Support Workers – Days or Nights shifts – Children\'s Homes

Starting Salary: £27,248 - £29,490 with potential to rise to £30,682 incrementally 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. 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 & Isle of Man. 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 is underpinned by therapeutic expertise and young people in our care also benefit from extensive life-skills and participation opportunities as well as 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.

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. You will receive a tailored development plan designed around your goals. Whether you want to move into a different service, progress into a leadership role, or explore your current role further, we will support you every step of the way. If you want to learn more about St Christopher’s Academy, please note our development programme 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 – 17 years old). You will also have responsibility for making sure 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.
• 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-ins.
• 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:

• 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 rights 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 safeguarding 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 online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. For the full Job Description and Person Specification please note the posting. CVs will not be accepted.

Application Process:

• Complete our online 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. For more information or assistance during the application process, please contact recruitment at stchris.org.uk.

Please note: This post has a minimum age restriction of 21 years 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.

Closing date: 26th February 2026.