Family Front Door Practitioner

About the job

Key information

• Permanent – one full time position for 37 hours and one part time for 29.6 hours
• 30 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
• We understand the importance of ongoing professional development (CPD) and are committed to supporting practitioners in enhancing their skills and advancing their careers. Regular CPD sessions are organised internally, featuring contributions from social workers as well as external agencies.
• Hybrid working with two days minimum in the office at Express Park

What will I be doing?

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset – and you’ll be a key part of that.

The Family Front Door is a fast paced and exciting team ensuring that the children and families that we work with receive the right service the first time. Family Front Door Practitioners review Early Help Assessments that are submitted for the Family Intervention Service, gather information in order to assess and make recommendations as to whether this is the required outcome, or alternatively if the family needs to be sign posted to another agency to meet the families needs.

The role will include partnership engagement, offering advice and guidance in implementing Somerset’s continuum of need as identified in the SSCP document “Effective Support for Children & Families” and ensuring the effective operation of the Early Help Assessment.

You will:

• Respond to requests for intervention for the Family Intervention Service for children aged 0-18.
• Be expected to liaise with members of the public and professionals over the telephone in order to gather and assess information to determine what level of intervention is required.
• Work on a duty rota system within the team (within normal working hours), which allows for variation and development of skills including duty, delivering training and quality assurance work.

What kind of experience or qualifications do I need?

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be.

You will:

• Champion Early Help in a variety of settings.
• Have experience of supporting children with disabilities and/or additional needs and their families.
• Promote integrated working.
• Provide support, advice and guidance in relation to the Early Help Assessment (EHA) and the Continuum of Need and Intervention.
• Assist in the assessment of need, planning and review of Early Help services
• Form effective working relationships with partners and colleagues.
• Take responsibility for your own work and demonstrate a willingness to learn from others and from experience.
• Understand and adopt anti-discriminatory practice.
• Make decisions and giving advice and guidance when professionals submit Early Help Assessments (EHA) requesting Family Intervention Support for a child or young person.
• Have a solid knowledge of the ‘Effective Support for Children and Families’ document and being able to apply this.
• Ensure the provision of a duty rota providing advice to a range of front line staff regarding the processes for making referrals, advice on completing an EHA and signposting to early help services available within Somerset.

The role also involves speaking with service users and using feedback from service users to inform decision making regarding referrals and to inform service improvement.

Family Front Door Practitioners also have a responsibility for championing the EHA in multi-agency forums, making necessary amendments to the EHA and ensuring that guidance on Professional Choices is up to date. There is the opportunity to be involved in quality assurance work with partner agencies to help improve the quality of EHA’s being submitted to ensure that children and young people are getting the right service.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

What is in it for me?

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more.

DBS check

DBS Check required

Supporting documents and information

For an informal chat about the role, please contact Hannah Crothers or Becky Twinn on 01278 454067 or via email: hannah.crothers@somerset.gov.uk  becky.twinn@somerset.gov.uk 

Interviews will be held week commencing 5 January 2026

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button – we can’t wait to hear from you.

Apply on the Somerset Council website

Apply now