Job responsibilities
MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB
- SUMMARY
The Family Support
Worker will work as a member of the Lukes Bereavement Support for Children and
Young people (Lukes) team, triaging new referrals and managing an allocated
caseload, providing a service which addresses the psycho-social and emotional
needs of children, young people and families, working face to face, virtually
online or by telephone to give support. The role will also include to
lead and facilitate on group work and training.
KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1.
CLINICAL
1.1.
To give psycho-social and emotional support to enable
children, young people and their families to cope with loss, bereavement and
life limiting illness. By working with them face to face, virtually or by
telephone.
1.2.
To form good working relationship with children/young
people and families and effectively communicate with and support children from
4 years up to late teens under the service remit.
1.3.
To work with children under 4 years and their
parent/carer.
1.4.
To manage a small caseload providing on-going support
throughtelephone contact for parents/carers or face to face
sessionswith parent/carer and/or child/young person. To work time limited
with children/young people and families
1.5.
To remain within budget target for service and number of
sessions.
1.6.
To attend schools to provide face to face support and to
liaise with school staff, parent or carer.
1.7.
To actively identify and safeguard children, young
people and their families when necessary, working within the Local Authority
and Hospices safeguarding policies and procedures.
1.8.
To lead and facilitate group work with children/young
people and their families on pre and post bereavement support using a range of
mediums.
1.9.
Work with the Family Support Services Lead to develop
bereavement support within the service including group work and training.
1.10. To support a
programme of training and within the role to lead and facilitate on providing
training to professionals internally and externally and
parents/carers.
1.11. To provide clients
with a safe, secure and appropriate environment to express their feelings and
emotions through a range of therapeutic support interventions such as play;
drawings, story-telling etc.
1.12. To undertake loss
and bereavement work with children and young people to help them understand the
changes in their families; to develop on-going coping strategies they can use
and to help them find the answers to their questions.
1.13. To liaise
effectively with other agencies both statutory and voluntary and other
professionals as required and for the purposes of signposting parents and young
people.
1.14. To participate in
and help facilitate activities and events for children and families including
support groups.
1.15. To actively engage
with hard to reach families / communities and support them in accessing support
services.
1.16. To act as a link for
Hospice services including Inpatient Unit and Hospice Community Services
to support children and young people whose loved one is being cared for in
these settings, working with staff to provide resources and training in how
best to support children, young people and families facing loss and
bereavement.
1.17. To participate in
the clinical review of Family Support Work andcounselling work via weekly
triage meetings to meet the needs of the client and to recognise the
limitations of the service for referral onwards and signposting.
1.18. To support parents
to help them cope with their own and their childrens feelings of anxiety, loss
and grief and to give information about the adult counselling service, Dove,
and refer into the service, if necessary.
Thereby facilitating and supporting family consistency in the
support.
1.19. To support parents
to communicate in an honest an open way with their children about the
bereavement and life limiting illnesses and its impact on the family.
1.20. To provide the
family with support, information, resources andmaterials.
1.21. To be able to
deliver support face to face, virtually and by telephone, therefore having
knowledge and experience of Zoom and Teams.
1.22. To be confident to
use different computer packages including Office 365 Work, Excel, SharePoint
and to use a patient record system (i.e. SystmOne) and open to the idea of new
computer systems in the future.
1.23. To maintain client
confidentiality at all times.
1.24.
To maintain professional boundaries in all child/young
person, parent and family work and to work within the Hospices Code of
Conduct.
2.
ORGANISATIONAL
2.1.
To maintain clear, contemporaneous and confidential
records in line with Hospice policy, contributing to the production of reports
as required.
2.2.
To liaise and develop links with other relevant
professionals and community groups in the Hospice, Health, Education, Local
Authorities Social Care and the Third Sector to promote the service.
2.3.
To contribute to the development of the service by
sharing ideas, planning and delivering evidence based interventions.
2.4.
To maintain an awareness of relevant information and
resources that may offer support and assistance to children and families.
2.5.
To ensure children, young people and vulnerable adults
are safe and to refer to other statutory services should you be at all
concerned about behaviours and/or vulnerability. To have a thorough understanding
of Hospice Safeguarding policies.
2.6.
To recognise the diversity within our community and
ensure that all activities are inclusive.
2.7.
To keep up to date with administrative tasks and
maintain activity statistics, to include participating in collation of impact
data and contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the role and the
service.
2.8.
To encourage and support children and families to
express their views and contribute to service development.
2.9.
To maintain and develop relevant skills and work to the
highest standards.
2.10.
To attend regular team meetings, at least 6 out of 12
per year.
2.11.
To triage new referrals into the Lukes service with the
Lukes team by attending weekly triage meetings.
2.12.
To attend regular one to one sessions with the Family Support
Services Lead.
2.13.
To inform the service lead of any referrals not suitable
forthe service and to signpost these referrals onto more
appropriateservices.
3.
MANAGERIAL/ORGANISATIONAL or PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
3.1.
To work across all hospice sites and other settings e.g.
schools as required.
3.2.
To be flexible in approach and undertake other duties as
appropriate, including some working in the evenings and at weekends.
3.3.
To participate actively in one to ones and Individual
Performance Review with line manager.
3.4.
To undertake continuing professional development as
agreed and to identify own ongoing educational needs with the Family Support
Services Lead to achieve the development needs.
3.5.
To participate in the development of innovative practice
and service delivery along with the team.
3.6.
To attend yearly mandatory training sessions required by
all staffemployed by St Lukes Hospice.
4. GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES
4.1 The post
holder must acquire and maintain an up to date working knowledge of all Hospice
Strategies, Policies & Procedures.
4.2 The post
holder will ensure Health & Safety regulations are adhered to.
4.3 The post holder will assist in ensuring the economical
use and ordering of materials and equipment,
maintaining an awareness of the need for good housekeeping and helping to
ensure unit expenditure is
within budgetary limits.
4.4 The post
holder will maintain strict confidentiality within the Hospice and ensure that all
staff and
volunteers under their management
adhere to the Hospice Confidentiality
Policy.
4.5 The post holder will be aware of and show a willingness
to participate in other activities as may occur from time
to time in order to promote the Hospice within the community.
4.6 The post holder will undertake any other duties which
are considered to be consistent and relevant to the
post.
4.7 The post holder will liaise with other services to
ensure continuity of care, and to improve palliative
care for patients in the community.
