Personal assistant jobs

Learning Support Worker (1082)

At St. John's, we have been making a positive difference to the lives of young people for nearly 140 years. We are now looking for an amazing Learning Support Worker to support us in making that difference! Could that be you?

Why join our inclusive team?

St. John's is one of the largest employers in Brighton and Hove.

What can we offer you?

• £27,976.00 FTE for 52 weeks (Your actual salary will be £25,286.00 as your contract will be term time only). 
• 32-days paid holiday (plus bank holidays) - 32-days are taken outside of term time
• Fulfilling and meaningful work – make a difference!
• Career development plans that are tailored to you
• Discounts across businesses in the local community.

Who are we?

St. John's is a non-maintained specialist provision, working with autistic people, the majority of whom also have learning disabilities. Some of our learners have co-occurring conditions such as epilepsy, hearing or visual impairments, or mental health needs. We also support autistic learners who have an additional profile of Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) syndrome. We have a team built up of support workers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, nurses, PBS practitioners, assistant psychologists, and more, to support us in our holistic approach to development.

Each learner's curriculum is shaped by their individual strengths, interests, and challenges. St. John's is awarded with Autism Accreditation by the National Autistic Society (NAS). We support our learners to develop their skills in the NAS's four focus areas of:

• Difference in social communication and interaction
• Self-reliance and problem-solving
• Sensory
• Emotional Well-being

What are we looking for?

We've been doing this long enough to know that, whilst desirable, experience is not everything! Our amazing learning and development team and our passionate managers have coached people new to this field into support working roles. We know that if you have, the passion and desire to learn, and the want to empower others, you already have the foundations of an outstanding support worker. We are looking for drivers to support our young people to access the community, but having a licence isn't essential.

Sound like you? Then keep on reading!

What will you be doing?

• Supporting the young people in a classroom setting and during breaktimes
• Implementing the learner's behaviour support plan and risk assessment
• Working within a team of multidisciplinary professionals across the charity
• Tracking the progress of individuals and reporting to the teacher, care manager, and/or parents at review meetings.

Exciting opportunity? We think so! Click apply to start your journey as part of the St. John's College family as a Learning Support Worker

Please note that interviews will be arranged progressively as suitable applications are received. Early application is therefore advisable.

Ambitious about Autism is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion at every level of our organisation. We warmly welcome applications from all qualified candidates, valuing the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives they bring. We encourage applications from individuals regardless of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or parental status, disability, or age.

Our recruitment process promotes equal opportunities, and we are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for candidates with disabilities or additional needs throughout the recruitment process. Please contact our Recruitment Team for accommodations. We recognise disability as a physical or mental impairment that significantly and long-term affects a person's ability to perform day-to-day activities, as defined by the UK Equality Act 2010. All applications will be considered solely on merit, aligned with our mission to support autistic children and young people.

Ambitious about Autism is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and successful candidates will be subject to an Enhanced DBS check. As part of our Safer Recruitment checks, an online search maybe carried out in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education.

The Safeguarding responsibilities of the post as per the job description and personal specification.
Whether the post is exempt from the rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendment to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2021. This means that when applying for certain jobs and activities certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected', so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS Filter Guidance.

Documents

• Learning Support Worker- Recruitment Pack (2) (1).pdf (2.46 MB)

About NEON 

NEON is a not-for-profit organisation committed to accelerating social movements. We build capacity and infrastructure to accelerate the transition to a new economy. We work across a wide range of progressive issues including climate, housing, healthcare, and migration and we support over 1,000 organisers across the UK working towards political, environmental, and social justice. Our theory of change is rooted in understanding both the strategies, stories, and structures required to sustain a movement. Short term, this results in improved movement infrastructure, skills, and connections; long term, it leads to robust relationships and movement alliances capable of systemic change. 

Context

NEON’s People & Operations Hub makes sure all our internal systems run smoothly and that our team is happy, high-performing and cared for. The People & Operations Hub brings together people, culture, operations, fundraising and finance, and plays a key role in making sure NEON is both high impact and a joyful place to work, at the heart of this is ensuring our values of respect, generosity and solidarity and anti-oppression principles are embedded into all internal practices.

As part of this, we’re currently looking for someone to support us for a defined period of time to review and refresh some of our core operational and compliance areas, and support us with discrete ops tasks as they arise. This includes reviewing, updating and embedding key systems and processes so that they are clear, usable and consistently followed across NEON. Alongside this, we want to create a NEON-wide handbook, so that we have a simple accessible place where people can find everything they need to know about how we do things at NEON. We also want to strengthen our guidance around event safety, both online and in-person, so staff feel comfortable and supported when planning and delivering work. It’s crucial for us that this work is developed in collaboration with the People & Operations Hub as well as the wider team. 

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone who is comfortable moving across operational and compliance work. Someone who has a solid understanding and experience in delivering high-level health and safety, data protection, IT and systems work, and other operational aspects of running an organisation, and can turn that into something practical, usable and genuinely helpful for our team. Someone who is self-motivated, comfortable working independently, and able to take ownership of pieces of work from start to finish

We’d love someone who has experience working closely in or within people and operations teams in small- medium sized not-for profits or charities, and who knows how to take complex or messy systems and make them simpler, clearer and easier to embed in day-to-day practice. We’re looking for someone aligned with our values of respect, generosity and solidarity and is well-versed in including anti-oppression principles into operational work. Someone who is motivated by working in a values-led organisation where decisions factor in culture, trust and care as well as the technical elements.

