Youth counsellor jobs in altrincham, greater manchester

Unifrog’s mission
 

We’re on a mission to level the playing field when it comes to young people finding and applying for their next step after school. We're achieving this by bringing all the available information into one single, impartial, user-friendly platform that helps students to make the best choices, and submit the strongest applications. We also empower teachers and counsellors to manage the progression process effectively.

Our outlook is global - we work with schools and universities all over the world, from the US to New Zealand, and from Italy to Hong Kong. We want to make it so that young people can compare every opportunity taught in English, wherever it is in the world, and have all the support they need to make successful applications.

We have a clear social purpose, and we’re hugely ambitious. We already work with over half of UK secondary schools, and hundreds of international schools. We are growing rapidly in terms of the number of our customers, in terms of how much they use our platform, and in terms of the breadth of products we offer (check out this video to hear more about the Unifrog platform).

Our team is at the heart of our business and is integral to our success. We work hard to foster a culture of openness, happiness and innovation, and we commit to helping every individual learn and grow so that they can reach their full potential. We want to hire talented people, whatever their background. If you are excited by our mission and are ready to work hard, please don’t hesitate to apply. We look forward to hearing from you!

We believe in the power of diversity. If you are from an ethnic minority background, we would like to strongly encourage you to apply. 
 

The role and your key responsibilities

As a Senior Account Manager, your role is to line manage a regional team of Account Managers to maximise partner engagement and ensure we retain sky-high resubscription rates. You will manage your regional team’s objectives and regularly monitor and report on progress towards this. 

Alongside managing your team, you’ll work with a cohort of partner schools and colleges, facilitating an environment which identifies and promotes best practice across partners within your region. Using data analysis across schools and colleges within your region, you’ll identify trends and opportunities to further increase the use of Unifrog, maximising engagement and resubscription rates. Please note you will need to be based in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire or North London for this role.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Line manage a regional team of Account Managers to achieve their resubscription and engagement goals, delivering weekly check-ins with each team member to review their progress with partners.

• Run team meetings with your regional Account Management team to review key engagement strategies, objectives and share best practice.

• Meet weekly with the Head of Account Management, reporting on progress with your partners, and the progress of your regional team.

• Analyse regional engagement data to spot trends and work closely with the Head of Account Management to devise and implement strategies to improve on any areas of low engagement.

• Work with Senior Account Managers, Head of Account Management and other Unifrog colleagues, to design and implement projects and processes across the Account Management team, that help deliver against our organisation’s objectives and mission.

• Work with a region of schools and colleges with the responsibility of an Account Manager, providing resources and strategies which maximise staff and student engagement with Unifrog, and identifying and promoting best practice across partner schools.

• Deliver targeted training sessions to staff within our partner schools and colleges via workshops and presentations, delivered remotely or in person.

• Work closely with your regional Area Manager to improve Unifrog engagement and maintain a sky high resubscription rate.

What we’re looking for

• Strong communication skills – written, over the phone and on video calls.

• 1+ years’ Account Management experience.

• Track record of excellent relationship management.

• Ability to identify strengths and areas for improvement within a team, and to put relevant support in place.

• Ability to listen to feedback and adapt quickly and flexibly.

• Extremely well organised.

• Keen attention to detail.

• Active listening and objection handling skills.

• Ability to use data to help inform strategies and processes.

• Proactive attitude and willingness to get stuck in.

• Experience in working with schools and colleges is preferred but not essential.

• Experience leading a high performing team is preferred but not essential.

You will be joining a team of highly motivated people who are passionate about our mission of helping students to find the best next step for them after school. If this excites you and you’re an energetic person who is willing to learn, then we’d love to hear from you.

Working together

You’ll work alongside an Area Manager in your region, as well as people in our Partner Success and Account Management teams. You’ll be line-managed by our Head of Account Management. 
 

Benefits

Head to our jobs page for a full list of the excellent benefits we offer our team.

• Join one of ‘the best organisations to escape to’ and help transform careers and destinations in schools. We’re also a certified Great Place to Work.

• Become part of a committed, dynamic, and growing company. We want to build our team for the long term: if you do well, we will do our best to make sure you want to stay at the company for a long time.

• Professional development is important at Unifrog. You will define your own 6-month objectives and will be supported by your line manager and the rest of the team to achieve them. You will have an annual training allowance to spend on what you need to grow and progress.

• Influence the company’s direction: we love to promote great ideas, wherever they come from.

Key details
 

• £42,312 per annum (Grade C), plus commission, car allowance and a share in a company-wide performance bonus. 

• OTE £47,000.

• Permanent and full-time. 

• 28 days paid holiday per year (plus bank holidays).

• Working hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9:00am to 4:30pm on Friday.

• Full UK driving licence and access to a car is essential.

• All travel expenses covered.

• Candidate will need to be based in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire or North London.

• Home based with some travel to schools and colleges in your region

• Start date: as soon as possible, though we will be flexible for the right candidates.

• To discuss any details about the role before applying, please contact Mhairi (details on our website)

• We can only consider candidates who have the right to work in the UK.

