Barnardos jobs

Link Adoption & Family Support Service provides therapeutic support services for children, young people, and families across the UK. Much of our work is focused within adoption services, supporting adoptive families, children, and young people who have been adopted. We also provide therapeutic services to Special Guardians, kinship carers, and foster carers.

More recently, we have expanded our provision to support wider communities through partnerships with Barnardo's projects, health authorities, and voluntary sector organisations. Services are delivered both face-to-face and virtually across the UK.

We are seeking a highly motivated and organised individual to join our team as a Therapy Co-ordinator. This is an exciting opportunity to support the continued development and delivery of health service projects within a growing organisation.

The successful candidate will be able to:

• Manage a large and varied caseload of therapeutic cases across multiple projects and commissioners, demonstrating flexibility, organisation, and resourcefulness
• Work effectively within a client-facing role, ensuring children, young people, and families remain at the centre of service delivery
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with therapists, commissioners, and partner agencies to support effective service coordination and delivery
• Demonstrate strong organisational and administrative skills, including excellent computer literacy, accurate data input, case recording, report preparation, and the maintenance of confidential records in line with organisational and contractual requirements
• Ensure timely and accurate recording of information for monitoring, reporting, and contractual performance purposes
• Assist in the development of new services and opportunities to support the ongoing growth and expansion of therapeutic provision across the organisation

This is a hybrid-based role, working from home with occasional travel for training or meetings, and the successful candidate will become an integral member of our multi-disciplinary team delivering therapeutic services to families and young people.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about:

• Improving outcomes for children, young people, and families
• Delivering high-quality, responsive, and well-coordinated therapeutic services

Additional Information

You must demonstrate within your application how you currently use, or have previously used, the skills outlined above and within the Job Description and Person Specification. This may be through employment or other relevant experience. Applications should demonstrate an understanding of the context and demands of the service described.

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

Additional Information about the role and responsibilities of a Therapy Co-ordinator (Project Worker 2) for Link Adoption & Family Support Service

You will have received a Project Worker 2 Job Description and Person Specification. This is a generic role in use throughout the organisation and therefore Barnardo's uses generic job descriptions and person specifications when advertising for such roles.

It is important for candidates applying for this post to read this additional information sheet, as the role of PW2 for LINK is unique. LINK is a therapeutic service, not a fostering or adoption service.

Barnardo's Link Adoption & Family Support Service

Service is currently hybrid – home based with occasional attendance to meetings and training in London and Essex and occasionally other locations

History of Service

Link Adoption & Family Support Service has been operational for over twenty years, providing a service across the country. The service has grown from its adoption roots and now the busy service offers therapeutic support in both adoption and health.

Objectives of Service

Link Adoption & Family Support Service provides therapeutic support for children, young people and families via Regional Adoption Agencies, local authorities, health authorities, voluntary organisations, charities and other Barnardo's projects. Some of our work is in the field of adoption, particularly supporting adoptive families, children and young people who have been adopted, as well as birth family members, Special Guardians and foster carers. Link also provides therapeutic health services to the NHS and other organisations supporting families and children and young people with their mental health.

Organisational Structure

The Link Adoption & Family Support Service is led by an Operations Manager with a Practice team (Practice Managers, Social Workers, Therapists and Therapy Co-ordinators) and a Business Support team, as well as a large pool of independent, sessional therapists who undertake work on our behalf on an ‘as and when' basis.

Specific Responsibilities:

The Therapy Co-ordinator in LINK will work alongside the Practice Team in the delivery, co-ordination, and development of our therapeutic services. Specifically, you will take a lead on all aspects of the co-ordination of therapy referrals, ensuring smooth, effective delivery of the support.

The Therapy Co-Ordinator will report to the Practice Manager.

Duties:

• To manage and support referrals for therapeutic support, for both our health services and our services for adopted children and children living under a special guardianship order.

• Working with therapists to ensure they know and follow LINK processes as well as to provide guidance to therapists in all aspects of their work for LINK.

• To provide detailed reports on service activity and outcomes data for commissioners and to attend meetings with commissioners when required.

• To work in partnership with the LINK Practice team, referring social workers and health professionals, ensuring the needs of our service users are central to decision making and planning.

• Prioritise and manage competing tasks and responsibilities effectively.

• Maintain accurate records and administrative documentation related to therapy services.

• Collaborate with team members and external partners to optimise service delivery and outcomes.

• To deputise for the Senior Therapy Co-ordinator as required.

In addition, you will contribute to the overall management of the service by keeping accurate records of all work undertaken, which will provide performance information for us, our commissioners and Ofsted.

Please note, the Therapy Co-ordinator may need to work across different LINK services as and when required, including being part of the safeguarding duty team.

Supplementary Information

Effective communication skills are essential.

Excellent administrative skills are essential, including advanced use of Microsoft Excel.

Ability to work independently and manage and priortise a large case load and tasks effectively.

Desirable: Working within the mental health sector or adoption and fostering.

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