Children and Families Practitioner

Salary: £25,000 per annum, pro rata plus £1700 island allowance 

Location: Orkney, Scotland 

Contract/Hours: Permanent / We have Full Time – 37 hours per week and Part Time - 20 hours per week contracts available 

Closing date for applications will be midnight on Sunday 29th June and interviews are provisionally scheduled for Tuesday 8th July.

Benefits:

• 29 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays, with up to 5 additional days for continuous service and option to buy or sell leave 
• Gain professional qualifications and excellent training/development opportunities 
• Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages 
• Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover 
• Staff discount portal and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers discounts.  

A bit about the role

Action for Children’s Orkney service is delivered in partnership with Orkney Health and Care, NHS Orkney, Education, the Police, and other local organisations, with funding from Orkney Islands Council, Orkney ADP and The Corra Foundation. In Orkney, we provide early intervention services for young people aged 8–18 through two key strands: the Orkney Emotional Wellbeing Service, supporting emotional health and resilience, and Skipta, which supports young people impacted by alcohol or substance misuse—either their own or someone elses.

As a Children and Families Practitioner, you’ll work directly with young people and their families to improve wellbeing, resilience, and relationships, providing support around issues such as family conflict, educational challenges, or difficulties in the community. Using a child-centred approach, you’ll offer both short-term and longer-term support, help families adopt positive parenting strategies, and provide follow-up support to ensure lasting outcomes. Referrals are accepted from a wide range of professionals, as well as self-referrals from families and young people. 

If you’re passionate about making a difference and supporting children to thrive, we’d love to hear from you.

How you'll help to create brighter futures

Some key responsibilities of the Children and Families Practitioner role are;

• Assessing family needs through observations, home visits, and discussions with children and parents/carers.
• Developing support plans tailored to individual children and families, often as part of Early Help or safeguarding interventions.
• Providing direct support to children, young people, and their families to improve emotional well-being, parenting, relationships, and daily routines.
• Working collaboratively with schools, health professionals, social workers, and other agencies to provide coordinated support.
• Monitoring and reviewing the progress of families against their agreed goals and updating plans accordingly.
• Safeguarding children, identifying risks, and escalating concerns in line with safeguarding procedures.

Let's talk about you

• Ideally, a HNC and SVQ 3 in a social care discipline, or a qualification in social care, nursing or education
• Experience of Delivering complex and specialist interventions with children, young people or families on a 1:1 basis, group or community setting
• Experience of working with young people and their families.
• Safeguarding knowledge.
• Driving licence and access to a car. The job requires the ability to travel according to the needs of the job, with reasonable adjustments, if required, according to the Equality Act.

Vulnerable children in the UK need your help

Wherever you work in the Action for Children family, you'll be helping to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in the UK.

Last year, we helped more than 670,000 children and families across the UK. From direct work in communities to national campaigning, we are focused on making sure every child has a safe and happy childhood, and the foundations they need to thrive.

Why Action for Children?

Working here is more than a job. Everyone in the Action for Children family is passionate about protecting and supporting children. It's the sense of purpose that drives us every single day. Because we know that, when we work together, we can make a huge difference to bring lasting improvements to vulnerable children's lives.

Good to know 

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Diversity, equality and inclusion 
At Action for Children, we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. 

We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within Action for Children. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups in society and for Action for Children. 

Male staff are under-represented within our Children Service roles. We would like to encourage more male applicants for our Children Service roles.