Autism specialist jobs

Team Leader - Children’s Home - Croydon

South Croydon, Greater London (On-site)

£31,188 - £40,000 per year depending on experience

Full-time or part-time (40 or 20 hours per week, shift work between 7am-10pm including weekends, bank holidays and sleep-ins)

Permanent

Actively Interviewing

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Job description

Salary: up to £40,000 depending on experience and qualifications

Contract Type: Permanent

Working hours: full-time at 40 hours per week & part-time at 20 hours per week; shift work between 7am-10pm including weekends, bank holidays and occasional sleep-ins

Sleep-ins: £50

Location: East Croydon

closest station is Sanderstead Station, CR2 - one stop after East Croydon on the Southern Railway.

Are you a Team Leader looking for your next challenge?

We have a fantastic opportunity to join St Christopher's fellowship as a Team Leader for our new specialist Children’s home in Croydon. You will work alongside the Registered Manager and Deputy Manager to lead and support a professional team of staff committed to transforming young lives and creating positive outcomes. You will be supported by experienced Residential Practitioners, as well as our Wrap Around and Education Teams.

About Us

Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future.

St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home.

We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong. We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities.

About the Role

As Team Leader, you will be directly involved in managing a 4 bed specialist short stay Home and looking after children aged 12 to 18 years old with complex needs; including Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD), Mental Health Disorders, Substance Dependencies and Learning Disabilities.

Whether shift leading or joining in with daily activities, you will also share in the leadership of the team, helping to develop staff by modelling high standards of professionalism.

The successful candidate will have:

Level 3 Diploma in Residential Child Care or equivalent
GCSE English and Maths grades A-C.
One year’s experience working at a level of responsibility with children and young people in a residential setting.
An understanding of the regulatory framework relating to the provision of residential services for children and young people.
Good understanding of the needs and risks regarding children in care.
An understanding of trauma informed practice.
Experience of taking on leadership responsibilities in a teamwork setting.
Ability to build genuine and trusting relationships with young people maintaining at all times high personal and professional standards.
Excellent communication and team working skills.
Ability to work shifts, including alternate weekend working and occasional sleep ins.

In return we offer:

Salary up to £40,000 depending on experience and qualifications.
A friendly working environment, a fun, open and honest culture.
25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme.
UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary.
BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
Cycle to work scheme.
Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK.
Discretionary funded training programs.
Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services.

Recruitment Process

At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements.

Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to starting.

For your application to be reviewed, it must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. Please note that CV’s will not be accepted.

For the full Job Description and Person Specification please visit our website.

We advise to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and this opportunity might be filled before the stated closing date.

Please note:

This post has a minimum age restriction of 21 year for roles working directly with children and young people in our residential and supported accommodation Homes in line with the Equality Act ‘occupational requirement’.
It is illegal to apply for any role that involves working with children and young people under the age of 18, if you know you are barred from working with children.
All shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit a Self-Declaration and Disclosure form which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked

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St Christopher's Fellowship View profile

Registered Charity

101 - 500

We are a leading charity for children and young people, providing fostering, children's homes and leaving care services across the UK and Isle of Man

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Posted on: 16 August 2025

Closing date: 12 September 2025 at 12:51

Job ref: 13232

Tags: Counselling, Housing, Operations, Autism, Child Protection, Conflict Resolution / Peace, Engagement / Outreach, Ethnic Minority / BAME, Health and Safety, Learning Disability, LGBTQ, Mental Health, Mentoring / Coaching, Monitoring and Evaluation, Office Management, Refugee / Immigration, Risk Management, Safeguarding, Youth / Children, Social / Support Work

The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.

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Senior Community Support Worker ( PBS)

The Together Trust

Wythenshawe based covering Manchester (On-site)

Actual Salary £27,590.00

Full-time

Permanent

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Job description

" Package Description:

Together we make a difference, develop and learn, and support each other. Every day with us is different, but our mission remains the same: To improve the quality of life for the young people and families we support. We ensure we advocate the rights, needs and ambitions of the young people we support through our working practise.

We have a rewarding new opportunity for a Senior Community Support Worker (Positive Behaviour Support) to work within our new service.

The Early Intervention and Prevention service is based at one of our children’s Centre in Wythenshawe, Manchester, this service is working in partnership with the City of Manchester Local Authority. Successful candidates will work across North, Central and South Manchester.

