Helplines Practitioner

Salary: Circa £23,000 per annum, plus Homeworking allowance.

Location: Homebased in the Barking and Dagenham locality.

Contract/Hours: 12-month Fixed Term (1st April 2023 until 31st March 2024) or Secondment, Full Time.
Service hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm, working three 9am to 5pm shifts and two 12pm to 8pm shifts per week.

Benefits: 29 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays, professional qualifications, excellent training and development opportunities, flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages, up to 7% employer contribution pension, discount portal with your favourite brands and Blue Light Card eligibility.

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.

A bit about the role

Parent Talk provides support to parents through an online chat and telephone support platform and as part of a team of Helpline Practitioners.

How you’ll help to create brighter futures

You will be home-based and join our team across the country as a digital professional to support parents/carers in Barking and Dagenham with an array of issues. As a Helplines Practitioner, you’ll be:

  • Providing high quality parenting support to parents through the Action for Children national Parent Talk service via online chat and telephone.
  • Delivering complex and specialist interventions with parents/carers on a 1:1 or group basis.
  • Retaining accurate and contemporaneous records, using various IT systems to capture information and to produce written reports and present these as necessary.
  • Ensuring a safe and positive work and service environment is achieved through compliance with all safeguarding, safer recruitment, health and safety policy and procedure

Let’s talk about you

Our job description for the Helplines Practitioner outlines the requirements of the role but the ‘must-haves’ are:

  • A relevant Level 3 qualification.
  • Experience of working within a multi-agency social care, early years or health environment and applying safeguarding procedures, in particular within a virtual environment.
  • Experience of delivering parenting interventions.
  • Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage your own workload within required guidelines.
  • The ability to work own initiative.
  • The ability and willingness to work remotely.
  • Excellent IT skills and to be quick to learn new IT systems and processes.

This role also requires the applicant to live in or near Barking and Dagenham.

Good to know

Application Process: There are five sections to complete: Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration.

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.

Don’t meet every single requirement?

Studies show that women and Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic people are less likely to apply for a job unless they meet every qualification. So, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with the job description, we’d love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.