Community Wellbeing Mentor in Leatherhead

Can you help us develop an outstanding service for young people in Surrey? Do you have a passion to support young people's emotional health and wellbeing? Barnardo's are seeking to recruit a part-time (22.2 hours a week) Community Wellbeing Mentor who shares our commitment and vision to develop an outstanding service and embed Barnardo's basis and values in all we do. This position sits within the Surrey Community Wellbeing Team (CWT) covering Waverley, Woking, Surrey Heath and Spelthorne.

As a Wellbeing Mentor, you will hold a rolling caseload of up to 8 children and young people (6-18 years old) and will provide early intervention/support to them who are experiencing low emotional health and wellbeing. This may present itself in many different ways such as feeling lonely, isolated, unhappy, or anxious, having low mood or experiencing stress and can come from multiple causes. Wellbeing Mentors will provide a hybrid model of support involving direct face to face and virtual sessions, working collaboratively with a solution focussed strength-based approach to support children and young people to improve their emotional wellbeing and resilience.

Part of this role will involve supporting the school-based community wellbeing mentor to co-facilitate one of our B-Connected 6-week courses that take place within local schools. This course covers: Anxiety, Emotional literacy & regulation, Confidence and self-esteem, Friendships/relationships, Low mood, Anxieties around school attendance or transition and Resilience.

The Community Wellbeing Team operates within a Thrive Framework where choice and shared decision making is fundamental. It is a relational model, and we hold a non-judgmental and trusting relationship between the staff member, children, young people, and parents, which is crucial to their ongoing wellbeing. You will receive training on the Thrive model at the start of your employment.

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have experience in working with and supporting children and young people to implement strategies to manage their emotional health and wellbeing.
• Have experience in planning, delivering and evaluating 1:1 and groupwork wellbeing interventions, assessments, including risk assessments.
• Have experience of advising and developing pathways necessary to support sustainable long-term improvements of the young person after CWT support has ended.
• Deliver solution focussed strength-based interventions for children and young people with emotional health and wellbeing needs.
• Have an understanding of how to work within a trauma-informed framework.
• Have experience of safeguarding issues and working within multi-agency frameworks.
• Demonstrate the ability to engage and communicate with both children, young people, their families, schools, and other professionals during the working day or at various meetings/networking events representing Barnardo's.
• Have good time-management, organisational, numeracy and literacy skills.

The office base (Surrey Wellbeing Hub) for this role is in Leatherhead in Surrey. Although the role is office-based, the ability to work from home and willingness to travel around Surrey (Waverley, Woking, Surrey Heath and Spelthorne) is essential. In light of the travel that will be required, access to a vehicle and a valid driving licence will be essential. Car insurance must include business use and be in place before starting with the service.

Barnardo's offer their staff regular supervision, external clinical supervision and give all colleagues access to at least three learning days a year. Barnardo's University (BU) facilitate a range of opportunities which will be available through B-learning online and the BU prospectus. However, staff can use this time in a way that works for them – for instance to spend a day shadowing another team.

When completing your application please refer to your skills, knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification and Job Description. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

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.