Purpose of the post
•Ensure that the people of Gwynedd are at the heart of everything we do.
•The role of the Community and Family Engagement Officer is to assist in tackling underachievement by working in partnership with families, parents, carers, pupils and other agencies where appropriate to enable pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, to have full access to educational opportunities and to support families to overcome barriers to learning and participation in school life and in the life of their communities.
•The Community and Family Engagement Officer will focus their work on preventative and early intervention activities. They will work with where presenting needs are below the thresholds that trigger the involvement of Statutory services. The coordination of services will be a key focus developing an integrated model with partners with schools as the central point.
Responsibility for functions
•Laptop
•Mobile phone
Main duties
•Work with Family Liaison Officers within individual schools to identify hard-to-reach families and those disengaging from the education system or who are disadvantaged through poverty including at key transition stages
•Host meetings with partners to integrate approaches across organisational boundaries and to support partners, to improve engagement and outcomes for families.
•Represent schools as part of the partnership approach and maintain accurate picture of the progress of families as a central point of contact interlinking with agencies and dedicated officers engaging with families e.g. (FLO/Keyworker/Lead worker)
•Develop over time shared approaches to ensure families are having joined up messaging between schools and external partner interventions and that these are being utilised
•Work with partners to identify the impacts on individual families/young people of the interventions received through developing shared impact measures.
Parenting support and information:
•Understand the primary rights and responsibilities of parents to raise their children, and support parents by helping them to improve their parenting skills for example by providing appropriate information or referrals to a wide range of community based services.
•Work with school based FLOs to identify community support for parents of children with early signs of social, emotional, health or behavioural issues, and work with support agencies to prevent problems worsening and interfering with the child’s ability to engage with school and learning.
•Provide impartial information or referrals to parents about relevant local services available to parents, children and families including those provided by education, social care, youth justice, childcare providers, the voluntary sector and others.
•Parental engagement with their child’s learning working in partnership with the Community Focused Schools Manager to identify ways in which to support parents to building their engagement with their child’s learning
•Support parents and their children through transitions to ensure continual engagement with learning.
•Ensure parents feel confident to engage with their child’s learning by facilitating and arranging family learning opportunities within the community such as English as an additional Language (EAL) and computer literacy classes in partnership with local providers.
•Carry out home visits where appropriate to support parents in encouraging their children to maintain full and regular engagement in learning
Reporting:
•Keep records and all documentation pertaining to meetings/contact with children and young people and their families.
•Work closely with Community Focused Schools Manager to ensure good record keeping and that information is shared in a timely manner. Liaison with other agencies
•Participate in internal and cross-organisation working groups as appropriate for exchange of information and 'best practice'.
• Attend such meetings as may be required to further improve attendance, help to inform other services, or further develop the role.
•Keep up to date on the range of agencies working locally in order to maintain knowledge of services that parents might be signposted to.
•Responsibility for self-development.
•Ensure compliance with Health and Safety rules in the workplace in accordance with the responsibilities noted in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Council’s Health and Safety Policy.
•Operate within the Council’s policies in relation to equal opportunities and equality.
•Responsible for managing information in accordance with the Council’s information management guidelines. Ensure that personal information is treated in accordance with Data Protection legislation.
•Commitment to reducing the Council’s carbon emissions in accordance with the Carbon Management Plan, and to encourage others to act positively towards reducing the Council’s Carbon Footprint.
•Undertake any other reasonable duty which corresponds to the salary level and responsibility level of the job.
•Responsibility to report any concern or suspicion that a child or vulnerable adult is being abused.
Special circumstances
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