"I started my career as Business Support Admin for Early Help. I always wanted to progress to a Children and Families Support Worker, so I completed a year of shadowing and volunteering with the Early Help team. This experience greatly improved my understanding of the role. I became a Children and Families Support Worker 3 years ago, since then I have worked with many families from various backgrounds. My favourite part of my role is the relationships I build with the families I work with, and the support I can give them to help improve their lives."
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Making a difference to the lives of children and young people in North Yorkshire.
Our Children and Families Service has a national reputation for excellence and we are looking for passionate and motivated individuals to come and join this fantastic team.
We strive to excel in giving our team members high levels of support and continuous training to develop their skills and knowledge of systemic practice, family seeing, signs of safety and so much more!
We look for innovative people to achieve our ambition of ensuring children, young people and their families in North Yorkshire are happy, safe and have better life chances and choices by providing the right support at the right time delivered by the right people.
Our early help practitioners work with children and families to build on their capacity and resources to manage their own dilemmas, resolve their own difficulties and prevent further problems in the future. Early help is the response offered by all services in contact with children, young people and families when an unmet need is identified. Our work has a strong focus on partnerships and collaboration.
Youth justice is embedded across the work of early help, as engaging young people at an early stage can help prevent escalation into the youth justice system, and help stop future offending.
Our current job opportunities
There are currently no job opportunities.
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Hear from some of our team
Kate Hendry - Children and Families Support Worker
Clara Pickard - Children and Families Support Worker
"After a career in Education, I came to work for the council three years ago during this time I have been given lots of opportunities to gain additional qualifications and been supported in achieving career progression. It was important to me that I felt able to progress and I have found that everyone is eager to see you succeed and are happy to support you in your career journey, I am currently doing a Children and Families Worker role on a secondment for 12 months. Flexible working conditions are a huge benefit too!"
Rachel Gott - Children and Families Worker
"Where do I start? Interesting, diverse, challenging, fun, great people, and great support. I joined Early Help in 2015 in a Children and Families Support Role. My learning and professional development has been supported through lots of training, peer support, supervision, constructive team meetings and probably most importantly, practice and experiences with the families. Throughout the years, the role has changed considerably to meet the needs of a more targeted client group. Now focusing on those that really need quality support from the Early Help services to avoid decline and need for Social Care intervention. I have found value in working side by side, with families to recognise strengths, increase aspirations and positive solutions to reach better life chances. Each family's success however small has made my job rewarding. I have recently been successful in my application for the post of Children and Family Worker. I have found support from colleagues and management, very encouraging. I look forward to continuing my journey with North Yorkshire Council."
Jay Bradley - Children and Families Worker
"I started my role as a Children and Families Worker in March 2020, the very start of lockdown. Whilst it was difficult to adjust, I was never short of support. I have been in post for 2 years and no two days are ever the same. I love working for such a supportive team where training and learning opportunities are always provided to enhance my skills and knowledge. I moved into this post after studying for a combined BA degree in Children, Young People and Families (with) Special Educational Needs, Disabilities and Inclusion. Each day I am able to use my degree in different areas, which helps me to enrich my learning and practice. The best bits about my role are definitely the families I am privileged to work alongside and support as well as the team I work with, it really is a great place to work."
Jess Fanning - Children and Families Worker
"I have been working for the council for nearly twenty years – first as a secondary school teacher and then within the Children and Families Service as an Inclusion Officer. I then became a Social Worker having trained via the Step up to Social Work Post Graduate training programme and now as a Children and Families Worker. Throughout my career, I have felt supported by North Yorkshire in my own personal development. I have worked within fantastic teams who all want the best for the children and families they work with and are always willing and able to support one another. I am enjoying my work in the Early Help team it is challenging but also a very rewarding role as we continue to support families in resolving difficulties in their lives and making positive changes."
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Fantastic feedback following our Family Finding Boot Camp
We held a Family Finding Boot Camp November 2020. This Boot Camp brought together our children and families staff to learn from one another; discussions involving the wider family networks in supporting the children we work for. Teaching urgency of involving the individuals who love their child to improve their health outcome.
