Family Services Practitioner

Position

Family Services Practitioner

Team

Families & Community Program

Role Classification

SCHADS Award Level 5

Employment Type/Hours

2 x full-time positions - 1x ongoing and 1x fixed term until 30/06/2026

Location

Sandringham, Frankston, Cheltenham and Hampton East (Bunurong Land.

Reports To

Team Leader, Family Services 

Effective Date

October 2025

Overview of Program 

The Families & Community Program at Family Life offers a range of services within the Bayside Peninsula catchment. This includes the Brief Support (BI/EH), Community Bubs, Integrated Family Services (IFS), Integrated Family Services Plus (IFS+) and Family Preservation & Reunification Response (FPRR) Programs. These programs are aimed at providing an enhanced response to families with significant needs, who have children under the age of 18 years old. Support is focused on strengthening the capacity of families to provide a safe, nurturing, and stable environment for their children. Support is also provided to vulnerable families and their children who are often involved with or at risk of entering the statutory Child Protection system.

The aim of our family services is to provide parenting support based on the needs of families, to promote safety and wellbeing. The Practitioner's roles are aimed at ensuring children are meeting their developmental milestones, and that their needs are being met through this direct work with the families. This support is provided to families and their children using a 'whole-of-family' approach that promotes everyone's involvement. The support is provided using a range of service modalities including outreach case-management, group work, needs assessment and goal setting. 

Family Life as an Organisation has been delivering quality services to the Bayside/Peninsula community since 1970, as such we are deeply committed to our place-based approach to support. We value our community and have a strong belief in the importance of activating community to build and sustain all families. This approach allows Family Life to be responsive to the differing needs of the families we support in their local communities. 

Position Objective

The Family Services Practitioner role carries out the IFS program, which provides short and medium-term case management to support families with children aged 0-17. This position works from both the Sandringham, Frankston and Hampton East Family Life Service Centres (Bunurong Land).  

The role of the Family Services Practitioner is to support families with building their parenting capacity and assist parents to be responsive to their child's developmental needs, including their understanding of child development and building healthy and positive attachments. The Practitioner will provide a collaborative response to support, working closely with key stakeholders including Maternal and Child Health Nurses, schools / the Department of Education, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (formerly known as DHHS) and other relevant professionals. Whilst this position will pertain predominantly to a case management framework, the incumbent may be required to work across the Brief Support space. 

The Family Services Practitioner will work with a range of clients including where there are complex needs and issues of risk and safety. The Family Services Practitioner will be required to conduct weekly outreach visits with their allocated families, whilst providing needs-based case management utilising a child-centred, feminist and strengths-based approach. The Family Services Practitioner will work across case management as well as carrying a portfolio. Portfolios can include relevant groups or community-based work, specialised portfolios, and internal policy and procedural tasks. 

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Managing a high-risk caseload, with complex needs, using trauma informed approaches to practice, and utilising theoretical frameworks and evidence-based practice. 
• Working with families by applying a range of service modalities including but not limited to; intake and assessment, brief support, a care team approach, group work, outreach case management and developing strong working relationships with key agencies such as Child Protection, schools and Maternal and Child Health Services.  
• Increasing capacity of parents to meet their child's health, safety and developmental needs, and to build self-resilience through linkages to community support, education, and training and employment opportunities.  
• Carrying specialist portfolios such as group work to promote interventions designed to strengthen family capacity and provide psychoeducation and reduce family violence in the community.  
• Promoting safety and stability through strong assessment, case plans and application of appropriate risk assessment frameworks.  
• Providing a collaborative response to Family Violence, including the provision of brief and medium-term interventions. 
• Working effectively with parents from a range of backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from CALD backgrounds, people who are LGBTQIA+, people with a disability, and young people with a history in out of home care.  
• Delivering services to quality standards, complying with relevant legislation and contractual requirements. 
• Engaging in regular supervision and critical reflection with the Team Leader and group reflective practice with the Practice and Program Development Advisors.  
• Participating in appropriate training sessions, network meetings, team meetings and peer supervision as directed by the line manager.  
• Collecting, recording and maintaining all required documentation to evidence impact and effectiveness of service delivery in a complete, accurate, and timely manner, as requested by the organisation's standards and program contracts. 
• Taking an active role in the organisational priority of building on our "place based" approach to support, by activating community to increase accessibility and community involvement in supporting local families.

Key Selection Criteria

1. Bachelor level qualification in Social Work, Psychology, Social Sciences or equivalent.  
2. Ability to manage a high-risk caseload, with complex needs, using trauma informed approaches to practice.  
3. Experience in the delivery of case management based on the 'Best Interest Principles' as defined under the Child Youth and Families Act 2005 and other relevant frameworks. 
4. Ability to work effectively with families experiencing a range of complexities including mental health issues, alcohol and other drug (AOD) misuse, family violence, adolescent family violence, sexual abuse and trauma. 

1. Working knowledge of universal, secondary, and tertiary service systems, including Child Protection. 
2. Experience working with infants, children, adolescents and their families using Strengths-Based, Trauma Informed, Systems Based, Family Inclusive, Feminist Framework and Community Based Approaches. 
3. Ability to articulate and reflect upon personal and professional values and work effectively under pressure and respond appropriately to crises. 
4. Ability to promote safety and stability through ongoing application of risk assessment.  
5. Commitment to meeting the needs of at-risk families, children and young people guided by the organisation's whole-of-family approach and community-based model of service delivery.  
6. High level of verbal and written communication skills to conduct effective risk assessment, case noting and sound administration. In combination with this experience, the ability to utilise these within the organisation's computer-based software. 
7. Information technology skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, video conferencing platforms and client management systems. 
8. A passion for building and maintaining strong relationships with community members, stakeholders and partner organisations.
9. A Growth Mindset; the ability to think flexibly, innovatively and with a solution focused approach.