Night support worker jobs in London
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Please note: Peabody is not a licensed UK sponsor, so we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Hours: Waking nights – 40 hours per week
Are you ready to make a difference in the quiet hours of the night?
We’re looking for a Waking Nights Support Worker to join us, supporting young people aged 16-25 who have high support needs.
In this role, you’ll be safeguarding wellbeing, encouraging positive relationships, and supporting each resident’s journey towards independence, all while ensuring the safety, calm, and security of our service overnight.
A Typical Night in the Role
Your shift will start with a handover from the day team before you prepare for the night ahead. You’ll carry out building checks to make sure the environment is safe, address tenancy issues like smoking or noise, and be available to respond to any emergencies. You may host activities like a film night to build community spirit, but you’ll also be prepared to de-escalate challenging situations, offer emotional support, and ensure all residents feel safe.
What We’re Looking For
We want to hear from candidates who can demonstrate, through their application, how they meet the following criteria:
Background: Experience working with vulnerable young people (16-25 years) in social housing, education, or the charity sector, with a focus on development and personal growth.
Complex Needs: Professional experience of supporting people with complex needs, including homelessness, mental health, high-risk or high-harm behaviours, or high vulnerability.
Managing Challenging Behaviour & Maintaining Professional Boundaries: Experience of working with young people who display challenging behaviour or conflict, while remaining approachable, engaging effectively, providing constructive support, and maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
Safeguarding and Trauma-Informed Principles: Thorough and up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding and trauma-informed care.
IT Skills, Complex Casework & Time Management: Good IT skills, demonstrable experience of managing a complex caseload, strong report writing skills, and effective time management.
Why join us?
When you join Peabody, you’re joining a team guided by our values, Be Kind, Do the Right Thing, Love New Ideas, Celebrate Diversity, Keep Our Promises, and Pull Together. We believe in creating a workplace where everyone feels supported, included, and empowered.
What You’ll Get
• 25 days’ annual leave
• Flexible benefits including healthcare, dental, and discounts.
• 4x Life Assurance and up to 10% pension contribution.
• Professional development, including funded apprenticeships.
• Two paid volunteering days each year.
• Family-friendly policies and a supportive team culture.
Please read before applying
We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so you might hear from us before the closing date, keep an eye on your inbox and your phone!
Interview Process:
The selection process for this role will include an in-person assessment centre, comprising both group exercises and individual assessments/interviews.
This will take place on Thursday 3rd September in Berkhamsted, from 9:30am to 1:00pm. Candidates should be available for the full duration of the assessment centre.
Please note: Peabody is not a licensed UK sponsor, so we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Waking Night Support Workers
We're looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Waking Night Support Workers to join our Mental Health Social Care Service in Ealing.
£23,088.00 per annum, working 30 hours per week.
Want to feel like you have an exciting future? You'll feel at home here.
Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren't token gestures - we've thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.
Our benefits include:
* Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
* A generous pension - we will contribute up to 8% and life assurance cover up to 3x Pensionable Salary (T&Cs apply)
* Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway® and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
* Fully paid induction programme and further training
* ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
* Cycle to work scheme
* Employee Assistance Programme for 24-7 confidential support
* Online wellbeing resources
* Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff's commitment and contribution
* Free DBS
All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.
Support workers will manage a number of young people to help them to identify, plan and achieve their goals, develop relationships meaningful to them and achieve greater independence by providing a flexible and individually tailored support package.
This is a Waking Night role working to support young people throughout the night at the service.
The working pattern for this role Includes: three 10-hour night shifts per week, with shift times varying between 9:30pm-7:30am and 10pm-8am.
What you'll do:
- Building supportive, trusting relationships with young people and creating a positive atmosphere
- Working proactively with other members of the team to handle the service caseload and administrative responsibilities
- Conducting key work sessions as required, that are innovative and engaging in order to achieve Support Plan goals
- Co-producing ongoing assessment and management of risks in collaboration with young people with an attitude of 'positive risk taking'
- Providing support with daily living activities, including practical assistance to support young people s to independent living e.g. budgeting, cooking, establishing a night time routine
- Supporting young people to maintain a healthy environment and where appropriate assisting them to clean their accommodation and maintain good personal hygiene
- Assisting in the recording and reporting of customer incidents
- Managing referrals, completing assessments and obtaining and maintaining all relevant paperwork
This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead
About you:
Ability to advocate for young people in different professional and community spaces
- Values working collaboratively with young people to ensure the service best meets their needs.
- An understanding of peoples' contexts and how this might be impacting them their lives and mental health
- Cultural awareness and respect for the many different ways a person might make sense of their experiences and distress.