This person should be confident reviewing and improving systems and understands and is experienced in working closely with other people to do this, whether that’s with the Director of People and Operations to receive direction or troubleshoot, working alongside our Ops Assistant to put things into practice and draw on their organisational expertise, or engaging the wider team to elicit their ideas and challenges, and incorporate them into improvements. Similarly someone who is able to work with external support we have in place around IT, HR and data protection and translate their recommendations into practical action.

They’ll need to be able to hit the ground running and pick up discrete pieces of work, working thoughtfully and collaboratively with a team that’s juggling lots of different priorities. Aside from improving key pieces of work, the other core part of the role is bringing people with them, which will involve coaching and mentoring skills, a learning and development approach, and helping others feel confident taking on and owning this work.

Above all, we’re looking for someone who understands how to make organisations compliant and well-run in a way that feels proportionate, caring, and realistic for a team of our size. Someone who can embed these pieces of work, without overcomplicating things, and who can foster a sense of shared ownership. We’re also looking for someone who really cares about how operational work is truly embedded and put into practice across organisations, who thinks carefully about what happens after their involvement or support ends and knows how to build internal capability so work doesn’t stay dependent on them.

Key deliverables

By the end of the service period, the following outputs will have been delivered and fully embedded into NEON’s ways of working:

IT and systems

The freelancer will complete a high-level review of NEON’s current IT systems, identify key risks and gaps, and produce a set of recommendations. 

Outputs will include working with the People & Operations Hub to lead implementation and embedding of agreed improvements across tools and ways of working, including an improved GDrive structure, Google Workspace and IT security improvements and an IT and phones policy.

Data protection

The freelancer will complete a high-level review and strengthening of NEON’s GDPR and data protection approach.

Outputs will include updated core policies (GDPR policy, privacy notice, retention policy) and practical guidance to support consistent implementation across the organisation. It also includes delivery of staff training and further strengthening of our “Data Champions”.

Event processes

The freelancer will assess our current event-related practices (online and in-person).

Outputs will include clear, practical recommendations, strengthened guidance for managing event safety and risk in practice and staff training and support.

Health and safety

A review and update of NEON’s health and safety approach will be completed to ensure policies and processes are clear, practical and consistently applied.

Outputs will include an updated H&S policy, incident reporting process, risk assessment templates, and a simple event safety framework with guidance and checklists. It also includes delivering staff training and embedding of H&S practice across the organisation, including clarification of roles and responsibilities.

AI policy and guidance

The freelancer will research and develop NEON’s approach to AI use across the organisation, considering best practice, risks, opportunities, and the impact of AI on staff and NEON’s work. It should also include thoughtful consideration of the harms and ethical concerns associated with AI.

Outputs will include engagement with staff to understand current use and concerns, alongside the creation of clear and practical AI guidance and an organisational AI policy to support safe, thoughtful and consistent use of AI tools across NEON.

NEON Handbook

A NEON-wide handbook will be created, bringing together key processes, guidance and signposting to essential organisational information in one accessible place.

The handbook will be co-developed with staff and People & Operations Hub members to ensure it reflects day-to-day practice and is maintainable internally after completion.

Day-to-day operations support

The freelancer will provide additional operational capacity to support the Hub with emerging priorities, and time-sensitive pieces of work that arise during the contract period.

Outputs may include support with operational problem-solving and decision making, maintaining processes and procedures, providing subject knowledge expertise, maintaining documentation and other discrete operational tasks agreed with the Director of People and Operations.

A key part of this work will be ensuring that all outputs and improvements are properly embedded within the People & Ops Hub and the wider organisation. This includes creating clear documentation, guidance, training and handover processes so that NEON staff can confidently hold and maintain this work after the consultancy ends.

Timescales and fee schedule

The freelancer will be appointed and ready to engage from the end of July/ start of August 2026. We expect this work to be completed across two-three days per week for up to six months, ideally finished by the end of January or February 2027 (depending on start date). There may be a possibility of extension if other relevant and discrete projects arise and in agreement with the Director of People and Operations.

Call out information required

Interested freelancers are asked to provide the following information in response to this call out:

1. Brief career history and details of relevant assignments undertaken (this could be in the form of a CV)

2. A statement not exceeding 800 words on your proposed approach to the deliverables, including:

   1. Your technical and subject matter expertise

   2. Your personal style and approach to working with others

   3. How you will embed our values of respect, generosity and solidarity and anti-oppression principles into the deliverables

3. Your day rate, indicating whether VAT is payable (please note our indicative day rate that is aligned with our internal budget is £375)

4. A clear commitment to undertake the work within the timeframe set out above

5. Two testimonials from suitable clients or professional partners

The deadline for submissions is Sunday 28th June 11.59pm

Please find email address for submission of applications on our website.

We may wish to discuss submissions with you on Monday 6th July or Wednesday 8th July 2026. We will inform you if this is the case.

For any further information or clarification prior to submission, contact us at our website.