Crisis Residential and Outreach Worker

Cardinham Barns is set in 8 acres of woodland, adjacent to Cardinham Woods, an area of outstanding natural beauty, just outside Bodmin, Cornwall. This newly created service offers a safe haven for disabled children providing them with time-limited specialist residential care and outreach, to help them recover from traumatic experiences and/or crisis situations.

As a Crisis Residential and Outreach worker, you will operate within a multi-disciplinary team of committed professionals and be at the cutting edge of developments in Children’s Homes. Grounded in evidence-based practice, the service links with national academic institutions and specialist trainers who specialise in behavioural work to inform recovery and reunification. We follow a trauma informed, low arousal model of support to enable transformation of children’s lived experiences. Our main aim is to care for children and young people, and support their learning and development, so that they can have fun, achieve their ambitions and live in a permanent home after our involvement has ended.

Our community outreach support programme complements the residential service to ensure that wherever possible and appropriate, children are supported to be cared for by their families who are able to give them the best opportunity to experience an ordinary and fulfilling childhood.

If you have the skills the children need and the ambition they deserve, then in return we offer a competitive salary, pension, a generous relocation package, continuing professional development and opportunities for progression. We are an Outstanding Children’s Service, which is innovative, child-centred and solution-focused. Our shared aim is achieving the best outcomes for disabled children and young people.

The Role: As a Crisis Residential and Outreach worker, you will operate within a multi-disciplinary team of committed professionals and be at the cutting edge of developments in Children’s Homes. You must be able to work positively and effectively with disabled children in a crisis and emergency context. This significant life event for children may give rise to distressed behavioural responses to their situation which may be unpredictable and challenging. You are able to remain calm and able to see beyond these behaviours to positively connect with the child and confident in your ability to make safe and autonomous decisions when necessary to deliver bespoke interventions as dictated by presenting needs.

This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies. This position will be subject to an enhanced criminal record disclosure check.

What You’ll Need To Succeed: You will be innovative, creative and calm in a crisis. You will have proven skills and experience of supporting children with complex needs including behaviours that may challenge and/or trauma and be confident of your professional role when working with a variety of agencies. You should have or are willing to work towards a Level 3 Diploma in Children’s Residential Care (which the Council will fund).

What You’ll Get In Return: For successful applicants who are new to Cornwall Council, a recruitment and retention bonus will be paid; £1000 when the job starts, with an additional £1000 paid after successfully completing the first year. Cornwall Council’s ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance while still ensuring that service needs are met.

Our Core Employee Rewards And Benefits Include:

• a competitive salary.
• a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions.
• a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme.
• Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

Additional Information: The full role profile is attached here. For an informal discussion please contact Dermot McCann - 07751748623.

Application Process: Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you can upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as ‘Application’ on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work/personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process. Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, so please contact careers@cornwall.gov.uk if you have any queries or require assistance.

About Us: Cornwall Council delivers services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits. Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.