Start for Life Practitioner
- Barnardos
- Smethwick, West Midlands
- Apr 22, 2026
Full time
Healthcare & Medical
Job Description
Start for Life Practitioner
Sandwell Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies (Barnardo's)
About Family us:
Best Start Family Hubs provide a place based approach to coordinating the delivery of integrated services for parents, carers, babies, and young children. At the heart of the model is the Start for Life Services, supporting families from conception to age two - the critical period for child development, health, and emotional wellbeing. Best Start Family Hubs also provide access to wider services for children aged 0-19, or up to 25 for young people with SEND.
Barnardo's is a key delivery partner of Sandwell's Best Start Family Hubs across six localities: Oldbury, Smethwick, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich, with a strong focus on accessibility, prevention, and community engagement.
Role Purpose
As a Start for Life Practitioner, you will contribute to improving outcomes for babies and parents during pregnancy and the first two years of life. You will deliver universal and targeted Start for Life provision that promotes perinatal wellbeing, positive parent-infant relationships, early child development, and healthy lifestyle choices, in line with Sandwell's Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies priorities.
(For the purpose of this role, "parents" includes parents, carers, co parents, and guardians.)
Key Responsibilities
Start for Life Delivery
Shortlisting Criteria
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values . We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band - this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)
About Barnardo's
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women . click apply for full job details
Sandwell Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies (Barnardo's)
About Family us:
Best Start Family Hubs provide a place based approach to coordinating the delivery of integrated services for parents, carers, babies, and young children. At the heart of the model is the Start for Life Services, supporting families from conception to age two - the critical period for child development, health, and emotional wellbeing. Best Start Family Hubs also provide access to wider services for children aged 0-19, or up to 25 for young people with SEND.
Barnardo's is a key delivery partner of Sandwell's Best Start Family Hubs across six localities: Oldbury, Smethwick, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich, with a strong focus on accessibility, prevention, and community engagement.
Role Purpose
As a Start for Life Practitioner, you will contribute to improving outcomes for babies and parents during pregnancy and the first two years of life. You will deliver universal and targeted Start for Life provision that promotes perinatal wellbeing, positive parent-infant relationships, early child development, and healthy lifestyle choices, in line with Sandwell's Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies priorities.
(For the purpose of this role, "parents" includes parents, carers, co parents, and guardians.)
Key Responsibilities
Start for Life Delivery
- Contribute to delivery of the Pregnancy and Start for Life pathways, supporting parents from pre birth to age two.
- Act as a consistent point of contact for parents, helping them navigate universal services and access appropriate provision through activities such as well-being contacts, 1:1 support within the family home etc.
- Deliver Start for Life focused sessions and activities, including baby clubs, baby massage, and wellbeing groups that promote bonding, attachment, and early development.
- Deliver interventions that promote emotional wellbeing for parents/carers and infants, incorporating perinatal mental health awareness and resilience building approaches.
- Support positive parent-infant relationships through evidence based approaches and reflective practice.
- Encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours during pregnancy and early parenthood.
- Promote and support infant feeding choices, including breastfeeding initiation and continuation through guidance and signposting.
- Provide information, guidance, and signposting to antenatal, perinatal support, health, early learning, and community services across Sandwell.
- Support delivery of engagement events for parents and carers at different stages, including planning a family, pregnancy, and early parenthood through hosting sessions such as baby fayres etc.
- Encourage take up of universal services, such as antenatal education, libraries, early learning opportunities and public health initiatives such as oral health, safer sleeping, nutrition etc.
- Work to reduce barriers to access for marginalised parents and communities.
- Work collaboratively within the Health, Wellbeing and Engagement Team and across the wider Family Hub partnership.
- Build effective links with perinatal mental health services, health visitors, midwives, early years, and voluntary sector partners.
- Support coordinated pathways by sharing information appropriately and maintaining accurate records.
- Use agreed tools to identify needs and outcomes, maintaining records using systems such as EHM.
- Attend reflective supervision, performance development reviews, and mandatory training.
- Maintain up to date knowledge of Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies priorities and evidence based practice.
- Be flexible to work evenings and weekends where required to support service delivery.
- Undertake additional duties consistent with the role and service objectives.
Shortlisting Criteria
- Minimum of Level 3 qualification or equivalent in relevant field
- Experience of working with and supporting babies/children/young people and their families to achieve positive outcomes
- Deliver/ Lead a range of universal programmes in a group setting and interventions on a 1 to 1 basis
- Good understanding of child development
- The ability to work in a multiagency environment and with external agencies
secure knowledge and confidence to recognise and respond appropriately on Safeguarding concerns. - Ability to collate and analyse information to produce high quality assessments action plans and reports
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values . We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band - this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)
- Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
- Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
- Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
About Barnardo's
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women . click apply for full job details
About Barnardos