Family Link Workers

Title of Tender Opportunity: Family Link Workers

Project Scope:

The Family Link Worker Service

Dorset Council is seeking a suitably qualified and experienced Provider to deliver a Family Link Worker service across the Dorset Council area and who is committed to working in partnership with the local authority to continue the transformation of local public sector service delivery that embraces the concept that early help is everybody's responsibility and that all services take a whole family approach in supporting families with multiple and complex needs. The service needs to be effective and efficient in terms of both service delivery and management.

The service may be provided to a family as a whole or to specific members of that family, as part of a whole family plan. These families will generally have the most intensive and complex needs.

Family Link Workers - Definition

Family Link Workers are one element of a graduated service delivery model. At the request of a Lead Professional a Family Link Worker will provide short-term, intensive, hands on support, assistance, direction and information to eligible families who need the most intensive level of support. (A Family Link Worker's piece of work will contribute to the Lead Professional's family action or delivery plan - it will not be a stand-alone piece of work.)

Family Link Workers - Purpose

The purpose of using a Family Link Worker is to engender the family's independence, improved functioning and resilience as well as that of individual family members. The intervention of a Family Link Worker needs to contribute to at least one of the outcomes that Dorset wants to see for its residents.

Family Link Workers' agreed pieces of work need to either directly deliver or contribute to the achievement of outcomes for whole families; the individuals or groupings within a family they are allocated to.