JOB SPECIFICATION
Title: Home-Start Family Support Coordinator
Employer: Home-Start Cymru
Location: Home-based with regular travel across the RCT region required for home visits and team meetings
Salary: £16,580.68 (£27,266 FTE)
Hours: 22.5 over 3 days per week – 7.5 per day
Contract: Fixed Term until 31st March 2027
Responsible to: Locality Manager
Responsible for: A caseload of families and volunteers
Home-Start Cymru
Children need happy, healthy homes in order to thrive. Being a parent of young children is challenging at the best of times. Families face more pressures than ever, with many parents finding the practical and emotional demands overwhelming. That is when Home-Start Cymru can help. A carefully selected volunteer visits regularly to offer emotional and practical support.
Home-Start Cymru works with families with young children through a volunteer-led, home-visiting model of support. We combine the strengths of our network of community-based volunteers across Wales with our professional expertise in the early years. We are there for parents when they need us most, because childhood cannot wait.
Our volunteers are drawn from the communities in which they support, and the work we do not only helps parents and children, but makes a vital difference to strengthening communities.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Purpose of the Role
The Family Support Coordinator will work closely with the Senior Family Support Coordinator and the Locality Manager/Project Manager to appropriately manage a team of volunteers to deliver support to a dedicated caseload of referred families.
Job Summary:
To coordinate the provision of effective emotional support to families in addition to delivering specialist support where children or parents are neurodivergent and/or present behaviour that challenges, ensuring the right approaches and complementary support are in place.
To ensure:
- To uphold and comply with all Home-Start Cymru policies, procedures, behaviors, and values, ensuring effective day-to-day operations of the team in accordance with HSC guidance and standards.
- To maintain high standards of practice in supporting families within the Home-Start model.
- To ensure equality of opportunity, fairness and diversity in all aspects of work.
- Implement and adhere to good safeguarding practice in all areas of work.
Key Responsibilities
Service Delivery & Safeguarding
- Receiving referrals and assessing family needs, including where children are neurodivergent or where there is behaviour that challenges, and identifying appropriate responses.
- Holding a caseload of families where a parent or child is neurodivergent, providing direct support in place of a volunteer match where the family's needs require it.
- Responding calmly and consistently to behaviour that challenges, using de-escalation and neuro-affirming approaches.
- Assessing at the point of referral whether a family's needs are best met through a volunteer match or direct support from the postholder, and reviewing that decision as needs change.
- Ensuring all relevant documentation regarding the family’s journey is recorded appropriately.
- Introducing and signposting families to appropriate support, including specialist services relevant to neurodiversity and additional learning needs.
- Ensuring support to families is reviewed at regular intervals and at the end of Home-Start support, in line with current Home-Start guidance.
- Documenting the reviews and closures of families in accordance with Home-Start Cymru’s policies.
- To coordinate and support on additional complementary support if applicable e.g. groups
- To undertake designated responsibilities to safeguard and promote children’s welfare.
Volunteer Coordination, Development & Support
- Matching volunteers to families with consideration of the family's needs, and preparing volunteers appropriately for the match
- Providing support, supervision and initial and on-going training opportunities for volunteers
Collaboration & Networking
- Ensuring appropriate liaison with referrers and other professionals.
- Attend and contribute to multi-agency meetings, including those concerning children with neurodevelopmental or additional needs, when necessary or requested to do so.
- Support Senior Coordinators and Project/Locality Managers in promoting the organisation, its profile, ethos and practice through presentations and participation in meetings, networking and local/regional events when required.
- Supporting Senior Coordinators and Project Managers in the development of Home-Start locally, regionally and nationally.
Additional duties
- To meet regularly with the management team, and participate in other relevant internal meetings.
- Work co-operatively with the Locality Manager and staff members to ensure project activities are delivered and targets/outcomes are met in line with funder’s requirements.
- Work to the organisation’s administration, including providing data and statistical information for reports.
- Any other additional duties that fall within the nature of the role and responsibilities of the post as detailed above.
- To understand and act in accordance with our agreed behaviours framework in everything they do in the course of their employment
- Assist to actively engage with families to capture their feedback, thereby ensuring family voices are heard and integrated into the development and improvement of services and policy objectives.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
At Home-Start Cymru we are committed to shaping an environment where everyone is valued and respected. As part of our team, you will be expected to understand and support the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of your work. This includes promoting fairness and equality of opportunity, respecting and celebrating differences, and actively contributing to ensuring we consider each other’s experiences and views. By embracing EDI principles, we can better support each other, and the families we serve and create positive change together.
In consultation with the post holder, this job description is liable to variation by Home-Start Cymru to reflect actual, contemplated or approved changes in/or to the job.
The job holder may be required to undertake any other duties that fall within the nature of the role and responsibilities of the role as detailed above.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Education and Qualifications
- ‘A’ levels/NVQ - equivalents: Essential
- Child Development Qualification – Level 3 or above/equivalent: Essential
Experience
- People management and development experience: Desirable
- Demonstrable experience of working with families and volunteers: Desirable
- Experience of supporting, or working alongside, neurodivergent children/adults and/or responding to behaviour that challenges: Essential.
- Ability to work on own initiative: Essential
- Ability to communicate, negotiate and influence: Essential
- Ability to work as a member of a team: Essential
- Strong administrative skills: Essential
- Ability to inspire trust: Essential
- Aware of and sensitive to equal opportunities issues: Essential
- Passion for working in the voluntary sector: Essential
- Ability to engage with people through digital platforms: Desirable
Essential Skills and Attributes
- Empathic, calm and non-confrontational, with the ability to remain composed when responding to behaviour that challenges: Essential.
- Energy, enthusiasm, flexibility, commitment, integrity, motivated: Essential
- Commitment to work in a non-judgemental and anti-discriminatory way: Essential
- Commitment to Home-Start Cymru’s vision, mission and purpose: Essential
- Commitment to personal and career development: Essential
- Car driver with current licence, business use motor insurance, and use of road-worthy vehicle: Essential
- Evidence of training adults: Essential
Skills & Knowledge
- A commitment to modelling the behaviours which exemplify the values of the organisation: Essential
- Awareness and understanding of neurodiversity (e.g. autism, ADHD) and of approaches to supporting behaviour that challenges: Essential
- An excellent understanding of the Voluntary Sector and Local Authority structures: Essential
- Understanding of the Family Support and Children’s Services Sector in Wales: Essential
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and orally, able to adapt style in various situations and with a range of audiences, considering the differing needs of people: Essential
- Excellent interpersonal skills, able to identify, establish and nurture productive internal and external relationships, partnerships and networks: Essential
- Good oral and written bilingual (Welsh/English) communication skills (essential/desirable depending on location): Desirable
Other
- Understanding of the management of information technology in the workplace: Essential
- Demonstrable commitment to the values and principles of the UNCRC: Essential
- Demonstrable understanding of and commitment to equality and diversity, health and safety and safeguarding: Essential
- A flexible approach to work, with the willingness to work some evening or weekend work and occasional residential training: Essential
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications or find a suitable candidate before the closing date. We encourage interested applicants to apply as soon as possible.
Pay: £16,580.68 per year
Application question(s):
- Drivers Licence with Access to vehicle
Licence/Certification:
- Child Development Qualification (level 3 minimum) (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: On the road
