Family Worker

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 per week

Salary: NJC Grade F SCP 19-24 £32,061 - £35,412 per annum

Closing Date: Thursday 30th July 2026 at 23:59

Awaken – Wider Exploitation Team

About the Role

We are looking for a committed and child-focused Awaken Family Worker to join our Exploitation Team, supporting children and young people who go missing from home or care.

This is a vital role where you will lead on completing Missing From Home Return Interviews (MFHRI), helping to understand each young person’s experiences, identify safeguarding concerns, and support them to feel safe and heard.

You will work within a strengths-based, relationship-led approach, ensuring the voice of the child is central to all work, and contributing to wider planning to reduce future missing episodes.

Key Responsibilities

Complete Return Home Interviews (RHIs) within 72 hours of a young person returning from a missing episode.

Build trusting relationships with children and young people to explore what has happened and understand their lived experiences.

Use Blackpool Families Rock strengths-based practice, ensuring:

The child’s voice is listened to and reflected

Safety planning is co-produced with the young person within every return home interview

Identify any safeguarding concerns or additional support needs and share these appropriately.

Produce clear, high-quality written RHIs for manager quality assurance.

Contribute to and attend Missing From Home Risk Management Meetings, sharing insight and supporting multi-agency planning.

Multiagency Working

Social workers and team managers

Missing From Home Coordinator

Request for Support Hub (RFSH)

Other partner agencies

Support the ongoing development of practice informed by feedback from young people and families.

Desired Experience

Experience working directly with children, young people, or families in a supportive or safeguarding environment

Strong communication skills and the ability to build trusted relationships

Confidence in engaging children and young people around difficult experiences

Understanding of exploitation, missing from home risks, and contextual safeguarding

Ability to analyse information and contribute to effective safety planning

Good recording skills and attention to detail in written work

Commitment to strengths-based and child-centred practice

What We Offer

A supportive team environment within the Awaken service

Regular supervision and guidance from experienced managers

Opportunities for ongoing training and development in exploitation and missing from homework

The chance to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children and young people

to view the Job Description.

Please click here to see the benefits of working for Blackpool Council.

Are you a Blackpool resident aged between 16-24? Would you benefit from some free guidance on producing a quality application for job vacancies such as this one? Blackpool Council?s Youth Hub - The Platform, has highly skilled Employment Advisers that can support you with demonstrating how you can evidence you meet the Essential and Desirable criteria requirements on a Job Description.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children/vulnerable adults. This post is subject to satisfactory reference history of at least two years, Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, medical clearance, evidence of any essential qualifications and proof of Right to Work in the UK in accordance with the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and amendments to the exemptions order, which mean that certain offences are ‘protected’ and do not need to be disclosed, guidance on the "filtering" of offences can be found at New filtering rules for DBS certificates (from 28 November 2020 onwards) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)