Senior Family Support Worker

• Service: Family Assessment Centre (Supporting Up to 3 Families)

• Location: Cambridge (CB4)

• Salary: £16.00 per hour

• Hours: 37.5hours per week

If you have ever sat with a parent at their lowest point and watched them find their feet again, you will know exactly what this role is asking of you, and that is not something every service can offer you the space to do properly.

This is a family assessment centre, families come here under direction from the courts or the local authority, and over roughly sixteen weeks your job is to observe, support and gently challenge parents while they are assessed on their ability to care safely for their children. It is intense work, it is intimate work, and it asks a level of emotional maturity that a lot of roles in this sector simply do not. For someone who has already worked at a senior level in family assessment or residential childcare and wants to see what happens when the focus shifts from managing a home to helping rebuild a family, this is potentially the most meaningful next step you will find on Indeed this month.

You will be working three twelve hour shifts a week, running from 8am to 8pm, with a paid hour's break built in and an additional 1.5 hours weekly ring fenced for admin, handover and reporting, so the paperwork does not eat into the parts of the job that matter.

What you'll be doing

• Leading day to day support for families within the centre, modelling good parenting practice through direct, hands on interaction

• Supporting the wider team to deliver structured observation and assessment sessions alongside the centre's qualified social worker

• Writing clear, balanced reports that reflect both strengths and areas of concern, since assessments in this setting genuinely shape court decisions

• Mentoring newer or less experienced staff, including supporting them through induction and probation

• Managing risk sensitively, including matching assessments between families sharing communal space

• Building trusted, respectful relationships with parents, some of whom will be understandably wary of anyone connected to a court process

• Working closely with external social workers, local authorities and other professionals involved in each family's case

What you'll bring

• A Level 3 qualification in a relevant childcare or social care discipline

• Senior level experience gained in a residential children's home or comparable setting

• A genuine, non judgemental approach to working with parents and children who may be navigating some of the hardest weeks of their lives

• Confidence writing detailed, evidence based reports under time pressure

• An understanding of safeguarding principles and safer recruitment expectations

• The flexibility to work a rotating shift pattern including full days

• A Full UK Driving Licence

There is something different about working somewhere small enough that your voice shapes how a family's assessment unfolds, maybe that appeals to you more than another shift in a larger, more anonymous setting ever could. If you are ready for work that is purposeful, properly paid, and built around giving you the time to do it well, we would love to hear from you.