Today, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer. We’ll stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.
- 28 hours per week (this is 0.8 FTE, to be worked Mon-Thu, or worked over 5 days Mon-Fri)
- Flexible location - London / Bristol / home / hybrid
- Closing date: 16th June 2024
- Interviews: To be held online on 2/3 July 2024 (first round) and 8 July 2024 (second round)
CHANGE LIVES IN A LIFE-CHANGING CAREER
When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain.
The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer. We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise wellbeing. And we stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.
We challenge the systems and policies that surround children and young people, we highlight gaps and campaign for change. Because we know what a better future could look like. And we know what we need to do to make that future a reality. We need to push harder, reach further and work smarter. And we need the right people on our team to help us get there. People like you.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We’re looking for a Head of Safeguarding & Professional Standards with a background in social work to join Young Lives vs Cancer.
The Head of Safeguarding & Professional Standards works to create a positive organisational safeguarding culture where safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, through shaping, implementing and monitoring safeguarding activity, policy, training and governance across the whole organisation. The role also sets professional standards for our Services Directorate, and highlights areas for continuous improvement, and by directly delivering or designing and commissioning training, they enable Young Lives vs Cancer to respond to changes in policy, legislation and best practice in social care and safeguarding.
You would be joining us at a really exciting time in our journey. Following two innovative peer reviews with partner charities, we are confident in our approach to safeguarding. But like many organisations, we need to prepare for the future. With the launch of a new strategy later this year, we are looking outward to understand how we can create a better future for young cancer patients, one in which the whole system of support around them works together, face to face and digitally, and no-one is left behind. We constantly challenge how we do things, and are experimenting with new ways to create impact, influence the whole system, and importantly – fund this vital work.
You’ll be vital to this journey, leading our approach to safeguarding and professional standards and giving us a high level of confidence as we move forward. You will work closely with a passionate and dedicated group of trustees, directors and management teams who lead activities from frontline social care services through to fundraising and support services.
This role is subject to a criminal record check. In the event of a successful application an Enhanced Criminal Record Check will be completed. This role is also subject to a Social Worker Registration.
WHAT WILL I BE DOING?
No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing, but you’ll find more details in the job description.
The Head of Safeguarding & Professional Standards:
- Shapes, implements and monitors and reports performance against the safeguarding policy, training and governance across the whole organisation including with the trustees
- Reports to and supports the trustee Safeguarding Committee
- Oversees the governance of safeguarding referrals and activity in local social care teams
- Advises on safeguarding matters anywhere else across the organisational structure (including in income generation, for example)
- Works closely with the Services Senior Management team to set professional standards for our services and highlight areas for continuous improvement
- Planning and directly delivering, or designing and commissioning training, to enable Young Lives vs Cancer to respond to changes in policy, legislation and best practice in social care and safeguarding
WHAT DO I NEED?
The person we are looking for will have:
- The right experience: you must be a registered social worker and have worked as a as a social worker and in a strategic role in children or young people's social care services, delivering safe services with particular reference to safeguarding and assurance, and have significant experience of developing social work practice at a strategic or system level
- The right leadership expertise: with strong leadership and collaborative planning skills you will have ability to work collaboratively to oversee how things work, and influence stakeholders across the charity
- The right people skills: Confidence to challenge ways of thinking and the communication skills to coach and empower people to build a culture of safeguarding.
We will be unable to shortlist any applicants who do not meet the requirement to be a registered social worker.
Diverse perspectives and unique skillsets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.
WHAT WILL I GAIN?
For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:
- Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage
- Wellbeing days: four days a year to do what works for you – from catching up on training to going for a walk
- Generous annual leave allowance
- Great family/caring leave entitlements
- Enhanced pension
- Access to our employee savings scheme
To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website via the apply button
OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING
At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it.
We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. We particularly welcome applications from members of minoritised communities. Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more.
ACCESSIBILITY
We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible.Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview.
We have an exciting opportunity for a Children & Young Person's Support Worker/ Domestic Abuse Program Facilitator (known internally as a Children & Young Person's Domestic Abuse Group Facilitator) to join the team at Victim Support Gloucestershire, working 37.5 hours a week. This role offers hybrid working from home and our Gloucester Office, regular travel will also be required across the region. This role involves regular travel and due to the location, a driving license and access to a vehicle is considered an essential requirement.
Do you want to make a difference every day? Do you want to contribute to change & improvement for those who need it?
Do you have resilience & adaptability? Can you work effectively with a focus on customer service and care?
If yes, then we'd love to hear from you…
What we offer:
At Victim Support we believe in attracting & retaining the best people and offer a competitive rewards & benefits package including:
- Flexible working options including hybrid working
- 28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays, rising to 33 days plus Bank Holidays
- An extra day off for your birthday
- Pension with 5% employer contribution
- Enhanced sick pay allowances, maternity & paternity payments
- High Street, retail, holiday, entertainment & leisure discounts
- Access to our financial wellbeing hub & salary deducted finance
- Employee assistance programme & wellbeing support
- Ongoing training & support with opportunities for career development & progression
About the role:
This role offers hybrid working from home & our Gloucester office. Regular travel will also be required within the Gloucestershire area. As a Children & Young Person's Domestic Abuse Group Facilitator you will:
- Lead & facilitate the group work program to children & young people who have experienced domestic abuse
- Help young people to recover from the effects & trauma of domestic abuse by delivering the program online & in face-to-face settings
- Proactively promote the service, raise awareness of services & work collaboratively with professionals to improve the access to and quality of services for children & young people
- Play a vital role in ensuring we provide high quality, end-to-end support to children & young people to help them to recover from abuse
You will need:
- Experience of working with children and young people
- Experience of delivering group programmes
- Excellent communication skills
- A good understanding of the impact of Domestic Abuse
- Knowledge of risk assessment, safety planning and risk management for victims of domestic abuse
Please note, this role involves regular travel and due to the location, a driving license and access to a vehicle is considered an essential requirement.
Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details.
About Us:
Victim Support (VS) is an independent charity providing a range of specialist services to people who have been affected by crime across England and Wales. We work towards a world where there are fewer victims but who have stronger rights, better support and a real influence in the Criminal Justice System. Everyone at VS is driven by our Vision Ambitions and Values to play their part in making a difference for those who experience crime and traumatic events. Working for VS gives you the opportunity to play a key role in a national charity providing high quality services to victims and witnesses and being a vital force for change.
Victim Support are committed to recruiting with care and to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Background checks and Disclosed Barring Service checks may be required.
Victim Support strives to represent the diverse communities we serve and are passionate about creating an environment where all staff and volunteers feel respected and heard. Being a diverse organisation with an inclusive culture is integral to us being able to meet our aim of ensuring that anyone who is a victim of crime gets the support they need.
As part of our commitment to the Race at Work Charter we particularly welcome applicants from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. VS is also a Disability Confident Employer and we provide a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for candidates that are disabled and meet all essential criteria for a role.
If you have a disability, a learning difficulty such as dyslexia or a medical condition which you believe may affect your performance during any aspect of our selection process, we'll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to perform at your best.
How to apply:
To apply for this role please follow the link below to the Jobs page on our website and complete the application form demonstrating how you meet the essential shortlisting criteria.
We look forward to hearing from you.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, if we receive enough suitable applications to take forward to interview prior to the published closing date.
Job Title: Senior Supervising Social Worker
Salary: £35,893 per annum (increasing to £39,880 in 18 months) + £1,500 per annum Out of Hours Rota Allowance + £750 per annum Homeworking Allowance
Hours & Contract: 35 hours per week - Fixed term contract for 12 months
Location: Homebased in the South West area including Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, Gloucester, Somerset, Wiltshire
A rare opportunity to work for an ‘OUTSTANDING’ team where trauma-informed practice is the foundation of everything we do. Brilliant training opportunities, clinical supervision, and support. “Members of the team who spoke to the inspector said that they felt valued in their role. They considered that they had access to opportunities that they had not experienced in previous employment. The agency provides exceptional resources for staff to ensure that their emotional well-being and a healthy work-life balance are promoted.” (OFSTED 2022)
As a ‘not for profit’ organisation, TACT puts the needs of our children and carers first and look to appoint individuals who are as passionate about fostering as we are. We are a homeworking organisation, and we pride ourselves on our flexible working opportunities, available from day one, an extensive wellbeing programme and our benefits package, all curated to nurture a healthy work life balance for all our employees so they can give an excellent service to our carers and the young people and children we care for.
As a foster care charity, TACT invests all surplus income into services, staff, carers, and child development. This means that we have been able to invest unique projects like TACT Connect, our unique and ground-breaking scheme for TACT care experienced young people and adults, as well as our expanding TACT Education Service and our new Health Service. All our activities are built on our commitment to becoming a fully trauma informed organisation, in line with our key values and ethos.
TACT achieved 16th place in the UK Best Companies Work For survey results in 2023, with 91% of employees acknowledging that the organisation is run on strong values and principles and 94% stating they feel proud to work for this organisation.
If you want to be valued as a professional, be appreciated at work and contribute to better outcomes for the children and young people connected with TACT, apply now.
Whilst being homebased, the Senior Supervising Social Worker will visit and support foster families across the TACT South West area including Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, Gloucester, Somerset and Wiltshire areas but will also travel within the wider region for team meetings, training and other in person events.
Overall Duties of the Senior Supervising Social Worker will include:
- An appropriate social work qualification
- Up-to-date registration with Social Work England
- Experience in fostering/family placements or other childcare settings
- Up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation including the Fostering National Minimum Standards and Fostering regulations.
- Experience of working with/supporting looked after children and their foster carers.
- Knowledge of matching criteria and stability of placments.
- Capable of using electronic records systems and IT effectively, including participating in virtual meetings and webinars.
TACT offer an excellent employee benefits package including:
- 31 days paid holiday plus bank holidays.
- Flexible working arrangements (including compressed hours, flexibility around core hours, volunteer days policy).
- Family friendly policies.
- Homeworking ‘bundle’ including annual allowance, IT equipment and a loan for home office set up.
- Perkbox – retail discount scheme.
- Stakeholder pension scheme (salary sacrifice).
- Fantastic learning and development opportunities.
- Employee Assistance Programme (including CBT counselling, remote GP appointments, physiotherapy, mental health support and second opinions).
An Enhanced DBS clearance is required for this role and will be processed by TACT on your behalf.
Closing Date: Sunday 28th July 2024
- Interview Date: Friday 9th August 2024
Safeguarding is everyone’s business and TACT believes that only the people with the right skills and values should work in social work. As part of TACT’s commitment to safeguarding, we properly examine the skills, experience, qualifications, and values of potential staff in relation to our work with vulnerable young children. We use rigorous and consistent recruitment approaches to help safeguard TACT’s young people. All our staff are expected to work in line with TACT’s safeguarding policies.
We reserve the right to close a vacancy earlier than advertised if the volume of applications is excessive, you are therefore advised to apply at your earliest convenience.
TACT does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies, nor the fees associated with them.