Children and Young People Practitioners, Community in Kent, Rochester

Do you want to be part of a revolution in Youth Justice? Are you passionate about working with children who are on remand or sentenced? Do you have a gift for balancing kindness with structure? If you said yes to any of the above, then we have an opportunity for you like no other!

Following a period of internal building works coupled with a comprehensive learning review with all our staff over our therapeutic processes and what we have learnt so far on this revolutionary journey; we are offering a hugely exciting opportunity for people with relevant personal and professional experience to come and join our growing team of Restore Practitioners. This will be an amazing opportunity for those with the correct skillset to come and work with our new cohort of students.

As a Restore Practitioner, you will join our key frontline residential department as well as being part of the wider Oasis Restore team dedicated to nurturing children from challenging backgrounds. You will be guiding them toward positive futures in the UK's first Secure Academy Trust to educate children in custody. The school is all year-round, offering 24/7 integrated and therapeutically informed education, health and social care, which means you will be working shift patterns.

Oasis Restore represents a revolution in youth justice: an opportunity for children within the criminal justice system to experience a restorative environment that creates the potential for them to thrive both now and for the future. Restore Practitioners will build and model healthy and trusting relationships with children that enable them to feel safe, learn and reach their full potential.

Our Academy, Oasis Restore, is the country's first secure school that is a proof-of-concept policy initiative funded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Oasis Restore's mission is to transform the life chances of children aged 12-18 years in the criminal justice system through delivering psychologically informed, integrated practice that centres on trusted, safe relationships between staff and children. Oasis Restore is a learning community that embeds hope, stability, and opportunity for children beyond the secure school.

The role and what we are looking for:

• This isn't just any role—it's an ever-evolving, hands-on position where you'll create a safe, home-like environment in a custodial setting.
• You'll be responsible for fostering self-esteem, teaching life skills, and introducing children to new interests and experiences.
• A therapeutic approach is essential, as you'll help our youth navigate their journeys with compassion, structure, and resilience.
• As our student numbers increase, Restore Practitioners will work across each of the 12 residential flats at Oasis Restore, taking primary responsibility for the children living in this flat and working within an inter-disciplinary team around each child.
• You will work within a team which includes experienced social care managers and therapists as well as working with teaching staff to support the children's engagement in education and wider school activities.
• You will play an active role in the school's enrichment programme, delivering sessions which promote the development of the whole child.
• In addition to delivering and supporting enrichment programs, you'll ensure our safeguarding standards are rigorously upheld and keep our systems updated.

Your attention to these protocols will play a crucial role in keeping our children safe and supported. At Oasis Restore we provide extensive training, but we also welcome your unique perspective and flair. You will be passionate about making a difference to the children's lives, empathetic in your approach to them and to your colleagues, patient, hopeful, forgiving, and able to behave with a curious mindset in your approach. You will have integrity, respect for others and their different life experiences and backgrounds and will understand and be able to maintain professional relationships and boundaries and have an unwavering commitment to child safeguarding.

Your experience, combined with our guidance, will empower you to make a genuine impact. If you're ready for a challenging yet deeply fulfilling role, we'd love to hear from you. Join us as a Restore Practitioner and be part of something truly transformative.

Our offer to you:

• A mixture of one to one and group reflective practice, coaching & regular line management/supervision sessions.
• Experience an Appraisal policy that decouples pay and performance.
• An elected staff forum to listen to, and act on staff feedback.
• Access to the Local Government Pensions Scheme (a competitive, defined benefit pension scheme).
• Access to a funded cash plan health scheme.
• Access to an EAP service.
• 33 days annual leave including bank holidays, rising to 35 days after two years.
• Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria, be entitled to up to 8 weeks full-pay and 18 weeks half-pay paid maternity/adoption/shared parental leave (based broadly on the NHS Employers scheme).
• Subject to meeting basic eligibility criteria be entitled to up to 3 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
• Paid time off to attend antenatal appointments (those staff who are either pregnant or whose partner is pregnant).
• Have a structured and bespoke induction training plan plus a training offer bespoke to our context leading to a level 4 qualification in the therapeutic care of adolescents.
• Comprehensive MMPR restraint training.
• Supportive sick leave pay (based broadly on the length of service framework in the national ‘Green Book' framework) from Day 1 of employment.
• Up to 5 days discretionary paid compassionate/emergency/general leave plus further discretionary unpaid leave.
• Up to 4 weeks paid parental bereavement leave plus up to 5 days paid bereavement leave for the death of other specified close relatives.
• Blue Light Card (subject to meeting their eligibility criteria).
• Expenses and travel costs incurred as part of the working day (as appropriate, not including travel to work).
• Access to free car parking, season Ticket Loans, Specsavers eye care vouchers and a cycle to work scheme (subject to meeting their eligibility criteria).

Do you dare to care? Are you ready to make a lasting difference and want a truly unique role? What are you waiting for? Apply today!

If you would like some more information or to have an informal conversation with someone, please contact us at.

Safeguarding and Pre-Employment Checks:

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff to share this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant and rigorous employment checks including references and right to work checks. It is an offence to apply for a role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children. This post is also covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent and spoken English is an essential requirement for this role.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at Oasis Restore:

We recognise that our team is strengthened by the knowledge, experience and insights people from a wide range of backgrounds can bring. These beliefs and values are underpinned by decades of work and experience that Oasis has had in a wide range of sectors including education, housing and youth-work supported further by a wide range of independent research and studies elsewhere which evidence that creating teams with diverse experience and perspectives, and encouraging healthy debate, reduces the risk of ‘blind spots' that often form barriers to success.

Oasis Restore aim is to attract and retain the very best diverse talent and role models to help create an innovative, caring and extraordinary working environment for our staff, that enables us to deliver exceptional, caring and psychologically informed learning experience for our students. We would therefore like to encourage applications from people with varied skillsets, life experiences, and from different backgrounds and sectors to help shape Oasis Restore. If you can demonstrate some of the criteria and believe you have what it takes, then we'd love to hear from you.

Given the nature of our work we also welcome applications from candidates with the following lived experience:

• Experience of working successfully with vulnerable children who sometimes have multiple and complex needs.
• Personal experience of the criminal justice system, or lived experience of the issues facing this client group (i.e. involved in gangs or knife crime).
• Knowledge of the issues facing this client group, such as gangs, knife crime, social exclusion and isolation, child criminal exploitation, adverse childhood experiences and trauma.
• Ability to actively listen and motivate young people.
• Personal experience of the Care system.
• Ability to be a positive role model, demonstrating the virtues of a crime-free life to young people.

We're also very happy to answer any questions you may have so please don't hesitate to get in touch.