Apprentice Youth Researcher – London

Are you someone who is keen to effect change and get the voices of young people in care and care leavers heard? Are you relatable, a good listener and able to build good relationships with your peers? If so, please read on…

Salary: £18,200.00 per annum

Specific Hours: 35 hours per week (including 20% study time) spread across five days 9-4pm.

Qualifications Options:

• Customer Services Level 2 - 12 months training (16 months employment contract).
• Business Admin Level 3 - 13 months training (18 months employment contract).

Location: Based across London residential services and Putney Head office.

Here at the Staying Close Project we are looking for someone with experience in care to join our team and support us to understand how young people experience the process of independent living. We want to understand the challenge of leaving home and ensure that we are delivering a service that helps young people feel prepared, confident, and able to bounce back from obstacles giving them a much better chance of success.

This is an opportunity to work alongside young people in St Christopher’s children’s homes and Semi-Independent Services to understand from them exactly what the challenges are, what could be done differently and how to feed that into the staff teams that care for them. This is a chance to truly make a difference to the transition process for young people.

The successful candidate will have:

• GCSE Grade C in Math’s and English is preferable but not a requirement. If you do not have a ‘C’ grade in math’s and English or equivalent you’ll need to be prepared to gain an equivalent qualification alongside this role.
• Experience of leading and managing group activities or events (experience with family, friends, colleagues and within work or education settings welcome).
• Experience of advocating for change in a positive way (experience with family, friends, colleagues and within work or education settings welcome).
• Experience of building relationships across a diverse range of people.
• Experience of some report writing.
• Experience of listening to, understanding and feeding back the experiences of others.

In return we offer:

• A Salary of £18,200 per annum.
• An opportunity to gain a business admin level 2 qualification or Customer Services Level 2, alongside your role.
• 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
• Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s rights and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
• 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.

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 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 life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home.

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.

St Christopher’s Academy:

At St Christopher's we can provide more than just a care job. We can offer you a career where you can develop your skills and knowledge while making a difference to young people’s lives. When you join St Christopher’s, we will set you up in your career with a tailored development plan. Whether you want to move across to a different service, become a Manager or just explore further your current role, we will support you to map out your career trajectory and help you achieve your professional ambitions.

If you want to learn more about St Christopher’s Academy, please click here.

We are proud that 84% of all our Team Leaders, Deputies and Managers are internal promotions.

Recruitment Process:

At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of 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. Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to starting. Your online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification.

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.