Children and Young People's Substance Misuse Worker (Denbighshire and Conwy)

Are you ready for a new challenge? Do you have interest in working with children, young people and their families within Social Care?

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join Barnardo's as a Project Worker 1 at the Children and Young People's Substance Use Service, Cyfle Barnardo's Cymru Service, a multi-disciplinary team which works in partnership with other service providers through a variety of settings across Denbighshire and Conwy local authority areas.

Driving essential: This contract spans the two local authorities, Denbighshire and Conwy. Due to the rurality of the area, it is not logistically possible to undertake this role using public transport and we will be unable to meet the needs of the contract unless driving is essential to the role. 

What is the Children & Young People's Substance Use Service?

This post will provide Tier 1 targeted prevention & Tier 2 brief intervention services for children and young people in relation to drug and alcohol use by delivering group and 1-to-1 services in a variety of settings.

What does the Job Role involve?

You will undertake a range of early help interventions, which meet the needs of children and young people up to the age of 25 years, who are at risk of or actively using substances.

You will do this by assessing the needs of children and young people referred to the service and participate in the planning of programmes to meet those needs.

Your duties will include:

• Offering support, advice and assistance to children, young people and families referred to the service on a 1:1 and group basis.
• Delivering group work interventions to support children and young people to develop the skills they require as outlined in their support plan.
• Delivering targeted prevention and brief intervention programmes to support children and young people to build upon their skills and confidence to look after their own and families' well-being.
• Identifying a range of community-based activities that children and young people can access.
• Accessing community resources and working with other professionals and agencies to ensure all resources available to children and young people are utilised.
• Acting as a single point of access for Primary, Secondary schools and Pupil Referral Units.
• Sharing in the responsibility of assessing the risks that children and young people pose to themselves and others and developing plans to meet those needs.
• Supporting professionals by coaching to develop sample drug and alcohol session plans and to increase their awareness of substance misuse.
• Enabling children and young people to identify their goals and achieve change.

You will have: 

• Relevant experience of substance use and misuse face-to-face advice work with children and young people.
• Experience of multi-agency partnership working.
• Knowledge of issues facing children and young people where alcohol/substances are an issue.
• Knowledge of drug and alcohol use/effects and harm reduction advice.
• Knowledge of issues relating to risk of harm to others and self.
• Knowledge of safeguarding procedures and legislation.
• Ability to communicate effectively at all times with the general public and professionals.
• Ability to work evenings or weekends by arrangement on an occasional basis if required.
• Ability to travel throughout the Locality in order to meet the requirements of the post.
• Ability to communicate in the medium of Welsh (D).

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.  

Our basis and values