Senior Residential Childcare Workers

Senior Residential Childcare Worker

Join to apply for the Senior Residential Childcare Workers role at Hertfordshire County Council.

Starting Salary: £38,220 progressing to £41,771 per annum + 6% market enhancement.
Sleep in allowances: £40 per night. Opportunities to work additional hours and overtime across the Service.

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Hertfordshire County Council has its own residential service for children, consisting of 7 homes, including 2 very specialist homes, 1 disability home and the rest mainstream multi-bedded homes.

All homes are currently sitting on Ofsted ratings of good or outstanding.

As a senior you form part of the leadership of the home and ensure the needs of the home and young people are met and maintained at the highest possible level.

Each home is made up of Registered Manager, Deputy, Senior Residential Childcare Workers, Residential Childcare Workers, cleaners and home administrators.

As a Senior within the residential service there will be times you are asked to support other homes.

It is hard to put a job title on a role where you are mentor, teacher, coach, deliverer of parental guidance, role model, therapist, councillor, and family liaison, often all in the same day.

Daily you will be liaising with a host of individuals and services, from our young person’s family to schools and education authorities, social workers, police and a whole range of other internal and external contacts.

The essence of the role is to support, almost as an extension of the family, one young person to help them develop into adulthood as effectively as possible, establishing routine, boundaries and consistency in a calm, non-judgemental manner. You will work with children and young people who display challenging behaviour due to early life trauma.

No two days are the same in our Residential Service – on your working days you could be taking your young person horse riding, painting, for a drive, for a walk, out shopping, or attending virtual schools. You will support children to achieve and grow through positive experiences.

Our commitment to young people in our care is to be there around the clock for them. As part of your role you will complete relevant paperwork and work within relevant legislation.

You will be part of a team working on a shift/rota basis; you will work together with the rest of the team, and your senior, to organise this in advance. Due to the nature of our care, there may be occasions where you need to swap shifts and, working together with your team, we can achieve this flexibility.

• Shift work including evening weekends, bank holiday and sleep-in duties.
• Lead and manage shifts.
• Plan weekly activities for the young people.
• Ensure the home is working to the regulations.
• Line manage and supervise Residential Childcare Workers (RCWs).
• Train and develop RCWs.
• Report writing.
• Undertaking specialist training for the role.
• Oversee the children’s files, ensuring all documentation is up to date and relevant.
• Manage incidents.
• Maintain the safety of the young people, staff and home.
• Manage and report safeguarding concerns in line with policy and procedure.

Essential:

• Minimum 9-12 months experience of working in a residential children’s home.
• Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare or equivalent.
• Hold a full driving licence and business insurance.
• Lead and manage shifts.
• Willingness to undertake shift work.

Desirable:

• Staff supervision.
• Attending/leading meetings with key stakeholder.
• Working with families.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care, level job profile. Please locate this via:
Job profiles – Health and Social Care.

Working for Hertfordshire County Council is an excellent opportunity, we are forward thinkers and diverse in the residential services that we offer.

As an employer we offer our staff the opportunity to undertake further training via our apprenticeships to further their careers in social care.

It’s an excellent time to…