Residential Care Worker

High Close is a successful non maintained special school offering day and residential provision for young people with complex social, emotional and mental health needs.  Staff within the residential care teams support young people to be able to access their education and provide a waking day curriculum to enable them to learn and develop social skills and coping strategies whilst providing them opportunities to experience new challenges and adventures.  

It's a challenging environment, calling for resilience, patience and tolerance, helping us to ensure children can achieve success in a safe environment.   Staff have the opportunity to work in a multi-disciplinary team including Education, Therapy and Family Resource Team. Staff are given extensive training to meet the needs of the young people including Therapeutic Crisis Intervention.  

This is an excellent opportunity to work within our professional and highly motivated residential staff teams providing holistic care to ensure the best outcomes for our young people. You will be required to work a variety of shifts Monday to Friday with the potential for some Sunday shifts in the new academic year.. Residential care staff work additional hours during term time so they can have 13 weeks paid holiday a year. Staff are also given a paid day off on their birthday. 

You will also be expected to undertake regular ‘sleeping-in' duties on average 3-4 per half term after an initial induction period for which an additional allowance is paid (£62 per sleep in). The starting rate is £20,287.  

This is a fixed term position for 1 year however there may be an opportunity at the end of the contract to apply for a permanent position. Secondments will be considered for internal applicants.

All members of staff who do not already hold it (or an equivalent) are required to undertake Level 3 Diploma in Residential Child Care on completion of a successful probationary period in a permanent role and this is paid for by the school.  

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification and Job Description Please ensure you give as much information as possible in order to evidence your knowledge and capacity to fulfil the role. This information will be used to shortlist applicants for the role.

For further information please contact Natalie Potter or Laura Byron on 0118 9785767. 

Barnardo's Schools are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment.

Our safer recruitment processes mean that the safety and welfare of the child is paramount at every stage of the process and therefore we adopt rigorous scrutiny in our pre-employment checking. Applicants must be willing to undergo relevant pre-employment checks, including references being taken up prior to interview and for the successful candidate, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, in line with the Keeping Children Safe in Education Statutory Guidance.

As part of your application, you will need to provide full details of your employment since leaving secondary education, starting with your current or most recent employment first and then by working backwards, including reasons for leaving. Please also include any periods of voluntary work and/or training, providing reasons for any periods not in employment, education or training.

Read further about our commitment to safeguarding and our pre-employment checks in our applicant information sheet below.