Parental Advocacy Coordinator Full Time

Hackney is one of the most dynamic and progressive local authorities in the UK. We are a resilient, vibrant, and creative borough in the heart of London, with strong, diverse communities and a powerful set of shared values.

Over the past twenty years, the Council has built up first-class services, outstanding public infrastructure, and a reputation for excellence, innovation, and ambition. We are leading the way on essential work such as our fight for equity in Hackney with a particular focus on becoming an actively anti-racist borough. But the work doesn’t stop there, we are proactive in our approach to bringing fairness to all aspects of life including gender, neurodiversity and across the poverty divide.

As part of our journey to be Anti-Racist, at Hackney we want our workforce to represent the community we serve, that’s why we encourage applications from Black and Global Majority Ethnic backgrounds.

Proud to work in Hackney – Our aspiration is for every child to grow up in a child-friendly borough and have the best start in life

We are looking for a passionate and committed Parental Advocacy Coordinator to join our Family Led Meeting Team in our Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service in Hackney.

This is a unique and impactful role where you will lead on developing and coordinating a high-quality parental advocacy offer, ensuring that parents and carers understand their rights and are meaningfully involved in decisions about their children’s lives.

You will play a key role in amplifying parent and carer voices across Children and Families Services, while working in line with our systemic, trauma-informed and anti-racist (STAR) practice model.

About You

We are looking for someone who:

• Has experience working with parents, carers, and families, particularly within safeguarding or support services.
• Is confident in advocacy, ensuring voices are heard, and rights are upheld.
• Can build strong, trusting relationships with families and professionals.
• Has experience in coordinating or supervising staff or volunteers.
• Demonstrates cultural humility and a strong commitment to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice.
• Is an excellent communicator, able to engage a wide range of people and present complex information clearly.
• Is reflective, resilient, and able to work within complex and emotionally demanding situations.

Additional Information

• This role requires flexibility, including evening work
• Enhanced DBS required

About The Role

You will:

• Coordinate and oversee advocacy support for parents attending Child Protection Conferences and across Children and Families Services.
• Recruit, train, and support culturally competent advocates from voluntary and community organisations.
• Provide direct advocacy to parents where appropriate.
• Build strong partnerships with community organisations to ensure advocacy reflects the diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds of our families.
• Support advocates through supervision and peer support to ensure high-quality, reflective practice.
• Challenge practice where there is insufficient consideration of race, culture, identity, and protected characteristics.
• Ensure parent and carer voices influence service development, engagement, and decision making.

Candidates must have a professional qualification, for example, Work with Parents Qualification at Level 4; or NVQ Level 3 in childcare, social work, social care, youth work, counselling, early years or education or Diploma in Independent Advocacy Qualification (City & Guilds level 3 or 4) and demonstrate evidence of continuing professional development.

If you are keen to deliver, support, and develop exceptional practice in a supportive and creative environment, then we want to hear from you. Dynamic, innovative, committed and passionate, you’ll bring a comprehensive knowledge and skill-base in your work to the challenge of working with vulnerable children and families.

Our service seeks to actively contribute to organisational learning through recognising, promoting and supporting best practice and service development where required, retaining a clear focus upon positive good outcomes for children and families across the borough. Hackney is proud of its organisational learning culture and strives to find innovative ways of engaging and facilitating change with young people and their families.

Over recent years, we have become renowned for innovation. From Reclaim Social Work to Contextual Safeguarding, Safe and Together, and Anti-Racist Practice, we have challenged norms and carved new paths. We value systemic, trauma-informed, and anti-racist leadership and encourage devolved decision-making at all levels – with senior managers working alongside front-line staff. Our teams are given excellent development opportunities, and we are proud to be the first local authority to provide post-graduate qualifications in systemic practice.

Our refreshed Children and Families Service Improvement Action Plan includes 5 ambitious future-focused priorities for our service:

• Proud to be Systemic, Trauma Informed and Anti-Racist (STAR)
• Proud to Listen to Children and Families
• Proud to Work with Partner Agencies
• Proud to Work Together to Keep Children Safe

Proud to Support Our Workforce to Flourish

Hackney is one of London’s most vibrant and diverse boroughs. It’s one of the most sought-after areas to live in London with good schools, parks, and local amenities, as well as great transport links and vibrant and diverse communities.

Benefits

We offer a great place to work with a working environment that is stimulating, creative, fast-moving, and supportive. Staff can access a range of benefits, including:

• An outstanding range of local support services supporting you to make a difference for children and families
• The opportunity to build/shape your career in social work through our excellent training offer to staff, including Mentoring and Coaching programmes, our systemic and anti-racist practice training offer, our online learning hub, and annual Hackney Stars awards
• Financial support for staff through our Tenancy deposit loan scheme, low-cost loans, and Childcare vouchers
• An excellent location with the ability to travel easily and cycle around the borough, accessing our Cycle to Work scheme
• Flexible working options, including working remotely, buying annual leave scheme, and flexible working
• Staff discount scheme (Vectis card and local discounts across the borough, including gyms, theatres and restaurants)
• An outstanding focus on Health and Wellbeing, including discounted gym membership, eye tests, Employee Assistance Programme, and a range of carer and family-friendly leave options.

As a Council, our most outstanding asset is our staff, who are highly dedicated to serving our residents and committed to our goals as an organisation.

If you want to work in a place where you can represent our values so we achieve the best for our residents, please click on the apply button below.

We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CV’s.

To proceed with your application, you will need to create an account and submit your application.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete a number of competency based questions. These questions allow you to demonstrate your suitability for the role and provide examples of your skills, knowledge and experience outlined in the job description.

We understand the benefits of using AI in the workplace. However, if you are thinking of using this tool to submit your application, we ask you to think about what value it will add. AI tools tend to lack the personal touch and authenticity we value in candidates. We encourage you to showcase your unique knowledge and skills using your own voice.

Closing date for applications: 20 May 2026 (22.59)

Interview date: 4-5 June 2026

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk