Children social worker jobs in brighton and hove, east sussex

Role: Nutley Edge Activity Breaks Manager

Full-time – 38 hours per week

Salary: £41,170.00 per annum  

Location: East Sussex / London

Do you love the excitement of being on holiday? Are you enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to empowering people with learning disabilities and/or autism? If so, we want you to lead our dedicated Activity Breaks team to help us create treasured memories for our guests!

What is a Nutley Edge Activity Break?

Nutley Edge Activity Breaks are Outward’s supported holidays for adults with learning disabilities and autism. They are five days and four nights long and take place at our beautiful holiday site near Uckfield in East Sussex. Every break is themed and guests take part in a range of activities such as archery, art, music, yoga, and day trips to local towns, cities, and historical sites. Our breaks give guests the opportunity to get away for a holiday, meet new people, and explore the best of East Sussex.

“Outward have employed the best activity team because the compassion and care they showed to us was better than I have ever seen before. They gave me the acceptance of anxiety disorders to believe and achieve. To me, acceptance is more important than any other medicine. Nutley Edge will be my new home from home.” – Activity Break Guest

What is the role of the Manager? 

As manager, with the support of the deputy(s), you will organise varied and fun breaks for our guests. This includes carrying out assessments for new guests, supporting the team to deliver respite care, coaching the staff team, and embedding high standards in the service. We run 20 breaks a year and wish to grow this number, around about 10 of which are led by the Activity Team Manager on site in East Sussex. During activity breaks food and your own room is provided and an additional sleep in payment for each night supporting a break is paid.  

We are a London based charity and welcome applicants for this role on the understanding they are able to support at least 10 breaks throughout a year (providing day and overnight support for 5 days/ 4 nights at a time in East Sussex), are able to travel to our North East London offices to attend meetings and training sessions, and travel to assessments and marketing events as required. 

In the role, you will: 

• Manage all aspects of the activity breaks

• Engage, enable, and empower people to achieve their goals and ambitions  

• Strive to promote individual choice, independence, and self confidence in our guests

• Build and maintain strong relationships with families, professionals, and other stakeholders. 

• Mentor your  team of support workers to deliver high quality and person-centred support

• Embed a culture of positive behaviour support

• Ensure the service is safe, effective, caring, responsive and managed to meet CQC essential standards

• Conduct assessments and develop risk assessments

• Manage the budget

• Complete fundraising applications if required

• Grow the number of activity breaks

• Market and promote activity breaks including attend local events, forums, carers groups and talking with professionals in order to grow our service and ensure the success of the activity breaks

What qualities and experience should the ideal candidate have?

We are looking for somebody who has:

• Experience managing the support provided for people with a learning disability, autism, and complex needs (including behaviours of distress)

• Excellent communication skills and IT skills

• Experience of staff management and the ability to lead by example to develop a strong team

• Creativity and flexibility, with experience of dealing with the unexpected

• Experience carrying out needs assessments and creating support and risk management plans

• A commitment to providing high quality and personalised active support 

• A commitment to upholding the rights of people we support to be involved at all levels of decision making. 

• A passion for engaging, enabling, and empowering people with autism or a learning disability to lead the lives they want

• Knowledge of managing a budget

• A driving licence and willingness to drive a minibus is desirable 

Employee Benefits

We value everything our staff do for the people we support, so we provide a great benefits package:

• 25 days Annual Leave excluding Bank Holidays (pro rata for part time)

• Comprehensive Learning & Development Programme

• Computing Scheme 

• Credit Union Scheme

• Cycle-to-Work Scheme

• Death in Service Benefit

• Health Assured – Employee Assistance Programme

• Eye care Vouchers

• Flu Jab Reimbursement

• Long Service Awards

• Pension Scheme

• Purchase Additional Annual Leave

• Refer-a-Friend Scheme

• Retirements

• Loans (including season tickets and parking permit loans)

• Blue Light Card

About Outward

Outward was set up in 1975 by parents of children with a disability looking for alternatives to institutional care.  Ever since then, we have been providing high-quality support and care services to vulnerable people. Our aim is to support people to have genuine control over their lives, play an active role in the community, accept responsibilities, and develop as individuals.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk and expect all staff to share this commitment. If the post you apply for involves working with or having access to adults at risk and/or their records, we will require an Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Services. This will be fully subsidised by Outward.

How to Apply

If you think you are who we are looking for, please submit a CV and statement detailing how you meet the requirements of the role by referring to the Job Description and the Person Specification.

The closing Date for all Applications is 6th May 2025

Interviews will be held week beginning 12th May 2025

Outward is committed to equality and diversity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

About the role

As one of two Regional Programmes Manager, you’ll inspire and lead a team of Senior Programmes Officers and Kinship Family Workers to effectively deliver high quality support services for kinship families across Greater London, the South of England and the Midlands.

