Community Wellbeing Mentor in London

Barnardo's are seeking to recruit a full-time (37 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 15 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, goal based strength 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 including competency on IT software.
• Have a full UK driving licence and access to a roadworthy and taxed car.

The office base (Surrey Wellbeing Hub) for this role is in Leatherhead in Surrey. Although the role is office-based with the ability to work from home, it is essential to meet the needs of the service to travel around Surrey (Waverley, Woking, Surrey Heath and Spelthorne) when necessary. Due to this, 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. If you do have any questions relating to this role, please call Garrett Craig, Children Services Manager on 07940 455 915.

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.

Benefits: 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. 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.

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.