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Do you share Barnardo's vision of Changing Childhoods, Changing Lives?

Are you looking for a new challenge?

Do you enjoy working with children & young people and positively impacting their lives?

We have a fantastic opportunity to join our Residential Team as a Children's Home Support Worker on a full-time permanent basis.

If so, we have an exciting opportunity to work as a Children's Home Support Worker in our London residential service. Our homes are located in Ilford and Redbridge. The homes specialise in children and young people with learning disabilities, learning difficulties and / or autism.

We provide 24/7 residential services to the UK's most vulnerable children and young people and believe a child's future should never be defined by their past. Every child has the right to a fulfilling life, to realise their potential and to have a positive future.

The children and young people we care for have experienced trauma that can lead them to display challenging behaviours in an effort to communicate with those around them. They require care from a reliable, committed, passionate and skilled staff team. This will support them to develop trusting relationships which provide the time and space to explore their past experiences, behaviours and current situation.

Our aim is to create a secure, safe and nurturing environment for children and young people to be able to explore and understand their identities, whilst promoting and developing confidence and self-esteem. We are aspirational for our children and young people and actively support them to attend and access education and employment opportunities and to develop their independence skills. We also support them to continue with and develop relationships with family and peers where appropriate.

Staff are enabled to provide a high level of care and support to children and young people through regular and ongoing training opportunities. Staff are ambitious for the children and young people we care for and are passionate and committed to ensure they experience good quality care that is individual to them and positively prepares them for adulthood.

As a Children's Home Support Worker, you will:

Be able to engage and develop positive relationships with children and young people.
Be able to support children and young people with activities in the home. This includes engaging them in hobbies and interests, accompanying them out in the community and on day trips.
Support children and young people to achieve their everyday goals with patience and positivity.
Be resilient and help manage behaviours that challenge, supporting them to reflect and learn when these present.
Empower children and young people and facilitate their active involvement in the decision making about their life and their future.
Advocate for them and ensure their voices are heard.

In return you'll get:

A challenging and rewarding job that will make a significant difference to the lives of children and young people.
Ongoing training and personal development opportunities.
Excellent career progression opportunities.
A supportive working environment and management team.

Flexible 24-hour rota system – including weekends and evenings.
Barnardo's has a trade union recognition agreement with Unison.

Requirements for this position are:

Level 3/4 Children & Young People Workforce Social Care or Residential Child Care qualification (or willing to undertake this training within 2 years).
Understanding of the needs and presenting behaviours of children and young people who have experienced trauma.
Able to work on a rota pattern to include evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Experience of working with children and young people in a residential care setting is desirable but not essential. Transferable skills will be considered on application.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

(Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible).

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, 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.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

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

About Barnardo's

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