Early Help Family Worker

Early Help Family Worker – 9 month FTC

Halton integrated contact and referral team (iCART) are currently looking for a Temporary Early Help Family Worker to be based in the multi-agency front door to Children and Family’s Services. 

Our Story:

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’. 

Your Contributions:

As an Early Help Family Worker, you will have previous experience of working with families of children aged 0-18 years who are dealing with issues such as  mental health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, CSE and CCE, housing and financial difficulties.

You will be responsible for screening early help referrals into the team.  Referrals generally come from the Police, schools, health colleagues and directly from families.  This involves reviewing the referral and checking databases for past and present involvement therefore you must be competent in using IT.   You will need to liaise with multi-agency colleagues to gather further information and agree support that they can offer.  You will speak with families directly over the telephone in order to find out what strengths and challenges are present for them.  You must have the ability to analyse information and to identify risks, including safeguarding issues, for children and families. 

You will need to present your work in a clear and concise manner and must have excellent writing skills.  You will need to make recommendations for the correct pathway of support, in keeping with Halton’s Continuum of Need Framework.  You will need to work to high quality and tight timescales therefore, must be able to work well under pressure. 

The role involves having some challenging conversations with professionals and parents / carers which, will require you to have excellent communication skills.  When appropriate you will advise that a MAP (early help) assessment is completed and will need to identify an appropriate navigator (lead).  You must keep children at the centre of all your work and ensure that their voice is heard.  You will also deal with social care colleagues and managers with regards to cases you identify in need of a social work screening, due to safeguarding concerns that you have identified.

The role is office based at the Municipal Building in Widnes.  This is a full-time post for 37 hours per week.  This post is a temporary position until December 2025.  Working hours need to be in agreement with the operational hours of the service and the team need to cover Monday to Thursday between 8.30 and 5.30 and Friday between 8.30 - 4.40.

Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites
• Flexible working arrangements
• Car leasing schemes

Next Steps:

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Nicola Scott (Principal Manager) on 0151 511 7426 or Danielle Smallshaw (Senior Early Help Officer) on 0151 511 8685.

Interviews will provisionally be held on 2nd April. 

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcing@halton.gov.uk

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!