Job responsibilities
Job Title:Family Support Worker
Team/Directorate:Family Support Team
Salary
range/pay band:Band
4: £31,691
Reports
to:Lead for Counselling
and Family Support
Direct
reports:N/A
Hours:37.5 hours per week
Location:Base: Christophers
(Guildford)Working across sites
and in the community
Job
holder:Vacant
Introduction to Shooting Star
Childrens Hospices
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 £13 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 Shooting Star Childrens Hospices
Shooting Star Childrens Hospices (SSCH) are
a leading childrens hospice charity caring for babies, children and young
people with life-limiting conditions, and their families.We support
families across Surrey, Northwest and Southwest London from diagnosis to
end of life and throughout bereavement with a range of nursing, practical,
emotional and medical care.
At the heart of the hospice are our dedicated
clinical staff. Their exceptional commitment and professionalism is commented
on by so many of the supported children and their families. We
have a reputation for delivering high quality care.
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, our Support Groups & Events Team and our nursing teams. 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 hours are predominantly worked 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Twice a month, the FSW will work
a weekend day (with advance notice). This is in place of a Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday or Friday that week.
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.
