Family support worker

The challenging and varied role of a family support worker is ideal for anyone hoping to make a positive impact on the lives of children, young people and families

As a family support worker, you'll offer practical help and emotional support to families experiencing short or long-term difficulties. You'll typically be employed by local authorities' social services departments, charitable organisations or health and social care agencies.

The focus of your role is to empower service users to address various challenges and reduce problems and risks in their lives. You’ll do this by providing hands-on support, and in some cases, you'll help make it possible for children to remain with their family.

You might help parents and children with a range of social and personal issues or specialise in a particular area such as domestic abuse, bereavement or homelessness.

Job titles vary and you may also be known as a:

• early help practitioner
• family intervention officer
• family outreach officer
• family welfare assistant
• key worker
• parenting support worker
• project worker.

Responsibilities

Families are usually referred to you by a social worker, and you may work together to assess and support the service users. Your role will vary depending on the needs of the family you're helping, but you may also have a specialist area, depending on your employer's focus.

The challenges faced by your service users could relate to:

• anti-social behaviour and criminal activity, such as a parent in prison
• behaviour and social interaction
• bereavement and caring responsibilities
• bullying
• disability
• domestic violence and abuse
• drug and alcohol addiction
• education and learning
• finance and debt
• housing and homelessness
• language barriers
• learning difficulties
• marital discord, separation and divorce, including care orders
• mental or physical health issues
• parenting skills
• physical and mental health issues, disabilities and learning difficulties.

As a family support worker, you'll typically need to:

• complete an initial assessment of families' needs so that you can identify and plan the support needed to address issues and prevent any problems from escalating
• undertake regular caseload review meetings with individuals and families during home and community visits to ensure they're fully supported to progress and achieve desired outcomes
• work with social workers, colleagues, other support service professionals and multi-agency networks to evaluate caseload needs and the progress that has been made
• manage your own workload, administration and diary commitments
• assess parenting skills and help people to build physical and emotional caring abilities through a range of practical activities
• help children with learning and development
• enhance parents' understanding of different education and play strategies
• provide practical home management support, such as how to bathe a child properly, how to potty train or how to manage behaviour
• provide budgeting advice to parents so they can manage their household spending
• coach, mentor and motivate families to understand the benefits of relevant activities
• maintain accurate and up-to-date administration and caseload records, including reports of all interactions
• stay with a family during a crisis situation, such as a parent being in hospital
• attend court sessions when relevant, for example in cases of child protection
• adhere to professional practice standards and legislation, including confidentiality, safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion policies
• ensure you're up-to-date on your knowledge of local service provision for appropriate signposting and referrals.

Salary

• Starting salaries for family support workers are typically between £22,000 and £28,000.
• With experience or a particular specialism, you can earn up to £35,000, especially if you're in a supervisory role.
• Salaries for family support workers working as family centre, project and charity managers can be up to £50,000.

Casual, sessional or relief family support workers are typically paid between £13 and £17 per hour.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Full-time family support workers usually work 37 hours per week. There are also part time, casual and job share options available.

You may have to work early mornings, evenings and weekends to accommodate the family's needs and commitments, such as work and school hours.

What to expect

• Your work will usually be split between the office, attending meetings, organising workload, typing reports and updating caseload activities, and the family's home. You may also attend court.
• You'll work in a multidisciplinary team or partnership of support agencies, in a variety of settings including local authority offices, families' homes, schools, nurseries, youth centres, probation offices, homeless refuges, local courts, and the premises of voluntary and charitable organisations.
• The role can be emotionally draining as you could be dealing with sensitive and traumatic issues, including bereavement and neglect. It can also be challenging and involve confrontation, particularly if a family does not welcome your involvement. In some cases, the family may not be ready to engage with you, and therefore not all interactions will have a positive outcome. However, enabling families to overcome wide-ranging challenges and difficult situations means that your role can be extremely varied and highly rewarding.
• Ongoing local authority budget cuts and staffing restructures affecting social care services mean that there may be some uncertainty relating to job security within the public sector. Within the third sector, role security and contract term may depend upon the organisation's funding and charitable grants.
• You'll usually need a driving licence and your own vehicle to visit different locations within your day-to-day role.

