Amanda Thompson

As a Family Support Worker within Gloucestershire County Council, I provide support to vulnerable children, young people and families to help them to make make sustained and achievable change. I provide support using a multi-agency approach to enable agencies to work together with families using specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely plans and objectives. I am responsible for holding a caseload of between 8 and 10 families, some of which with be level 3 of our levels of intervention and some will be joint working with our social work colleagues. I provide direct support to children and families and use systemic theories to build strong, trusting relationships with families to support positive change. This can be via home visits, school visits and working within the community.

• Provided practical and emotional support for improved family dynamics for families within the nursery, this involved providing support and advice to parents on a whole range of issues such as behaviour management strategies, housing issues, supporting and referring to other agencies such as GDASS for domestic abuse support.
• Assessing the needs of families for better service provision within the nursery.
• Establishing a relationship of trust with hard to reach parents to enable better communication and achieve good outcomes for their children.
• This support was also provided within the COVID lockdown period, which meant that innovative methods of communication and support were needed during a very challenging time for parents.
• Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams for effective care planning.
• Facilitated group sessions to improve parenting skills.
• Liaised closely with social services to safeguard at-risk children.
• Offered advice on budget management, reducing financial stress in households.
• Maintained detailed case notes, aiding in decision making processes.

• Providing administrative tasks to support Royal Air Force departments within the Ministry of Defence.
• Enhanced office efficiency by managing and organising the day-to-day administrative duties.
• Simplified complex information via clear, concise written communication skills; eased understanding across departments.
• Responded promptly to emails, letters and phone calls; facilitated seamless external communication.
• Prioritised tasks for timely completion of projects.
• Adapted quickly to changes in procedures or policies; maintained consistency in output quality despite fluctuations in workload demands.

Youthforce was an organisation in Gloucestershire that provided placements to young people to experience employment and work experience within the non-statutory and charity sector. Placements were completed within:

• The National Star Centre, Ullenwood - college for young people with additional needs providing 1-1 support.
• Gloucester college - working in the refectory kitchens to prepare food for the students.
• St Oswald's centre, Gloucester - providing support for adults with learning disabilities.
• Working at a residential home for the elderly in Podsmead, Gloucester.