The Together Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the people that we support and expects all of our staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Salary - £29,108 (£14.93ph)

Weekend rate paid at 25% premium of normal hourly rate

Sleep-in shift - £100.80 per sleep in shift

The Purpose of the service is to establish a local integrated offer of intensive, therapeutic overnight stays and outreach support. Focused upon building the capability and resilience of families so the child/young person can experience greater permanency of care with their families, foster care, or benefit from the range of services available to them in their community.

The Service will focus on improving the outcomes for Children and Young people on the Autistic Spectrum, and other learning disabilities with the aim of reducing the number of children referred for residential care.

The service is designed to promote the following outcomes for children/young people:-

To stabilise behaviours that may be a barrier to inclusion
To improve quality of life outcomes
To have the opportunity of participating and experiencing a range of activities
To improve the resilience of their families and parents/ carers
To develop daily living and self-care skills to improve their health and wellbeing
To develop communication and social skills

As a specialist service there is a comprehensive package of training and support either internally within the Trust's Learning & Development Team or externally with our professional partners Manchester Local Authority, IST and CAMHS.

As a Senior Community Support Worker (Positive Behaviour Support) you will provide first line management to a team of Community Support Workers (Positive Behaviour Support), developing their capability through demonstrating the right values and behaviours, mentoring staff, and supporting their ongoing development.

The aim of the Early Intervention and Prevention Service is to work with families that may be struggling with managing the behaviour of one or more of their children, you will work alongside the family and multi agencies to deliver a high standard of care and support.

You will have the opportunity to receive formal Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) training and coaching from qualified behavioural specialists within the Together Trust.

Senior support staff will work alongside management to ensure the service meets Ofsted children’s home regulations and works in line with current legislation.

This service will develop to offer respite care to the families and young people that we support and from the Manchester City Council Local Authority Area. This service will be a dual registered OFSTED and CQC service.

What can you bring to the service...?

Do you have a QCF Level 3 / 4 in Children Families & Young People’s Workforce, or equivalent QCF and experience within OFSTED registered services?

Do you have experience of and coaching staff, and nurturing team development?

Do you have considerable experience working with children with learning disabilities, and autism?

Can you manage difficult and challenging situations whilst maintaining high standards of care and support?

Can you make a direct positive impact on the lives of children and their families?

Benefits include…..

Annual Leave - 27-day holiday plus 8 days bank holidays rising to 30 after 5 years, 33 days after 10 years
Generous pension scheme and death in service benefit, an initial contribution of 4% company pension contributions and up to 6 x basis salary death in service
Occupational sick pay and family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity and adoptive leave.
Reward and Discount platform offering discounts at high street shops, travel, insurances etc.
Eligibility to apply for Blue Light card
Refer a friend scheme, be rewarded for recommending a friend to work with us
Comprehensive training and development opportunities, including apprenticeship qualifications
Long service awards including cash gifts and extra holiday.
Promotion of Wellbeing across the organisation including Mental Health First Aiders offering wellbeing support from trained colleague and free weekly yoga session in person or online
Access to our Employee Assistance Programme for you and adults at your home

To discover the full details of this rewarding role within the Together Trust take a look at our Job Description.

If this sounds like the place for you, and you think you have the relevant skills and experience we are looking for, apply now.

This service is regulated by Ofsted therefore all employees must be over the age of 22 years at the time of joining the service.

Safeguarding checks will be undertaken for the successful candidate in line with our safer recruitment policy, including an Enhanced DBS check (at no cost to yourself).

This role will involve regulated activity.

We may remove this advert should we find the success candidate prior to the closing date therefore early applications are encouraged.

We currently do not provide sponsorship, but we welcome applications from those who have the right to work in the UK.

In order for the Trust to comply with the apprenticeship funding rules, it is a requirement of the role that the successful applicant must be able to evidence that (1) they have the right to work in the UK without additional approval for more than 20 hours each week throughout the year and (2) they have an eligible residency status for the purposes of the apprenticeship funding rules. In most cases this will mean that the individual needs to show that they have been ''ordinarily resident'' in particular countries (including the UK) at least 3 years before the start of the apprenticeship.

Applications are very welcome from all regardless of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief, race, sex, sexual orientation, trans status or socio-economic background. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments for disabled people. We positively encourage applications from those with lived experience.

If there is any part of your lived experience, you want to keep confidential in some way please talk to the Recruitment or HR shared service teams and we will do what we can to support you.

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