Qualifications

Although entry routes into family support worker roles are varied, you'll usually need a combination of relevant experience and qualifications.

Typically, employers seek a minimum of a level 3 qualification in one of the following:

• advice and guidance
• childcare
• community work
• counselling
• education
• early years
• health
• social care
• youth work.

You could also complete a relevant apprenticeship, such as the Early Intervention Practitioner or Children, Young People and Families Practitioner apprenticeships. Search Find an apprenticeship.

Employers will usually expect you to have experience of working with children and their families, and to have knowledge of safeguarding practices and procedures. It may be worth completing a course in safeguarding awareness to support your application.

While you don't have to be a graduate to become a family support worker, the following degree subjects can lead to this career:

• childhood studies
• education
• psychology
• social work
• youth and community work.

To work with children, young people and vulnerable groups, you will need to undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Skills

You will need to show:

• excellent communication and listening skills
• the ability to build and maintain rapport with adults, young people and children
• calmness under pressure and when dealing with challenging or confrontational behaviour
• flexibility and adaptability
• a good understanding of the challenges faced by the families you help
• organisation and problem-solving skills
• resilience and the ability to cope with emotionally-draining and traumatic situations
• commitment to making a positive difference to the lives of service users
• a positive, non-judgemental, empathetic and sensitive approach
• effective teamwork skills, as you'll often be acting within a multidisciplinary service or multi-agency network
• competent IT skills for recording and maintaining accurate data
• the ability to maintain expert knowledge of local services and provision.

You may also need relevant language skills depending on the service users and communities you support.

Work experience

You'll need relevant work experience with children, young people and their families to work as a family support worker. This can be either in a paid or voluntary role. Although structured opportunities such as internships can be harder to find, you may be able to develop skills and experience by working or volunteering in children and family support services.

You could also find work experience opportunities in:

• children's homes
• family community centres
• family refuge centres
• mental health services
• nurseries and schools
• probation services
• youth projects.

Experience in mentoring, advisory work, coaching, problem-solving and supporting children and adults is also helpful when applying for a post. Get involved in activities through your university's volunteering and community services or search for local voluntary opportunities using the Do-it website. Your local volunteer centre may also help you to find relevant work experience.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Jobs are available in the public and not-for-profit sectors in local authority social services departments, specialist support organisations and charities.

You may also work in a school offering support and advice to children who attend the school and their families.

Look for job vacancies at:

• Charity Job
• Children and Young People Now Jobs
• Community Care Jobs
• Jobs Go Public
• LG Jobs

Opportunities are also advertised on individual charity websites and by recruitment agencies, such as Service Care Solutions and Seven Resourcing.

Professional development

It's important that you commit to ongoing learning and development. You'll usually take regular or further training relating to:

• policy and legal frameworks and procedures (including data protection and confidentiality)
• child protection and safeguarding
• assessment methods
• parenting programmes
• health and safety
• first aid
• equality and diversity
• recognising the signs of substance misuse and domestic violence.

You'll need to attend in-house and external training sessions, conferences and seminars to maintain your professional knowledge and skills. You may also undergo supervision.

You can also take qualifications relevant to your specialism. The charity Women's Aid, for example, provides accredited courses in tackling and preventing domestic and sexual violence/abuse. Courses are also available in areas such as bereavement, children's mental health and debt counselling.

Some family support workers choose to work towards higher-level qualifications, including foundation degrees in working with children, young people and families.

If you already have a degree, you can go on to study at postgraduate level in a subject such as childhood studies or family support. Childhood studies is offered in the form of a PGCert, PGDip or a full MA. If you wish to take a postgrad course in family support, there is one option available, which is the MA Family Support at Leeds Trinity University.  

Search for postgraduate courses in family studies.

Career prospects

With experience and relevant qualifications, you may want to specialise in a particular area of family support work, such as homelessness, domestic abuse or supporting people with learning difficulties.

For many family support workers, progression involves moving into supervisory and managerial posts. This typically involves leading a team of staff or running a refuge, project or family centre. Your role will include the planning, delivery and evaluation of family services.

As well as progressing into leadership, strategic, and policy development roles, it's also possible to move into research by taking a PhD in family studies.

Family support workers may choose to progress to become social workers. You can find out more about social work careers via the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).