Application process

• Deadline: 10:00AM (BST) on Tuesday 17th June 2025. 

• Stage 1: Application form (~1 hour) ✍️

• Visit our website to upload your CV and complete the questions and tasks below. Please note that we do not review CVs at this stage of the application process so please be as specific as possible about your experience.

• i. With reference to examples of your recent experience, what would make you an excellent candidate for this role? (250 words)

• ii. Tell us about a time you led a team or group to achieve a challenging objective. What did you do to ensure its success? (250 words)

• iii. You receive the following email from the head of large group of schools in England:

'Hi X,

One of the schools in our Trust has asked for more information about Unifrog and how we've been getting on with the platform this year.

They're currently using a free platform with their lower year groups, so they're covered with that, but are looking for something to support their KS4 & KS5 students.

Can you provide some information on how Unifrog can support them specifically with those Key Stages, and maybe some costs around a subscription?

Best wishes,'

What next steps would you take following on from this email, and how would you respond to the contact? (250 words)

• Stage 2: Phone task (15 minutes) ��

• A short role play task over the phone. We will schedule these tasks throughout the application window.

• Stage 3: Video call interview (1 hour) ��

• Pre prepared presentation (10 mins)

• Standard Q&A from a panel of three, including questions about your experiences and how these relate to the role, and scenario questions based on common situations you might face (plus time for your questions) (50 mins).

• Video call interviews will be held w/c 23rd June 2025.

• Your answers are an opportunity to let us know more about your motivations and experience. While we understand that candidates might want to use AI to improve parts of their application, we strongly encourage you to write your answers independently. 

Please note, we compare all answers to an AI generated answer. Where we suspect AI has been used to write the majority of the answer, this will be taken into consideration when scoring. 

Inclusion and diversity at Unifrog

• Within the company we try to foster a culture of innovation, and a happy working environment, both because this is the right thing to do, and because we think this results in the most effective team. To this end we believe in open communication, celebrating successes, supporting each other, not being afraid to be wrong or to fail, and promoting good ideas wherever they come from.

• As a platform that supports teachers and students from a huge variety of backgrounds it’s important that our team and leadership reflects this diversity. This is something we are actively working towards and prioritising. We want to embed diversity, equity and inclusion across everything we do, continually evaluating policies and practices to make sure they are inclusive and equitable.

• To make sure everyone’s voice is heard and people have the opportunities to learn to be better allies in the workplace, we encourage the team to share what they’re celebrating, facilitate training and group discussions, and seek regular feedback about what more the company could do to help people feel included.

• To ensure that our recruitment process is consistent and fair, we anonymise your application and therefore do not see your name, personal, educational or professional background. We also randomise the order of responses so that it’s less likely that a candidate is advantaged or disadvantaged by where their answers appear compared to other candidates.

The Charity and The Vision.  

Scotty’s Little Soldiers is a UK-based charity dedicated to supporting military children and young people (0 to 25 years) who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces. Founded in 2010 by Nikki Scott following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, the charity offers a unique blend of emotional, practical, and educational support to over 700 young people, and we have big ambitions to support over 1,000 children annually by 2030.  

We are proud of our vibrant, non-traditional culture, which puts the needs of bereaved children and young people at the heart of everything we do. We embrace innovative approaches, are committed to creating smiles and believe in the power of community, resilience, and connection.  

Scotty’s is seeking an experienced bereavement counsellor to join our small but effective team. The role involves supporting children and young people affected by bereavement, which may include death in service, illness, or suicide.

We want every bereaved military child and young person to have:

• Access to the very best emotional health and wellbeing support.

• Outstanding development opportunities.

• The chance to smile again. 

We call these our Promises. Our promises align with our three programmes: SMILES, STRIDES and SUPPORT.

· The SMILES Programme provides children with the chance to smile again

· The STRIDES Programme provides children with outstanding development opportunities

· The SUPPORT Programme provides the very best emotional health and wellbeing support to children who are struggling to cope following a bereavement. 

Our Bereavement Counsellor will be a valuable member of the SUPPORT Programme, delivering online 1:1 and group support to those who need it most.  But all three programmes work closely together (we call this the Families team).

Role Mission:

The Scotty’s Bereavement Counsellor will work with our families who are struggling with their grief to help them understand their feelings, develop coping skills and build their new life.

This role will be accountable for:

Providing emotional support, counselling and therapeutic interventions to individuals and families coping with grief and loss. The role involves working compassionately and ethically with families affected by bereavement, helping them process their emotions and find ways to adjust to life after a loss.

The Bereavement Counsellor will work collaboratively with the SUPPORT team and the wider Families team to ensure that all work undertaken by Scotty’s is delivered in a supportive and sensitive manner and that Scotty families receive exemplary care.

What are the 3-month goals for this role:

· Within three months the Counsellor will have developed their knowledge of the range of services that Scotty’s offers to our families so that they can advise and support families in their case load.

