Independent Lifelong Links Coordinator – Southwark Council

Southwark’s Lifelong links and FGC Service

Family Group Conferences and lifelong links are at the heart Southwark’s systemic and restorative approaches to supporting children, young people and families. Southwark has an established, yet innovative FGC Service based within our Quality Assurance department within which our Lifelong links service sits.

As part of our planned growth we are continuing to expand our Lifelong Links service with support from the Department for Education and the Family Rights Group. We want to recruit passionate, creative and skilled Lifelong links Coordinators as we are substantially increasing the number of Lifelong Links FGCs for our Children in Care and Care Leavers.

The Role:

You will work systemically and restoratively to develop purposeful working relationships with children, young people, their families, wider families and their social support networks, keeping the child’s / young person’s voice at the centre of the Lifelong Links intervention.

You will work in line with the principles that underpin the Family Group Conferencing / Lifelong Links model and build effective professional relationships with colleagues across Southwark Children’s Services to deliver a high quality and effective support to strength social support networks for Southwark children and young people.

We expect our Lifelong links coordinators to spend up to 40 hours per allocation and for the Lifelong Links FGC to be completed within 12 to 16 weeks of allocation.

About You:

As an Independent Lifelong links Coordinator, you will need to be self-motivated, adaptable, dynamic and organised, with a drive to help empower children and families to plan and make positive changes in their lives.

You will need to be inclusive, anti-racist, and culturally sensitive and have experience of working with families who face adversity and where there is concern about the safety and / or wellbeing of children.

You will need to be skilled in communicating with children, young people and their family members, be familiar with using Genograms and Ecomaps to explore family relationships and be confident in organising and chairing meetings as well as mediating and managing conflict.

The Benefits:

• The opportunity of working within an experienced and innovative team where reflective, relationship-based, systemic and restorative practice is supported and encouraged
• The unique opportunity to develop your skills in delivering Lifelong links with the support of the Lifelong links team in Southwark which includes lifelong links social workers, a clinical practitioner, project officer and team manager.
• Access to a 4-day systemic training course from Southwark’s Clinical Service (including 1-day on cultural Genograms)
• Access to monthly practice development meetings.