Therapeutic residential support worker jobs

Barnardo's are recruiting Residential Project Worker to be involved in the delivery of our Residential Service, Linksfield, to support children and young people in a therapeutic and trauma enhanced environment set within our Residential childcare setting.

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual with experience of working with young people and their families preferably within the context of care experienced. They should be passionate about improving outcomes for young people who have been placed in our care and work within a child-centred therapeutic approach underpinned by Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy principals.

At Barnardo's we believe every child has the right to a fulfilling life, to realise their potential and to have a positive future. Working in partnerships, we focus on building stronger families and improving family connections in line with The Promise.

Hours worked: the FTE hours a week will be worked flexibly across the week. The role will include some sleep in, evening and weekend work.

Where is it based: This is a Aberdeen based job at the Barnardo's residential home.

Please see the attached person and profile specification for the essential criteria relating to this post and the additional information sheet for more specific details and qualification requirements.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Starting salary of £ 27, 929 ( day time role) or £ 30, 227  ( waking night time role) with potential to rise incrementally to £ 31, 449 based on annual performance

Contract type: Full time, Permanent

Specific Hours: 40 hours per week shift work including weekends, bank holidays and occasional sleep-ins 

• Day Shifts: work between 8:00 am and 10:30 pm
• Waking Night Shifts: work between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am

Overtime / bank holidays paid time-and-a-half and 2 weekends off per month

Location: Ealing, W13 or 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 about St Christopher’s Academy, please click here

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 between 12 and17 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

• Minimum of 1 year of 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.
• Willingness to achieve the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare within 2 years as per Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 (England)
• 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.
• An understanding of the issues facing children and Young People and a basic understanding of safeguarding Regulations and Procedures.
• The ability to cope effectively with challenging behaviour.
• Good communication and team working skills.
• Flexibility to work shifts, including weekends and bank holidays, and if applicable, sleep-in’s.
• Commitment to undertake any mandatory training (outside of working hours) and continuous learning to ensure a high level of service.
• Creativity, enthusiasm and energy to inspire and encourage young people to achieve their goals.

What you should expect from us

• Competitive salary with potential to rise based on performance.
• 4 weeks full induction and training program (paid).
• Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services, Tailored career development plan through our “St Christopher’s Academy”.
• Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
• 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
• 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 both in store and online.
• Discretionary funded training programs for you to explore and attain new and relevant skills.
• 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 application form must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. 

Please note that application forms with no supporting statement will be automaticaly rejected.

CVs will not be accepted.

Application Process:

1. Application: Complete our online application form and include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. 
2. Online Situational Test: After submitting your application, you will be asked to complete an online situational test. The results of this test will help inform the shortlisting process. 
3. Interview: Shortlisted candidates attend a face-to-face interview at our Putney office.
4. Second Stage: Successful candidates will visit the home they applied to.

We advise to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

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.

Reporting to: Accommodation and Facilities Manager

Location: Baca office, Loughborough, England. The role will require regular travel to other locations where Baca’s services are delivered

Hours: 37.5 hrs per week including some evening and weekend hours may be required

Salary: £26,750 per annum

Overall Purpose

To provide maintenance support to the organisation, ensuring premises are maintained at a standard that will serve the mission of Baca. This will include properties across Loughborough and 2 office sites.

Duties Responsibilities

• Organise and conduct required maintenance at all Baca sites. The below list is not exhaustive but some of the below skills will be required to fulfil the role; General Plumbing; bathroom and kitchen plumbing repairs, blocked toilets & sinks etc, Painting and Decorating, Basic carpentry skills, Meter Reading for electricity and gas meters, Fire Testing; routine testing of smoke and CO alarms.
• To become familiar and actively use the Baca’s maintenance management system which aids the reactive and planned works across all sites.
• Communicating with contractors, residential workers and landlords as required, ensuring repairs and maintenance is conducted when planned.
• Administering quarterly checks, quarterly cleans, health and safety requirements and annual servicing such as: PAT testing and Gas safety on properties and reporting issues for follow up.
• Working alongside the Premises Manager, administer the Health & Safety checks on all Baca properties including the offices, to ensure regulatory requirements are met and associated paperwork is completed.
• Support in the setting-up and closing down of properties and rooms between moves.
• Administering the setup and set-down of rooms for young people moves between Baca properties, ensuring the rooms are ready for new young people.
• Ensuring the office and car parks are clean and tidy, ensuring visitor experience is positive, professional, welcoming, friendly and helpful.
• Assist the Premises Manager and Finance Manager with year-end Fixed Assets verification.
• Supporting with other administrative activities in line with the team needs.

General:

• Play an active and supportive role within the organisation.
• Take ownership of files allocated, ensuring they are up to date and stored correctly.
• Maintain strict confidentiality in relation to work undertaken and ensure all confidential material is stored according to Baca’s Confidentiality statement and Data Protection Policy.
• Embrace the Vision and Values of Baca and reflect this in working practice.
• Treat all staff and young people fairly and without prejudice, in line with Baca’s Equality and Diversity policy.
• Be aware of the correct procedures for dealing with any suggested incidences of safeguarding concerns and to follow them, in line with Baca’s Child, Vulnerable Adult Protection & Safeguarding Policy.
• Adhere to all Baca’s policies and procedures.

Personal Specification

Baca is looking for someone who can help the organisation with the housing maintenance and day to day function of all properties it houses young people in and our offices. The successful applicant will be motivated and passionate about the work that Baca does and the young people in our care. They will be very organised and practical, able to get on with tasks that need doing on a day-to-day basis, managing a varied and busy workload. They will be very approachable and enjoy working on their own as well as part of a team and supporting others. The successful applicant will need access to transport as the role requires travel between the properties that Baca manages including the transportation of items to the properties.

The successful applicant will have a personable style that is in line with Baca’s vision and values. Someone who is supportive, approachable, responsible, reliable and personable.

Qualifications/Knowledge/Experience

• Good knowledge/understanding of the building and maintenance process.
• A good awareness of general health and safety, especially regarding maintenance work.
• Ability to use computers well, with experience in Microsoft Office and on-line email systems.
• Experience of prioritising workload to meet competing deadlines.
• Advocate of customer care including experience of dealing with a range of client queries/concerns in a professional and understanding manner.

Skills/Abilities

• Experienced in the use of hand tools and familiar working with timber, basic plumbing materials, furniture building, decorating and gardening.
• Excellent personal organisation with a high attention to detail.
• Ability to manage a number of tasks at any one time.
• Self-motivated to complete a varied workload.
• Working well as part of a team is essential.
• Good interpersonal skills and able to interact well with staff, contractors and visitors to the office and other properties.
• Ability to work to deadlines and respond in a flexible way to the changing demands of Baca’s work.

Other Expectations

• Appointment is subject to a satisfactory DBS check.
• Applicants to have a genuine concern for and commitment to asylum seekers/refugees, young people and UASCs in particular.
• Ability and commitment to work at all times within a framework of confidentiality and anti-discriminatory practice.
• Commitment to work within the aims, values and ethos of the organisation.
• Ability to have flexibility with working hours to facilitate occasional out of office hours access to accommodation for contractors.
• Holds a full, clean driving licence and has access to transport.

How to Apply:

If you are passionate about making a difference in the lives of young asylum seekers and meet the above criteria, we would love to hear from you. Join us in making a positive impact and helping young people build a brighter future!

Applicants will be shortlisted and interviewed as and when applications are received.

Please note: We do not offer sponsorship for this role.