Children\'s Residential Worker in Croydon

Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. You will achieve this by providing day to day care for children and young people within an environment of pro-social learning that promotes positive attachments and relationships.

Our mission is to create brighter futures for children and young people by:

• Caring about children, young people and our colleagues.
• Being Respectful of every individual and valuing the strengths in everyone.
• Being Professional and committed to reflection and continuous learning.
• Being Flexible and agile so that we can be fit for the future.
• Being Honest about what we can do and optimistic about the future.
• Being Creative and passionate about positive change.

About the role: As a Children’s Residential Worker, you will directly look after children and young people who have complex emotional and mental health needs due to trauma, loss and other adverse experiences. You will be required to support children to regulate and understand 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 12 - 17 years old on admission to the Children’s Home). You will have a key role in making sure our children are safe and happy. You will also be required to work collaboratively with key professionals to ensure that information is recorded and shared appropriately, as well as to enable children to receive the multi-agency support that they require.

If applying for the Day position, you will be required to do sleep-ins paid at £50 each.

Applicants should have:

• Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare or equivalent (i.e. Level 3 Diploma Children and Young People Workforce with the children’s social care pathway) as per Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 (England).
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience working and supporting children and Young People to achieve their full potential.
• 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:

• Salary: Up to £35,000 depending on experience.
• Sleep-ins: £50.
• Overtime / bank holidays paid time-and-a-half and alternate weekends off.
• A friendly working environment, a fun, open and honest culture.
• 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.
• Discretionary funded training programs.
• Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
• Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services.

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.