You’ll do this by working in close collaboration with local authority teams who have commissioned our services and other funders where appropriate.

You’ll have accountability and ownership for ensuring we deliver impactful services for kinship carers and that we meet targets for our commissioned services. Working collaboratively with our other managers in other services, you’ll ensure we’re delivering high impact programmes.

You’ll ensure your team have real clarity and direction on their role and responsibilities - encouraging curiosity, learning and solutions-focused thinking. As a leader in the organisation, you are a key model for the team.

Your team will deliver the following programmes:

• Kinship Connected – in-person one-to-one support and support groups in the community
• Kinship Reach – remote one-to-one support and virtual support groups
• Kinship Ready – online workshops to prepare new and prospective special guardians for their role, as well as wraparound one-to-one support (in one local authority)

You will also manage a new role of Grants Officer - London, funded by the Aviva Foundation.

As one of our deputy safeguarding leads, you’ll be part of our key safeguarding structure.  This means you’ll take ownership to make sure our people feel confident and well supported to demonstrate best practice and making sure safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Key responsibilities include:

• Oversee the day-to-day running of programmes, supporting mostly home-based Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers to ensure high quality, consistent and impactful programme delivery.

• Meet performance targets as directed.

• Create and keep developing processes and systems which support consistency across all programmes, ensuring good quality documentation and manualisation on Notion.so

• Develop quality assurance frameworks with other service managers and directors.

• Support your team to establish and deliver in-person and virtual peer support groups regionally and generate engagement with kinship carers.

• Line management and supervision of Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers as required.

• Actively encourage personal development and support staff to deliver key targets and outcomes and ensure high levels of wellbeing.

• Work with the Director of Services and Digital, Head of Programmes and the Business Development team to develop proposals and present to local authorities to secure commissions.

• Manage the delivery of commissioned contracts through collaborative relationships with local authorities, ensuring targets are met.

• Manage the programmes and services within budget, in accordance with Kinship’s financial procedures and ensure the reporting of progress in line with funder requirements.

• Work actively and positively with other managers within Kinship to ensure sharing of best practice, problem solving, relevant connections and consistency of delivery across England and Wales.

• Act as a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship

Essential requirements include:

• Substantial experience in managing a regional service or programme with high quality outputs (national experience desirable but not essential).
• Substantial experience of managing, developing and evaluating effective and innovative services for families experiencing crisis and experience in reaching ‘hidden communities’ and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Experience of leading and managing continuous improvement in changing contexts.
• Experience of governance and managing risk on high profile service delivery.
• Experience of ensuring that services are designed and led with user needs at the heart, ensuring that the voices of our kinship carers inform ongoing design and development of our programmes.
• High quality digital and data literacy and using technology to help us to be better in our processes. You’ll have to own Salesforce and be a massive champion for the team. You will be accountable for ensuring they use it well.
• Substantial experience of leading high-performing service teams including managing wellbeing, development and performance.

How to apply

In place of a cover letter, you will be asked to answer the following five questions, alongside providing your CV. Please keep your answers to a maximum of 250 words.

1. Tell us why you’re interested in working for Kinship in this role and what experience you bring that would make you successful? This is an opportunity to tell us about you, your experience and your values.
2. Please give an example where you have managed a successful regional programme or service (this could also be national). Please include scale, key performance indicators and outcome. What made it a success?
3. What makes you a great team manager? Give one example of how you have supported teams and individuals to flourish and one example when you have had to step in to address behaviour or performance issues. (This is an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for supporting others to develop and deliver to a high standard. You can share evidence of how your approach has worked and how you’ve tackled challenges and difficult conversations along the way).
4. Quality assurance and consistency is key to making sure our programmes deliver impact for our kinship carers. This includes ensuring your team are following processes, using our case management system effectively and have the tolls to do their role. Please describe how you would approach this at Kinship using a previous example.
5. In this role you will be a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship. This is a key role, the lives of kinship carers are incredibly complex.  Give one example of a safeguarding situation that required your response in a previous role. Explain what your rationale and thought process was. How did you hold appropriate boundaries and progress actions to effectively safeguard vulnerable children and adults?

Key Dates

• Application deadline: Wednesday 30 April, 9am
• First interview: Online – Tuesday 6 May
• Second interview: In person (Vauxhall, London) – Tuesday 13 May (travel expenses covered if required)

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.

We are made by and for our community of kinship carers. Like family, relationships run deep. And we hear their experiences; for too long they have been isolated without the help they need.

