Waking night children residential support worker jobs
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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:
- Application: Complete our online application form and include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification.
- 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.
- Interview: Shortlisted candidates attend a face-to-face interview at our Putney office.
- 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.
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



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
This is a service commissioned by Liverpool City Council to deliver Children's residential support in line with statutory requirements, utilising therapeutic approaches.
The service provides a nurturing environment within our high-quality home, supporting the needs of children who have experienced trauma, neglect, rejection, and whose basic needs have not been met.
Our home offers children a safe space to enjoy themselves with activities such as karaoke, pamper, movie and games nights alongside encouraging them to enjoy a wide range of community based activities.
Children also benefit from having the opportunity to enjoy an annual holiday/short break.
We support our children to learn independence skills e.g. cooking meals, baking, budgeting, completing domestic tasks etc.
In line with Barnardo's Equality, Diversity & Inclusion values, we promote awareness and acceptance in a variety of forms, including monthly theme nights.
On top of that, Saturday is takeaway night, so you even get a night off from cooking!
The support we provide today is vital in sustaining our children in the next chapter of their lives. You would play a huge part in this exciting role, making a real impact to changing the lives of our children.
The home provides a truly therapeutically focussed environment that can meet the needs of children who require support to manage their behaviours safely, develop their resilience and prepare them for the demands of future life with their own families or within other settings.
As a Senior Residential Children & Young People Worker you will, on a rota basis, undertake the following:
- 3 on 4 off pattern across the year, with rotas completed at least one month in advance.
- Sleep ins - approximately 2 per month with an additional payment of approximately £68/sleep,
- Waking nights (approximately 2 per month)
- Opportunities to complete additional hours at an enhanced rate of pay.
- Some weekend working, on a rota basis
- Some bank holiday working – enhanced rates of pay for bank holiday working.
Designated days off are given following sleep ins and waking nights to promote wellbeing and recovery.
Your role:
- Engage with and support children in all aspects of their lives, attending to their practical, physical, and emotional needs, whilst safeguarding each young person at all times.
- Support allocated keyworkers to ensure all information pertinent to the child's everyday life is completed and collated, to demonstrate the journey of the child whilst residing at the home.
- Provide practice based supervision to our As & When (bank) workers, liaising with managers to ensure continuity of care, Continued Professional Development and regulatory compliance.
- On a rota basis you will support the management team to provide out of hours on call cover, for which you will receive an additional payment.
- On a rota basis, you will also share the responsibility (alongside other SRCYW) of being allocated as shift leader; ensuring each day is purposeful and coordinated, enhancing opportunities for positive achievements and outcomes for the children.
- Support children to engage in education and enhance their social opportunities by accessing hobbies & activities in the home and in the community.
If you have residential experience, are passionate about making improved changes to childhoods and can show understanding, tenacity, consistency of care and the ability to engage with a wide range of children – this may be the opportunity for you!
For a full description of the role, please refer to the Job description & Person specification.
What you'll get from us
In addition to the extensive organisational benefits identified below, you will receive:
- A full induction within our trauma informed charity,
- Ongoing comprehensive training package,
- Be part of a team supported by a Therapeutic Co-ordinator and also receive reflective group/individual sessions with our consultant psychotherapist,
- Monthly practice focussed supervision,
- On successfully passing probation, enrolment on a fully funded residential Diploma (if not already held)
Quote from a young person who previously lived in the home:
“…You've all really helped me become the person I am today. The amount of love you all put in, you all wanted the best for me. I'm going to miss the team of great people I have had around me”
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
- Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
- Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
- Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's apply based on contract
About Barnardo's
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
Our basis and values
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.