at the right time. In an out of hours context, evenings and weekends, this will be to support families with their agreed plans and manage crisis to reduce risk and promote the child or young person’s welfare until the level of need has reduced or we can hand over to the day teams. The work may encompass working in children and young people’s homes, or in the community and may also entail lone working, where appropriate. About you: We are looking for highly motivated and child focused practitioners who work well in a team environment. The successful applicant will need to have excellent communication skills, be able to demonstrate the ability to reflect and learn from practice, have strong analytical skills, and be able to accurately record information. Further Information This position has a significant travel requirement. This means that there is a requirement for a vehicle (or transport deemed to be suitable by the Council) to be available on most working days in order to carry out normal duties. Employees in positions with a significant travel requirement are required to provide a replacement vehicle if their usual vehicle is not available over an extended period. The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post. There is a DBS requirement for the post. The post holder will be expected to work outside normal office hours to meet the needs of communities, families, children and young people. For an informal discussion please contact Mandy Woodham, Team Manager 01305 224067 This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders. About Us We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception. At Dorset Council we: provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents have ambitious aspirations are excited about our future care about Dorset and all the people who live here know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success You will: have access to a range of employee benefits be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role. We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments. This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process. We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant. Find out more about how to apply .