Job Title: Home school link worker

What does a home school link worker do?

These school support staff, as the name suggests, aim to provide a link between home and school. They can also be known as a home school liaison officer, parent support adviser, school-home support worker or home school link community worker, among other titles.

They work with parents and carers to offer support on children’s behaviour; provide information about school matters; offer opportunities to meet other parents such as coffee mornings; visit families at home; and link families to other support services.

They may also provide support as children change classes or schools. Workers aim to help improve school achievement and attendance and build parents’ confidence in dealing with behaviour issues. They will often work with children who are in danger of being excluded or who are struggling to stay in education.

Who employs a home school link worker?

They are often employed either directly by a school or cluster of schools, or the charity School-Home Support (SHS), which employs around 120 school-home support workers. The support workers are employed by the charity, but work in specific schools, which in return pay for the service.

What is the best route into the role?

There are no specific qualifications or training needed, although knowledge of a school structure is a bonus. SHS says its recruits often come from the local community and have a wide range of backgrounds including teaching, social work, early years, community work, counselling, and youth work.

SHS employees undergo induction training and then access ongoing training and development throughout their careers in areas such as domestic violence and mental health.

What are the hours and salary like?

Working hours tend to chime with school hours, often 8.30am to 4pm, term-time only, making the role attractive to parents with school-aged children. Some roles are part-time, for example two and a half days a week. Salaries vary but can be around £19,000 to £25,000 a year.

What is the job market like?

As with all jobs in education there have been cuts, but these workers are often particularly valued by the schools they work for, and schools will often fight to save the posts. When Goldman Sachs pulled funding for home school support workers in the London Borough of Newham for example, schools found the money to retain the posts.

School-home support worker Shelley Clarke says: “There are definitely jobs out there, especially with new government initiatives like the troubled families programme.” Under the troubled families scheme, local authorities receive financial incentives to cut levels of truancy, among other things.

However, Sarah Peters, Unison national officer for education and children’s services, warns that parent support advisers and others are faced with pressure on pay and training.

“There is no real career structure for these kinds of staff, and no robust framework for them to progress their career,” she says.

How is policy impacting on the role?

Truancy and behaviour are firmly in the spotlight at the moment.

The government’s behaviour adviser Charlie Taylor recommended early intervention on attendance in his recent report, and called for schools to be more supportive of children making the transition from primary to secondary education, both areas in which home-school support practitioners are active.

What are the rewards and challenges of the role?

Clarke cites the ability to work within school hours and the chance to help people and make a difference as the rewards of the job. “Every day there is a moment where you help someone – sometimes they are small things and sometimes larger,” she says.

But it can also be challenging: “Parents are not always happy, for example if we have to follow up bruising on a child, and they can see us as an extension of social workers who are not popular through no fault of their own,” says Clarke.

“Parents can be aggressive, and you see quite disturbing things. I have worked on some horrible child protection cases, domestic violence, parents who are being evicted.”