What you'll bring:
Essential:
- Up to NVQ Level 2/3 or equivalent or experience supporting young people or people experiencing mental health challenges.
Desirable:
- Experience working in complex mental health environments
About us:
Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over 100 services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.
We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:
* We focus on Excellence and innovation.
* We are Caring and Compassionate.
* We are Inclusive and Trusted.
* We work in Partnership and are One-Team.
Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.
If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.
We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.
We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.
Please see our website for full Job description
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Salary: Balham Home- Waking Nights: £30,227 or Days: £29,635 & Ealing Home- Waking Nights: £30,227 or Days: £27,929
Contract: Full time/ Permanent
Hours:40 hours per week (including weekends, bank holidays and occasional sleep-ins)
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Day Shifts: work between 8 am and 10:30 pm
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Waking Night Shifts: work between 10 pm and 8 am
Additional Benefits:
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£50 per sleep-in
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Time-and-a-half pay for overtime (over 40 hours per week) and bank holidays
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Two weekends off per month
Locations: Ealing (W13) and Balham (SW12)
Looking for fantastic career progression, excellent training and therapeutic support? Join our committed and professional team and make a difference to young people living in residential care, where no two days are the same!
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 caring 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.We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do.We provide positive and life-changing support experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home. Our offering in underpinned by therapeutic expertise and young people in our care also benefit from extensive life-skills and participation opportunities as well and learning support regarding their education.
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.
St Christopher’s Academy
At St Christopher’s, we offer more than a job in social care— we offer a real career pathway. You’ll have the chance to build your skills, grow your knowledge, and make a lasting difference to young people’s lives, as well as your own.
When you join us, you’ll receive a tailored development plan designed around your goals. Whether you want to move into a different service, progress into a leadership role, or just explore your current role further, we’ll support you every step of the way. If you want to learn more aboutSt Christopher’s Academy, please clickhere
Our development programme, St Christopher’s Academy, is built to help you reach your full potential — and the results speak for themselves:
84% of our Team Leaders, Deputies, and Managers are promoted internally.
About the Role
As a Support Worker in a Children’s Home, you will provide direct support and care for our young people, who have complex emotional and mental health difficulties (such as trauma and loss) and can struggle to regulate their emotions. Working within a therapeutic framework, you will develop a direct programme of work aimed at developing authentic relationships with our children and young people (aged between12 – 17 years old), you will also have responsibility for making sure our those in our care are safe, providing support, liaison with other external professionals and completion of support documents to record information.
If applying for the Waking Night role, you will have the additional support of an on-call manager should there be any emergencies. Further to this, you will be involved in monthly team meetings and receive monthly one-to-one supervision with your manager.
Applicants should have
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Minimum of 1 years’ experience working and supporting Young People in residential, semi-independent, fostering settings or youth work centres, caring for Children and Young People with emotional behavioural difficulties, neurodivergent or SEND, etc.
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Willingness to achieve the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare within 2 years as per Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 (England)
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Genuine commitment to working with and supporting children and Young People to achieve their full potential; with the ability to build and promote trusted relationships while maintaining professional boundaries.
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An understanding of the issues facing children and Young People and a basic understanding of safeguarding Regulations and Procedures.
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The ability to cope effectively with challenging behaviour.
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Good communication and team working skills.
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Flexibility to work shifts, including weekends and bank holidays, and if applicable, sleep-in’s.
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Commitment to undertake any mandatory training (outside of working hours) and continuous learning to ensure a high level of service.
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Creativity, enthusiasm and energy to inspire and encourage young people to achieve their goals.
What you should expect from us
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Competitive pay.
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4 weeks full induction and training program (paid).
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Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services, Tailored career development plan through our“St Christopher’s Academy”.
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Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
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25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
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Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme.
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UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary.
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BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
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Cycle to work scheme.
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Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK both in store and online.
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Discretionary funded training programs for you to explore and attain new and relevant skills.
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Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
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.
Your online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. CV’s will not be accepted.
Application Process
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Application:Complete our online form and include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification.Please note that applications without supporting statement will not be accepted.
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Interview:Shortlisted candidates attend a face-to-face interview at our Putney office.
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Second Stage:Successful candidates will visit the home they applied to.
We advise applying as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Important note:
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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’.
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It is illegal to applyfor 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.
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All shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit aSelf-Declaration and Disclosureform which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked.
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It is a requirement that practitioners working in Children Homes are qualified with the Diploma 3 in residential childcare within 2 years of starting in the job role. (Children Home Regulations England 2015). St Christopher’s provide access and funding to undertake this qualification. Applicants who have Citizenship or Visa status restrictions that may preclude them from being able to meet the qualification requirement may be considered for other options such as fixed term contracts. Each applicant’s situation will be assessed as part of the recruitment process.
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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