We support, advise and inform kinship carers. Connecting them so they feel empowered. Because a child needs the love and warmth of a thriving family.

We develop research, campaigns and policy solutions. Creating positive change across society. Because for kinship families, love alone is not enough.

Through our work we harness frustrations to fuel passion for change. And tough experiences to inspire ideas that transform lives.

And as we see momentum building, we keep using evidence to demonstrate the value of kinship care. Helping kinship carers navigate challenging circumstances. Believing in a child’s potential.

Join us. Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.

About us

We are National Energy Action (NEA) – and our vision is to end fuel poverty. Our work to improve and promote energy efficiency brings social, environmental, housing and employment benefits.  We believe everyone should be able to afford to keep their homes warm and safe. However, low incomes, high energy bills and poor energy efficiency currently deny this to millions of households across the UK.  Never has this been more important than today. 

NEA’s teams are friendly, knowledgeable and are dedicated to what we do.  We are proud of our expertise and proud of the service we deliver to our clients. 

We offer colleagues a friendly, rewarding workplace and the chance to build a worthwhile career with a not-for-profit organisation that makes a genuine difference to people’s lives each and every day.

The role

NEA has an exciting opportunity for a Training and Education Officer to support with the delivery of our accredited training and qualifications to stakeholders across the United Kingdom as well as develop and deliver our expanding education programme nationwide.

You will work across both the training and education teams to develop and deliver training courses and education workshops to frontline workers, volunteers and young people from a wide range of organisations, including local authorities, housing associations, voluntary and community groups, and commercial organisations.

Our training courses and workshops cover key issues associated with fuel poverty, fuel debt, affordable warmth, low-carbon technologies and practical energy efficiency advice. You will work alongside the training team to develop, design and deliver these engaging online and face-to-face courses and qualifications.  You will act as an examiner for all NEA qualifications, assist in the development of future assessment-based qualifications; and have the ability to identify new opportunities for training and assessment product development.

You will work closely with the existing education team to enhance the current education provision of the charity; you will develop and deliver education sessions in line with programme and funding needs. Delivery will include both Primary and Secondary school sessions as well as bespoke education sessions for care leavers, young carers, youth offenders and children soon to be attending university or college.

We are accepting applications from across the United Kingdom however, we are particularly interested in hearing from applicants in the Midlands, Yorkshire, and the North-East of England.

What you will need to succeed

You will possess a relevant training or education qualification and have recent, demonstrable experience in delivering adult training and or primary / secondary school sessions. Ideally, you will also bring experience in one or more of the following fields: energy, community development, debt or money advice, consumer issues, or housing.

With excellent communication skills and IT skills, you will be adaptable and bring a lot of energy to the team.  You’ll be brimming with ideas and enthusiasm and have a passion to deliver training and education to people from diverse backgrounds and the desire to make a positive difference to people’s lives.

You will be expected to deliver training and education sessions depending on organisational need, as well as occasionally delivery in wider England and Wales. This will require overnight stays and flexibility on the part of the post holder.

The role of Training and Education Officer will be part of the Development and Partnerships Directorate and the postholder will report to NEA’s Training Programme Delivery Manager.

Hybrid working is subject to necessary H&S and GDPR checks. Post holders must be resident within the UK and be able to provide their Right to Work in the UK. 

The job description provides a list of the duties of the post and the person specification provides the list of essential and desirable criteria. 

We are offering:

• £31,068 - £35,836 (Points 18 -25) (plus £3,300 London Weighting if applicable). New appointments are usually made at the starting point of the scale.
• 11.5% non-contributory pension.
• 25 days annual leave plus 3 additional days in between Christmas New Year Period when our offices close; plus, all public holidays per annum.
• Flexible working arrangements including the opportunity for Hybrid working.
• Enhanced family friendly payments.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Employee benefits platform.

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 06 May2025 at 12 noon.  Interviews will be held Wednesday 21 May 2025.

Please be aware that National Energy Action is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore, the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

Please note CVs will not be accepted as part of the application process.  No agency or advertising enquiries please.

NEA aims to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all people with the necessary skills and experience for the post. Charity Registration No. 290511.  Company Registration No:  01853927

Applicants who are based in the UK, EU, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are welcome to apply. Please note, however, that the listed salary is in reference to UK based applicants.

Background: 

Amna means safe in Arabic - representing the core of our work - supporting communities and frontline workers to bring non-clinical mental health support to every person affected by war, conflict and displacement. At Amna, our core values of respect, understanding, curiosity and connection guide everything we do. Our mission is to build community capacity for healing. Our vision is a world where refugees can determine their future unbounded by the impacts of conflict and displacement. 

