Family Support Worker
What the work is
Provides advice and support to children, young people and families with diverse needs, within the home environment and community, in a culturally safe manner.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Identifies families who require additional support and provides internal/external referrals
- Ensures families can access appropriate services, and encourages families and individuals with particular needs to participate in informal discussion, counselling or support groups
- Assists and collaborates with Social and Welfare Workers to develop holistic plans by establishing family assessments, safety plans, goals and interventions to ensure safety and wellbeing, and empower families towards positive change
- Liaises and collaborates with case workers and case work managers to ensure high quality service delivery, and provides updates regarding any issues and problem solves with them
- Assists with transporting clients to services and appointments
- Encourages parents to join community groups and playgroups
- Supports and advocates for the appropriate clinical care of mothers, babies and the wider family group
- Supports children being cared for by foster carers
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a community welfare centre with a drop-in counter and small interview rooms. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A person who arrived in tears leaves with a plan and a phone number to call
- A family you helped find a home sends a photo of their kids in their own bedrooms
- A stack of letters that overwhelmed someone becomes a list they can manage
Hard days
- Having nothing available to offer someone who clearly needs it today
- A day of back-to-back crises and no time to eat or think
- Hearing a client's story and still having to go to the next appointment
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 411632, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.