What is a Family Support Worker?
4 min read
Working with children and their families is an important role and one that provides high job satisfaction. Family support workers are vital for many parents, as they offer emotional support and practical help to those who are struggling. In this article, we’ll outline everything you need to know about the role of a family support worker, including what their responsibilities are and how to become a family support worker if this highly-rewarding role is one you’re looking to pursue.
What is the Role of a Family Support Worker?
A family support worker is a person who provides vital support to families to help empower parents, ensure the wellbeing of children, create a healthy family environment and prevent problems and risks from developing that could lead to children going into care.
Typically, family support workers are employed by the local authority, health and social care services or charities but they can work in a range of settings, including schools and private homes. Sometimes, this job role goes by a different title, such as a family intervention officer, a family outreach officer, a parenting support worker or a key worker.
Family support workers work with all types of families on a variety of issues, both practical and emotional, and can be with a family on either a short-term or long-term basis. Once a family is referred to a family support worker via social services, the support worker will look to build a positive relationship with the family to help address their needs.
The exact role of a family support worker changes depending on the particular family they’re helping. Each family is unique and will need assistance with different areas, whether it’s alcohol addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, language barriers, parenting skills, financial difficulties, a child with special educational needs or a parent going to prison; the range of topics a family support worker helps with is vast.
Family Support Worker Responsibilities
Family support worker responsibilities are wide-ranging and varied. You may specialise in a particular issue in a particular setting, or you may be responsible for assisting all types of families with all different needs.
Examples of family support worker responsibilities include:
- Assessing families’ individual needs to create tailored support plans and strategies.
- Working closely with parents, carers and school staff to implement support plans.
- Liaising with children’s schools and other health and social care professionals they are involved with.
- Supporting children’s learning and development, particularly those children with special educational needs (SEN).
- Helping vulnerable children transition between schools.
- Providing emotional support to families and parents.
- Advising parents on the support available for their child.
- Applying for benefit support on behalf of families or making referrals to relevant services, such as food banks.
- Attending doctors appointments with parents.
- Translating for parents who speak English as a second language.
- Attending court sessions with a family, such as those related to care orders or rehabilitation.
- Staying up-to-date about what local services are available to families.
- Recording observations from home visits, such as parental attitudes and home conditions.
- Record keeping and maintaining accurate and up-to-date records.
- Holding regular review meetings with individuals and families to track their progress.
- Adhering to professional standards, such as those related to safeguarding and confidentiality.
Want to Learn More?
Family support workers have an important role to play when it comes to safeguarding children, as they are well-placed to identify concerns, address problems and prevent children from coming to harm. Our range of online Safeguarding Courses will help you learn everything you need to know about your child protection responsibilities.
Family Support Worker Responsibilities on Home Visits
Family support workers often visit the homes of families to help support them with specific issues or to demonstrate particular techniques, such as those related to parenting skills. For example, a family support worker may help with:
- Developing basic home management skills, such as cleaning skills and cooking skills.
- Learning bathing, dressing and potty training techniques.
- Encouraging parents to provide affection to and engage with their children.
- Developing hands-on activities that parents and children can do together to encourage bonding, emotional development and physical abilities.
- Expanding parents’ knowledge of different educational and play-based learning methods.
- Helping parents understand appropriate child discipline measures and how to manage challenging behaviour.
- Providing support during family crises, such as if a parent is hospitalised, in rehab or in prison.
- Offering practical guidance on managing household finances, such as budgeting skills, improving financial literacy and better money management.
- Assisting with applications and paperwork, such as benefit claims and housing requests.
How to Become a Family Support Worker
To become a family support worker, you’ll need a qualification in a relevant subject plus some experience of working with children and their families.
A level 3 college qualification is the most common route to become a family support worker. To begin a college course, you’ll typically need to have obtained five GCSEs (or equivalent) at grades 9-4 (A*-C), including Maths and English. The level 3 qualification can be in any subject relevant to the role of family support worker, such as:
- Advice and guidance.
- Childcare.
- Community work.
- Counselling.
- Early years.
- Education.
- Health and social care.
- Youth work.
Completing an apprenticeship is another way to become a family support worker. You could complete an apprenticeship in any relevant topic, such as the Early Intervention Practitioner or Children, Young People and Families Practitioner courses. To begin an apprenticeship, you usually need at least two GCSEs at grades 9-4 (A*-C) or equivalent.
Another qualification option is to obtain a university degree in a topic like education, social work, childhood studies or psychology. Whilst it’s not a requirement to have a degree to be a family support worker, these courses provide a lot of essential knowledge that will be highly beneficial to the role, particularly if you want to specialise in a certain area.
To become a family support worker, you’ll also need to have some sort of experience of working with children and families, whether it’s paid or voluntary, alongside your qualification.
To work with children and vulnerable groups, you’ll also need to prove that you have up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding procedures – a certificate from a Safeguarding Children Course would be valuable to your job application – plus an enhanced DBS check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
By offering both emotional and practical support, family support workers play a vital role in helping families overcome challenges and create more supportive environments for their children. The role of a family support worker gives you the opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of families, contributing to the wellbeing of both parents and children, and is a very rewarding career path to pursue.
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