Job number
LBC05042
Contract Type
Permanent
Posting End Date
30 June 2026
Job Area
Children's Social Care
Salary: £33,143 – £36,363 a year
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Permanent
As a Family Support Worker within Luton Council’s Family Wellbeing Service, you will play a vital role in improving outcomes for children, young people, and their families through early intervention, targeted support, and multi-agency working.
You will work directly with families in their homes and within the community to complete comprehensive assessments and co-produce tailored family support plans. A key part of your role will involve building trusting relationships with families to identify strengths and areas of need, ensuring that the voice of the child is central to all planning and intervention.
You will deliver regular direct work with children and parents, providing practical and emotional support around areas such as parenting skills, self-confidence, managing challenging behaviour, parental mental health, and child development. You will also develop expertise in a specific area of family support to enhance service delivery and outcomes.
Working in a multi-agency environment, you will co-ordinate and co-deliver support alongside partner agencies, ensuring interventions are consistent, effective, and aligned with agreed working arrangements. You will also take a lead professional role where appropriate, organising and chairing meetings to ensure clear planning, risk management, and coordinated support for families experiencing complex needs.
The role involves supporting and delivering structured group and individual programmes such as Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities, and parenting programmes, helping to build resilience and improve long-term family outcomes.
You will regularly liaise with professionals across statutory and voluntary services to review progress, monitor risk, and evaluate the impact of interventions on family wellbeing and parental capacity. Safeguarding is central to your role, and you will be responsible for ensuring the health, safety, and protection of children and young people in line with Luton Council’s safeguarding policies and procedures.
In addition, you will support the wider Family Wellbeing Service in achieving its operational objectives, contributing to service development, performance targets, and continuous improvement.
Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.
You will bring demonstrable experience of working with children, young people, and families within a social care, education, or health setting, along with some understanding or experience of child protection practice. You are confident working in environments where safeguarding and early intervention are central to supporting positive outcomes for children and families.
You will have strong experience of working in partnership with a range of professionals across statutory and voluntary agencies, as well as the ability to build trusting, respectful relationships with parents, carers, and children and young people. You are able to engage families effectively, agree clear goals, and work collaboratively to deliver planned interventions that support change.
You are skilled in assessing need and risk, and can analyse information in partnership with families to develop clear, concise, and outcome-focused plans, targets, and reports. You are confident in contributing to decision-making processes where child protection and family support are key priorities, and you understand the importance of balancing risk with strengths-based practice.
You are organised and proactive, able to manage a varied caseload and prioritise your workload effectively while working on your own initiative. You understand the importance of timely and accurate recording and are committed to maintaining high professional standards in all aspects of your work.
You have a strong awareness of equality, diversity, and inclusion, and understand the impact discrimination can have on service delivery and on the lives of the families you support. You consistently apply this understanding to ensure fair, respectful, and person-centred practice.
You demonstrate sound knowledge of child development and an understanding of how deprivation, trauma, and abuse can affect children’s wellbeing and long-term outcomes. You are committed to using this knowledge to inform your practice and improve the support you provide to families.
You are qualified to NVQ Level 3 in Child Care or equivalent, with additional training relevant to work with children and families. You are committed to ongoing professional development and expanding your specialist knowledge in family support practice.
You are flexible in your approach and willing to work evenings and weekends when required. You are also able to travel across the borough and wider areas to meet the needs of families. You communicate clearly and confidently in spoken English, enabling you to engage effectively with members of the public, provide advice, and support families with professionalism and clarity.
Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.
The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?
We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough
Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.
On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.
We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:
- From 25 to 32 days’ annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
- Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
- Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
- Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 19.2 per cent (at April 2026) and 3x salary death in service grant
- Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
- Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
- Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
- Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
- Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
- Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel
We understand that job applications take time and effort, but a high-quality application shows that you are professional with a good attention to detail. The recruiting manager may receive a number of applications for each job advertised so you want yours to stand out!
Our ‘How to apply' page has more tips to help with your application: How to apply
