Adventure Support Workers - Peaks and UK

• Adventure Support Workers - Peaks and UK

Contract type Freelance

Closing date 26 Jan 2027 03:00 PM

Location: Peak District and elsewhere UK
Salary: £13.75 to £20.00ph
Closes: rolling

Adventure Support Workers: therapeutic adventure and alternative education at The Creative Outdoor Group

Freelance floating team (respite pool and education pool)

Salary or rate: Freelance and zero hour contracts from £13.75 to £20.00 an hour depending on qualifications and experience, plus £75 a sleep-in.

Location: Based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Work in the Peak District and anywhere in England and Wales, with everything paid when away.

The work

The Creative Outdoor Group is a small therapeutic adventure company, ten years in, with more than 250 young people supported, most of them in care and many with complex needs. We use the outdoors as the way in: climbing, paddling, bushcraft, hills, bikes, caves and coast, usually one young person with one or two staff and sometimes a small group.

Two kinds of work, and you can do either or both:

• Therapeutic adventure breaks. Planned breaks of two days to a few weeks for a young person who needs a change of environment and consistent adults while their placement stays in place. 24-hour shifts, 10am to 10am with a sleep-in. Full-time staff do 10 or 11 a month.
• Alternative education. Outdoor learning days of three to eight hours (a session is never less than three), in school hours and term time, one to one or in small groups, for young people who are not coping in a classroom, delivered from our own PINE Adventure Learning curriculum and linked to AIM, ASDAN, AQA, John Muir, NICAS, Paddle UK and NNAS awards to name a few.

For outdoor instructors it is not seasonal. Breaks run all year, education runs through the school terms, so there is purposeful winter work with young people who need you, not just a summer of groups.

What you get

• Our own published model, the Phased Model of Adventure Therapy, developed with Forensic Psychology Practice: regulate first, stretch second, reflect third. Trained properly, by the people who wrote it.
• More than 400 written session plans with Plan B built in, 150 venue cards and ready-made programmes. You bring the skills, we bring the plan.
• Small ratios, a 24-hour on-call manager, psychologists in the team meetings.
• Paid induction: three foundation days (care and support first) and two progression days outdoors. Then outdoor first aid, physical intervention, Level 3 NVQ's where applicable, and NGB awards funded as you progress, with your rate rising for each one.
• Enhanced payments for 1:1 or education sessions, Extra £20 for Saturdays, time and a third overtime and bank holidays where applicable, double time and a half at Christmas and New Year, 55p a mile when using a personal vehicle, trade discounts, block work available.
• A new CQC-registered supported living service for 16 to 19 year olds is in the pipeline. When registration is granted, the people already working with us are first in line for any full time posts it creates.

What we need

Full UK driving licence and your own vehicle. Enhanced DBS with barred-list check (we arrange it). People on the DBS update service could potentially start immediately. Willing to do 24-hour shifts including weekends and bank holidays, and to sleep at camp. Ideally two years in a similar role: outdoor instruction, therapeutic or residential care, youth work, SEN support. For Team Leader: experience leading shifts and a Level 3 in residential childcare or health and social care. Desirable: first aid or wilderness first aid, NGB awards (climbing, paddlesport, ML, bushcraft, mountain biking), expedition leadership (ML, IML, BEL3, MIA), therapeutic training (DDP, CBT, play therapy), PACE or low-arousal experience.

All recruitment follows the full Safer Recruitment requirements. COG is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

Closing date: Rolling, please run for three months. Interviews as applications come in. Start between now and January 2027. Immediate starts for anyone on the DBS Update Service who can provide all their documents and interview within the next week.

An information pack goes out before interview.

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