Community Family Practitioner — Full Time

Working hours and shift patterns

This permanent position guarantees 40 contractual hours each week, worked flexibly on a rota across Nurtura Connect's seven-day, 24-hour service. Overtime opportunities may be available in addition to your contracted hours.

Depending on the needs of children, families and commissioned services, your rota may include:

• Daytime and evening duties
• Weekend and bank holiday shifts
• Overnight support, including waking nights and sleep-ins where required
• Assignments supporting different families and care packages across Devon and Cornwall

This is not a fixed Monday–Friday role. Working days, start times and finish times may vary unless specific arrangements have been agreed in writing. You will be expected to undertake shifts reasonably allocated within your contractual arrangements.

Duties will be appropriate to your role, training and competence, with safeguarding arrangements and professional support. Requests for particular shifts or days off will be considered wherever reasonably possible, subject to service requirements, approved leave, sickness absence, agreed restrictions, reasonable adjustments and statutory rights.

Details of overtime, waking-night and sleep-in arrangements, including any applicable additional payments, will be discussed during recruitment and confirmed in your employment terms.

Your responsibilities

• Build purposeful and respectful relationships with children, parents and wider family members.
• Deliver intensive support in line with agreed intervention or assessment plans.
• Plan, deliver and review structured interventions with children, parents and carers.
• Undertake direct work with children to understand their wishes, feelings, experiences and understanding of family life.
• Use age-appropriate and creative direct-work tools to help children communicate.
• Help parents understand children's emotional, developmental and practical needs.
• Help families establish safe routines, boundaries and practical parenting strategies.
• Model and teach parenting and household skills rather than simply completing tasks for families.
• Support parents to practise new approaches and sustain changes when practitioners are not present.
• Provide practical support during important parts of family life, including morning routines, school attendance, mealtimes, evenings and bedtime.
• Observe family interactions and consider what these mean for the child's lived experience.
• Deliver interventions relating to attachment, routines, emotional regulation, relationships, safety, neglect, family conflict and other identified needs.
• Recognise, respond to and escalate safeguarding concerns promptly.
• Support families during crisis, transition, reunification or planned reductions in support.
• Work collaboratively with social workers, schools, health professionals and other agencies.
• Contribute to reviews of intervention plans and assess whether support is achieving intended outcomes.
• Adapt interventions when an approach is not working while remaining clear about the changes required.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries within family homes.
• Produce timely, accurate and balanced records of direct work, observations, interventions and outcomes.
• Distinguish clearly between personal observations, information reported by family members and professional interpretation.
• Contribute to professional meetings, reflective supervision and service development.
• Undertake planned and responsive direct care and shift-based support where appropriate to the commissioned package.
• Work flexibly across days, evenings, weekends, bank holidays and overnight duties, including waking nights and sleep-ins where required.

Essential qualifications and experience

• An NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care, Children and Young People's Workforce, Residential Childcare or an equivalent relevant qualification.
• Experience of working intensively with children and families to support and sustain change.
• Experience of planning, delivering and reviewing interventions with children, parents or families.
• Experience of undertaking purposeful direct work with children and young people.
• Ability to engage children and adapt direct work to their age, communication needs and level of understanding.
• Ability to translate an assessment or support plan into clear and practical work with a family.
• Sound safeguarding knowledge and the ability to respond appropriately to concerns.
• Ability to build trusting relationships while maintaining clear professional boundaries.
• Strong written communication skills and the ability to produce accurate, balanced records.
• Ability to explain the work completed, the family's response and the impact of an intervention.
• Confidence to work independently while remaining connected to management oversight and the wider professional network.
• Ability to reflect on practice, accept constructive challenge and use supervision effectively.
• Flexibility to work 40 guaranteed hours per week across a seven-day rota, including evenings, weekends and overnight shifts.
• Ability to undertake appropriate assignments across Devon and Cornwall.

What we offer

• Permanent, full-time employment directly with Nurtura Connect Ltd.
• A salary of £31,000–£33,000 per annum, depending on skills and experience.
• 40 guaranteed contractual hours per week, allocated flexibly through a rota.
• Opportunities for additional overtime, subject to service requirements.
• Meaningful work with children and families where practitioners can see the impact of their interventions.
• Reflective supervision and social-work-led management support.
• A clear induction and ongoing learning and development.
• Opportunities to contribute to a growing, values-led organisation.
• A supportive working culture encouraging professional curiosity, reflection and respectful challenge.

Safer recruitment

Nurtura Connect is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all employees to share this commitment.

Successful applicants must complete safer recruitment checks, including an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references, verification of employment history and qualifications, exploration of employment gaps and relevant pre-employment checks.