· Will have begun to learn and understand the Scotty Values and the Scotty Way (we do things a little differently and our culture is very important to us and our families!).

· Would have begun supporting the families assigned to their caseload by the Head of SUPPORT.  This will predominantly if not entirely be online 1:1 delivery.

· Will have completed all necessary safeguarding training and be part of the Scotty’s Safeguarding team.

· Begun attending peer supervision sessions with the SUPPORT team.

What are the 6-month goals for this role:

· Will have established a caseload as assigned by the Head of SUPPORT which is likely to include 1:1 online sessions, and may also include online group sessions, drop ins or workshops.

· Will have begun to support the wider Families team by attending Scotty events.  At Scotty events, a SUPPORT team member often attends to provide support to any families in distress (this may require occasional weekend or evening work).

· Will be working cohesively with the Families team and the wider Scotty team to share your knowledge and skills.  Scotty’s values a culture of learning and strives to ensure team members can learn from one another’s expertise.

· Will be contributing to peer supervision sessions to ensure all SUPPORT team members are able to give the best support to families.

· Regularly meeting with your selected external supervisor.

What are the 9-month goals for this role:

· Will be supporting a caseload as assigned by the Head of SUPPORT, with emerging impact data showing the success of your support.  Scotty’s uses the Child Bereavement Service Questionnaire (CBSQ) developed by the CBN to monitor the impact of 1:1 support and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for pre-bereavement support.

· Will be a valuable member of the SUPPORT programme, Families and wider Scotty team. Providing first rate bereavement counselling and support directly to families but also indirectly helping families by working collaboratively with other team members.

What are the key responsibilities of this role:

· Managing a caseload and delivering one to one counselling sessions as assigned by the Head of SUPPORT. This will predominantly be online delivery using Teams video calling but also other formats as needed by families.

· Facilitate group therapy or support groups when appropriate.

· Conduct initial assessment to determine clients’ needs and suitability for counselling.

· Maintaining accurate and confidential case notes in a timely fashion using our Salesforce based system in accordance with data protection and organisational policies.

· Adhering to all safeguarding requirements and operating as part of the Scotty Safeguarding team to maintain the highest standards across the charity.

· Supporting the development of resources and materials as needed.

· Working collaboratively within the SUPPORT team, including peer supervision.

· Working collaboratively and effectively within the Families team to ensure that families are directed to the appropriate services in a timely fashion.  This could include directing families you are working with towards our educational grants, our respite breaks, our events, our school support or our advocacy.

· Liaise with healthcare and mental health professionals such as GPs, CAMHS and social workers or other professionals where appropriate to ensure holistic care and management of risk.

· Attending at least six (mandatory) face to face team days, normally located in the East of England.

· Participate in regular clinical supervision and continuing professional development.

Skillset and Experiences Required:

Essential

· Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) or United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).  We may consider applications from practitioners with HCPC or NCS membership too.

· Level 4 Counselling / Psychotherapy Diploma or above.

· Significant experience (post qualification) providing bereavement counselling, to children or young people (0-25yrs).

· Experience and training with NICE-approved talking therapies.

· Demonstrated knowledge of issues surrounding bereavement.

· Ability to manage caseload effectively.

· Willingness to work flexible hours to accommodate children’s needs (this may include evening work to avoid school hours at times).

· Excellent computer literacy.

· Ability to develop good therapeutic relationships with families.

· Ability to engage with peer supervision and Scotty’s funded external supervision effectively.

· Ability to engage with a culture of continuous learning and support the learning of others.

· Ability to work flexibly as part of a team and independently to meet the needs of the service.

· Commitment to professional standards and ethical practice.

Desirable

· Accredited member of BACP.

· Knowledge or experience of or with the military community.

· Experience of online counselling.

· Experience (post qualification) providing pre-bereavement counselling or support.

· Experience of supporting those bereaved by suicide.

· Knowledge of or experience using assessment tools such as SDQs or CBSQs.

· Knowledge of statutory mental health provision and systems including CAMHS and EHCPs.

· Experience of providing counselling or support to young people with SEND or additional needs.

· Ability to drive with access to own transport is an advantage as some team meetings can take place away from public transport routes.

· Experience working within a hospice, NHS or charitable setting.

Additional Information

- The role may require evening or weekend work

- Enhanced DBS check required

- Travel will be required to events and team training days

The Scotty’s Way

At Scotty’s, our personal performance is only 50% of what success looks like. Our culture is equally important. When you join our team, you sign up to The Scotty’s Way, rooted in our four core values:

1. Families Come First

2. Everyone a Supporter, Every Supporter a VIP

3. Love What You Do

4. Remember, Every Day

Our values are further supported by our four non-negotiable behaviours of Show Respect, Speak Up, Embrace Change and Actively Collaborate. We are looking for an individual who embodies these values and behaviours.

Thank you for your interest in joining our team, we are an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees are treated with respect and given equal opportunities for employment and advancement.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.

We encourage all qualified individuals to apply for employment within our charity, and we are dedicated to providing a fair and inclusive recruitment process for all candidates.