Associate Family Court Adviser – Private law, Pathfinder Team – Bournemouth

Associate Family Court Advisers (Self Employed FCA) are an important part of the Cafcass working community, complimenting the challenging and rewarding work done across England by our employed teams.

There are many reasons why people choose to engage with Cafcass in this way. The unique nature of the work, the flexibility and independence to manage income and work/life balance, and the opportunity to do other work alongside are just some.

We welcome interest at this time from individuals that are able to support service delivery working on a Private Law caseload, with the ability to travel at least an hour away from your home at times. As part of this role we require applicants that are able to take a minimum rolling caseload of between 8 – 10 cases.

We are currently recruiting in Bournemouth, for our Pathfinder team.

If you are interested in applying to become an Associate, please note you must:

1. Be social work qualified
2. Have 5+ years post qualifying experience
3. Be SWE registered to work in England

We also think for you to succeed and truly make a difference you should be someone who:

• is an expert in safeguarding, child engagement, inter-agency working, case analysis, planning and recording
• can work independently
• is committed to their continuous professional development (CPD)
• has experience working with highly vulnerable children and families
• is resilient and organised
• can work proportionately
• has strong, intuitive IT skills
• is an effective verbal and written communicator.

If you haven’t already, we suggest taking a few minutes to go to find out how we work at Cafcass, to help you better understand what becoming an Associate FCA entails, what you can expect in terms of remuneration and the support you will receive.

We hope you are still interested and if so, hope you will take a few minutes to apply. As well as submitting a current CV, you’ll be able to submit a supporting statement if you wish, in which you might want to let us know why you are interested in becoming an Associate FCA.

If having reviewed your details we feel you meet our criteria, we’ll be in touch to confirm the next steps. However, we’d like to use this opportunity to let you know where and when we’ll be holding panel interviews – which is the last stage of the recruitment process – over the next few months:

Telephone Interview: Ongoing

Written Assessment: Ongoing

Panel Interviews: Ongoing

In the meantime, if you would like to informally find out about the role before deciding to apply, you are welcome to contact the Recruiting Manager by email advising of the best number to contact you on and most suitable time(s) (Sarah Isaac-Brown – [email protected]). However, please note we cannot accept applications / CVs by email and you must apply online but rest assured the process is quick and simple.

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to read about the offer and pre-employment checks process. As part of your application you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre-employment checks and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information on what the assessment covers can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS policy.