We partner with local organisations and institutions working with displaced communities to set up psychosocial healing services in which individuals and groups can discover and connect to practices that promote their healing and wellbeing. We invest in and train people within these organisations to provide this support, and we help partners build psychosocial interventions in collaboration with refugee communities – all with a values-based, trauma-sensitive and identity-informed approach.

Our partnerships are not limited. We connect partners through our global healing network of peer organisations to exchange learnings and enhance their practices as the network strives to support forcibly displaced communities around the world.

Safeguarding: 

The role-holder will have experience working according to ethical and good practice safeguarding principles. They will be expected to adhere to and promote Amna’s Child and Vulnerable Adult Safeguarding Policies as they will be involved and responsible for programmes working with children and vulnerable groups in different settings. 

How Will You Make a Difference? 

Amna is seeking a compassionate and experienced Arabic speaking facilitator to join Amna’s team of trainers, with therapeutic/clinical background. As a Trainer & Facilitator your responsibilities will involve delivering training sessions and group facilitation to support and create learning spaces for training participants on themes centred around trauma and identity informed psychosocial healing care with displaced communities. The role holder is expected to work on multiple responses, and will lead Amna’s Gaza and Syria responses, while working closely with Arabic speaking team members.  

Amna’s identity and trauma informed approach is centred around community healing practices with communities that aim to restore participants sense of safety, belonging, agency and joy. Amna services are co-created with the communities being worked with and we prioritise refugee participation and leadership in service design and delivery wherever possible. 

The role holders need to have experience working with communities affected by adversity, including displacement, war and conflict, poverty, abuse or marginalisation. Given the nature of Amna’s work in emergency settings with displaced communities, applicants need to be comfortable working in environments where there is uncertainty, change and exposure to distress.  

Specifically, successful candidates will have a strong experience in following areas: 

1. Work with children and families in an emergency context; 

1. Therapeutic experience – Individual and Groups; 

1. Community work experience; 

1. Designing and delivering trainings across different context; 

Amna will train role holders in Amna’s training and facilitation approach.

Responsibilities include: 

• To deliver high quality, interactive trainings in person and online.   

• To lead on Amna’s Gaza and Syria responses, working closely with a diverse, cross-cultural team and partners.  

• To develop Amna’s training materials including engaging content, structure, visuals and activities.  

• To provide ongoing support to Amna’s training participants from a range of countries on how to set up safe, community healing spaces with displaced communities.

• To facilitate learning and support groups for Amna training participants.   

• To coordinate the preparation and delivery of in person and online trainings.  

• Outside of Amna’s trainings, to maintain engagement with Amna’s training participants to share and exchange learning. 

• Travel to various countries to visit, train and observe partner organisations.

• To work in collaboration with all departments within Amna to achieve Amna’s objectives. 

  Qualifications and Experience:  

• Minimum three years of experience working therapeutically with communities affected by adversities. 

• Minimum three years of experience delivering therapeutically informed community programmes in emergency or acute contexts using creative tools. 

• Experience working in a therapeutically informed way, e.g. working with sensitivity to the needs and experiences of the communities worked with.   

• Comfortable working in English – spoken and written.  

• Comfortable in designing and delivering content in Arabic.

• Confident computer skills, especially in Microsoft Office and PowerPoint.  

• Able and willing to travel for work (if you have travel restrictions to some countries, please notify us in your application).

• Right to work in the country of residency.  

Desirable: 

• Life or work experience with refugee or/and displaced communities. 

• Education or experience in psychology, social studies such as community work, social work, intercultural education, or creative healing practices. 

• Therapeutic training (minimum 2 years training). 

• Work experience coordinating / project management role. 

• Experience in delivering trainings to groups with mixed genders, languages, cultures, ethnicities, religions, (dis)abilities. 

Work Location and Environment  

This role is a remote job opportunity, and open to applicants in the UK, EU, Middle East and EMEA region.

Amna offers a hybrid working environment to its employees allowing for a blend of remote and in-person work.  

Please note that the nature of working environment and hybrid schedule may be adjusted as per the organisation’s evolving needs.  

Remuneration Package  

At Amna we are committed to attracting and retaining top talent by offering competitive compensation and benefit packages. We believe in rewarding talent and expertise at a level that corresponds with the local market conditions, ensuring that all our team members are fairly compensated for their skills and contributions.   

In compliance with international standards, Amna utilizes a global payroll provider to ensure seamless and efficient compensation processes for our diverse team. 

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  

Amna is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees are valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.   

As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disabilities status.   

Applications are strongly encouraged from people with personal or family lived experience as refugees and displacement, especially individuals from Palestine or individuals with experience working on living in Palestine.