Residential Practitioner- Children's Home

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.
 

• Job Title:                            Residential Practitioner- Children's Home
• Job Location:                     Gloucester 
• Salary:                               £30,583 - £33,325 per annum (inclusive of unsociable hours enhanced pay plus sleep-in allowance) 
• Hours per Week:               37 
• Contract Type:                   Permanent  
• Closing Date:                     30/03/2025 
• Job Requisition Number:   9880 
• This post is open to job share

Having successfully recruited to key management positions, we are making excellent headway in realising our vision to establish a diverse range of local children’s homes here in Gloucestershire. As we near mobilisation of our first home, we are now preparing to recruit our first cohort of Residential Practitioners and are therefore seeking applications from a diverse range of professionals. If you are passionate about caring for our most vulnerable children and share our deep commitment to ensuring  every child  receives the care, love, and support they need to thrive, then we would love to hear from you.

About us

Our first home will cater for younger children, aged 9-13yrs, who need a period of intense support, with a view to enabling them to return to a family setting, whether that be foster care  or reunification back home.

All our homes will offer a service to those children and young people for whom residential care is a placement of choice and assessed to be the most appropriate resource to enable them to fulfil their potential. We’re committed to working with our statutory partners as part of a trauma-informed, integrated approach which focuses holistically on what needs to change in order to achieve timely permanence.

We are committed to supporting your professional development, whether this be at the start of a new career or assisting you in further developing your experience in children’s residential care. One thing we can guarantee is that you’ll be supported to deliver the highest quality of care to the children in our homes. In addition to a comprehensive induction programme, you will receive on-the-job support and training and guidance from our Social Work Academy (SWA), via our specialist Advanced Educator, whose focus is service development across all Gloucestershire’s children’s homes. The SWA will also support you in gaining your mandatory Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare if you are not already qualified.

About you

We want our teams to represent all walks of life and bring a wealth of different experiences, skills and knowledge. We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you have relevant experience in supporting vulnerable children and young people, particularly if you are already qualified at Level 3 in Residential Child Care, but equally, if this is your first step into children’s services, and you can demonstrate the passion and commitment we’re looking for, don’t hesitate to submit your application.

About the role

As a Residential Practitioner you will be an integral team member, working shifts as part of a rota system, including working early shifts, evenings, and weekends. You will also be required to carry out sleeping-in duties, for which an additional allowance will be paid. We therefore require applicants who are able to work flexibly in order to provide continuity of care for the children in our homes.   

You will play a pivotal role in ensuring the wellbeing of children in your care by working alongside them and ensuring you involve them in the day-to-day running of the home and specifically in their plans towards permanence. You will also collaborate with their families and work alongside linked foster carers, ensuring effective lines of communication. The role will also see you taking responsibility as a keyworker and attending meetings and reviews as required.

In addition to the passion and/or relevant experience you bring to this role, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

• Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare (or equivalent), or a commitment to have achieved this qualification within 2 years of becoming a Residential Practitioner
• evidence of continued professional development
• a full driving licence and willingness to drive
• DBS clearance

How to apply

For additional information about this role please reach out to ChildrenHomeRecruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.

Interviews will take place on Friday 11th April 2025.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees. We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior). To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Residential Practitioner job profile

This position is subject to a DBS check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities.  Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.