Healthy Family Support Practitioner – Chelmsford District

About our service

The Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service (ECFWS) is delivered by HCRG Care Group in partnership with Barnardo's, providing high-quality, community-based support for children, young people, and families. Services are delivered flexibly across Family Hubs, delivery sites, schools, community settings and family homes, ensuring that those most in need are reached effectively through a “services without walls” approach.

Our Services Include:

Health Visiting
Parenting Support
School Nursing
Family Health
Resilience and Child Development
Support for children and young people aged 0–19 (up to 25 for SEND)

For more information, please visit:https://www.essexfamilywellbeing.co.uk

About the Role

We are looking for a passionate and committed Healthy Family Support Practitioner to join our team in the Chelmsford district.

In this role, you will work with children and young people aged 5–19 (up to 25 with SEND) and their families, providing both one-to-one and group base support. You will play a key role in helping young people and families build confidence, resilience, and the skills needed to lead safe, healthy, and positive lives.

Key Responsibilities

Deliver one-to-one and group-based interventions for children, young people, and families
Assess needs and develop tailored plans to achieve positive, measurable outcomes
Provide both universal and targeted support, aligned to service priorities
Use age-appropriate, evidence-informed frameworks in practice
Support parents and carers to enable children to:
Thrive developmentally
Reach their full potential
Be prepared and ready for school

About You

As a Healthy Family Support Practitioner, you will:

Be confident working directly with children, young people, and families
Have experience delivering support interventions in community settings
Demonstrate strong communication and relationship-building skills
Be committed to improving outcomes for children and families
Be able to work flexibly across different environments (home, school, community)

(Please see Job Description, Person Specification and Additional Information Sheet for full information)

Why Join Us?

You will be part of a forward-thinking, supportive service that is committed to:

Early intervention and prevention
Evidence-based practice
Improving long-term outcomes for children and families

If you are passionate about making a real difference in the lives of children and families, we would love to hear from you.

As per NHS guidance this role will require successful applicants to evidence immunisations or immunity for MMR and Chicken Pox. This is due to the clinical focus of some tasks and the requirement to work with vulnerable families, young people and children

The roles within this service may also require the successful applicant to wear PPE including the wearing of a protective mask, to remain compliant with any future mandatory requirements introduced by the Government/NHS.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Reference number:23036
Job Title:Healthy Family Support Practitioner - School Aged
Location:Chelmsford Central CC
Contract type:Permanent
Hours:37
Salary:£26,003
Closing Date:26 May 2026
Interview Date:TBC

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Healthy Family Support Practitioner - School Aged

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