Family Practitioner

About the role

We are looking to recruit a passionate and committed Family Practitioner to join our newly established ‘Keeping Families Together’ team within Bury Children's Social Care and Family Help service. Keeping Families Together is a new initiative which focusses on providing short term (between 6 and 12 weeks) intensive support to children, young people and families who are identified as experiencing multiple and complex issues. This is an exciting time to join our new service as we look for a passionate individual who will strive to deliver positive outcomes that make a real difference to our children, young people and families.

The family practitioners will be allocated a number of children and families whom they will provide intensive support and intervention to. The family practitioners will be responsible for undertaking assessments, developing plans, and engaging with the whole family to ensure that they are provided with the right support at the right time.

The team will support families where there are children / young people who are identified as;

• likely to require accommodating / looking after by the local authority unless intensive support is provided.
• Or, living with connected carers, and the arrangement is fragile and would result in a child having to be cared for by the local authority without intensive support.
• Or, requiring intensive support during a plan of reunification
• Or, being in acute distress and there is a risk of family breakdown without immediate support.

The team will work with children and young people between the ages of 8 and 18, along with their families providing time limited periods of intervention. They will use a variety of approaches to assist in rebuilding relationships and supporting children and young people to remain safely in the care of their family and promoting long-term sustainable change. The practice model is trauma informed and building relationships with, and within families will be central to the delivery and success of the keeping families together team. The team will engage with the family’s wider support networks to build resilience and strength within the family unit and support them to develop their own plans detailing how problems and difficulties can be managed without the need for professional intervention.

The core team will be required to work flexibly, and work around the family to address the areas of need identified, developing and delivering bespoke intervention work that will be delivered in a planned way. Members of staff will work their core hours (37 hours) flexibly between 7am and 8pm Monday to Friday depending on a family’s needs. Staff will also be expected to work a Saturday between the hours of 9am and 5pm on a rota basis, however, would have a day off during the week to compensate, and receive an enhanced weekend payment.

The service is borough wide but will be based at 3 Knowsley Place / Elizabethan Suite in Bury.

Normal hours of work are 37 hours per week based around the usual business working week. Dependent on service requirements, you may be required to work on a rota basis.

About Bury
The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare or children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory disclosure at the appropriate level under the Disclosure and Barring Service.
In line with safer recruitment, please ensure that your application/CV covers your full employment history and there is a reason noted for any gaps in employment. Successful candidates will be asked to provide relevant references for the past ten years and character references will not be accepted.

As a Corporate Parent, ensure that the work and services you deliver considers our care experienced young people, promotes their life chances empowers them to influence the policies, services, and decisions that affect them, champions their rights, and ensure they grow up in the best possible way

Benefits of working for Bury Council
To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit A good employer | greater jobs
We support employees to work with agility, where appropriate for the post and service requirements.
We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises values and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children/ care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria.

Next steps

If this sounds like an opportunity you would like to know more about, we would love to hear from you. To arrange for an informal discussion please email Andy Morris, Project Officer at a.morris@bury.gov.uk, indicating the role applied for and your contact telephone number, who will schedule a conversation with the responsible head of service Jen Rust.

Please note applicant shortlisting will take place w/c 18th November with interviews taking place w/c 2nd December, dates TBC.

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