Here are just some of our comments following the amazing four days we held.
“Really inspirational training, an honour to be part of this. Thanks to you and Jo, along with Kevin and Elizabeth for guiding us through and helping up absorb the content. I am sure that the March boot camp will be just as amazing - hope all that are on it thoroughly enjoy.”
“The most important thing I took from the training is the message of love. We talk about professional boundaries but we join people in their lives at times of crisis so why can we not show love? Also my position of worker, I am not the doer of everything - I am the catalyst / facilitator.”
“It is really important to slow your thinking down, spend time, prepare those best questions because they give you so much – honouring parents and young people.”
“Need to make sure the family are SEEN. I am going to ask questions of the team about love - who loves this child?”
“It has been really interesting as a SW from another authority to hear how North Yorkshire support and empower the young people you work with.”
Partner in practice - sector lead improvement programme
As a partner in practice and now a sector lead improvement programme, we are leading the way in how we support children, young people and their families; our work is child-centred and there is a longstanding, clearly embedded model of practice, based on building effective relationships with children, young people and families. We work collaboratively with other local authorities on a range of practice developments during their improvement journey.
Strength in relationships practice model
Hear from Jo Miles, our Principal Social Worker, about the strength in relationships practice model in this video.
Opportunities within North Yorkshire Council
It is important for us that our teams have manageable workloads, supportive and transparent management and the opportunity for continuous professional development.
We understand our work can be challenging but we are committed to creating a healthy culture where everyone feel that they have a forum to share their views about the organisation and environment in which they work. We strive to achieve the very best practice by taking accountability and developing new ways of working. This has enabled a culture where workers and managers feel confident, safe and supported.
Not only will you receive outstanding training, you will work in a truly passionate and talented team with full support and guidance available.
Please feel free to contact us for a discussion about opportunities available.
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Working for us - what we can offer you
We can offer you a range of employee benefits, including a competitive salary, generous leave entitlement, a government pension scheme and access to our ‘Everybody Benefits’ package, which includes a variety of retail discounts.
You will be fully enabled through mobile kit to work in a highly agile way at locations across designated local authorities.
We can offer you a comprehensive benefits package including:
- modern flexible working practices
- a local government pension scheme
- family friendly leave
- salary sacrifice, employee cash backs and discounts schemes
- learning, development and career advancement opportunities
We can offer you multiple opportunities for career progression working across diverse services and with access to a range of technologies to support modern and agile ways of working.
As a council we are very much committed to encouraging flexible working for our employees, which will include using modern technologies to connect with clients, working from other bases across the county as well as working from home.
You can find out more about working for the council and the benefits we offer here.
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Living and working in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a thriving county that adapts to a changing world and remains a special place to live and work.
North Yorkshire's natural beauty is captured in its three areas of outstanding natural beauty, national nature reserves, stunning coastlines, scenic rural villages, vibrant cities and market towns. North Yorkshire really is a beautiful, thriving and special place to live and work, rich in heritage and culture.
The Quality of Life index aims to quantify where living standards are highest in the UK by ranking local performance across a range of indicators. Richmondshire was placed second in the list, a position boosted by excellent personal wellbeing factors including life satisfaction and happiness. Hambleton was placed fourth and Ryedale was placed eighth, a truly commendable achievement and another incredible accolade for North Yorkshire.
In addition, the county benefits from excellent road and rail links, with easy access via the east coast mainline, the A1(M) and A19. Leeds, York, Newcastle, Durham and Teesside are all easily commutable, and London is just two hours away by train.
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Application tips
Before completing your application please ensure that you read the job description and person specification carefully - the information within these documents can be used as a guide for you to complete your supporting evidence section within your application.
This section is very important and will play a key role in the success of your application so please take you time when completing it.
Please note, to be successfully shortlisted, managers will use your supporting evidence and will not consider any CVs uploaded.
If you are having any difficulties completing your application and would like some advice on this, please contact Resourcing Solutions by emailing ResourcingSolutions@northyorks.gov.uk.