Person-centred family practitioner wanted

Last night I met with Emma and Suzie. Alan, Emma's friend who is also a local Minister joined us as we followed up our actions about finding a cleaner and yoga classes. We learned how difficult it is to get a cleaner who is happy to provide receipts! Next steps, on my to-do list, is to explore cleaning agencies. We have a ground rule about this - Emma can only agree to tasks where she is the only person who could possibly do it - all other actions the three of us are sharing between us.
Since we last met in the pub in March, we have been working on a job description for the support that Emma needs. We used the person-centred thinking tool 'matching support'. Most job descriptions only look at the skills or experience required and this means that the likelihood of ending up with people who like each other, with interests in common is at best random! Our job description describes the support Emma wants and needs; the skills and knowledge that the person would need to have; but also what kind of person we are looking for; and the bonus of what interests it would be great if they shared. We settled on the job title 'Person-centred family practitioner' and here is the description:

This role is to provide around 10 hours a month support to Emma, as she implements their family support plan. Days and times flexible. We are looking for someone with knowledge and experience of social work/social care.


Skills and Knowledge needed

• Excellent organisational skills and communication skill
• Understanding of the social care system
• Negotiation skills
• Great use of initiative

Support needed and wanted

• Investigate options and advice to enable Debbie to make decisions with her family
• Negotiate opportunities for her sons to be included in mainstream options as require
• Support Debbie in implementing the family support plan

Personality Characteristics – we are looking for someone who is:

• A ‘completer finisher
• Passionate about social justice
• Quietly determined

Shared common interests - hobbies that it would be nice to have in common

• Reading
• Walking
• Yoga and mindfulness

To make it as clear as possible, we then included some examples of the kinds of tasks that would be involved:

Jon

- contact the local university and find out about particular courses, visitor days
- apply for Disabled Students Allowance
- chase paediatrician for his medical report to send with DSA application form
- investigate made to measure walking books as Jon cannot find any that fit
- resume trying to get Jon to try new foods


Max

- find at least 2 new people to join the direct payments team to support Max after school on Tues and Weds
- find options for suitable 6th form provision


Next steps are to share this within our networks. Suzie has a colleague who she thinks might be interested, and Emma has some ideas as well, and then we need to think about informal interviews.

Is this the same role as a good broker? Does it look more like a social worker? Or does it simply need to be designed individually each time? We will let you know how we get on.