Assistant Residential Worker - Zero Hours/Relief

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

About the role

Would you like to start or continue your career supporting Children and Young People who have a disability?

An opportunity has arisen at Woodland Lodge in Huntingdon

Woodland Lodge is a home for Children and Young People aged 8 to 18 who have a learning or physical disability and or additional health or behavioural needs.

We provide overnight short breaks, Shared Care and Long Term Care as well as day care for Children and Young People, in a safe and supportive environment whilst providing a wide variety of stimulating activities and experiences – this includes activities outside of the homes such as the Cinema, Climbing Walls, Bowling, Seaside trips as well as a wide variety of in house activities.

How will you make a difference to the lives of Children and Young People:

· By communicating, engaging, encouraging, and supporting young people to take part in local activities and events to develop social and independence skills.

· Promoting a safe environment, where Young People can thrive and try out new experiences and have fun.

· Advocating on behalf of the Children and Young People.

· Being part of the staff team who provide support for Young People during their stay, supporting in all aspects of their care.

· Supporting Young People to achieve positive outcomes.

· Ability to plan and organise your day.

· An understanding of technology such as Tablet Computers, Games Consoles etc which Young People use to aid their communication or express their needs.

· The ability to communicate appropriately with Children, Young People, their Families and to colleagues within the Home and the wider Council and to external agencies (such as Social Workers, Teachers etc).

· Recording observations and undertake administrative processes as needed.

· By having basic knowledge of IT packages such as Word, Excel & Outlook.

We reward you with:

· an Apprenticeship as a Level 4 Practitioner in Children’s Residential Care

· A comprehensive induction covering your basic training and continued professional development including a Diploma Level 3 in Children and Young People (Residential Pathway)

· Regular supervision to guide and support you with your career progression within Social Care.

Please note that this post requires a Enhanced Disclosure with Barred Lists Checks for Children and Adults from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

What will you be doing?

• Work as a team and individually to provide a flexible responsive, high quality and person-centred care and support to children, young people and their families according to their support plan.
• A mixture of early and late shifts.  Early shifts start at 7 am til 3 pm and Late shifts start at 2 pm til 10 pm, 
• Support children and young people in their personal care, administration of medication and clinical procedures in line with their support plan and organisational policies and procedures
• Support children and young people to develop independence in these areas appropriate to their age and needs and support plan.
• Ensure that the views and needs of children and young people are sought, heard and responded to in a way that suits them.  Promoting communication and participation with the child and young person’s views directly influencing their support.
• Maintain any registration requirements in line with the required bodies and ensure that Cambridgeshire County Council is notified of any circumstances which could affect your registration status
• To liaise closely with keyworkers to ensure that night time knowledge, experience and needs are fully included in the support planning process for children and young people. To Liaise with Keyworkers and managers to support with general admin tasks.
• Record observations and maintain up to date files (paper and electronic), utilising agreed systems and procedures; undertake administrative processes as necessary to maintain systems, procedures and office practices.
• Be familiar with and work according to health, environmental and safety policies and procedures. In the event of any serious risk, take immediate action to reduce this risk and inform senior management.

For more information, or to have a chat about the role, please contact Dawn Curtis at Dawn.Curtis@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. 

About you

Please can you ensure you can:

• Reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work
• Be authorised to work in the United Kingdom full time
• Please note we do not offer Sponsorships.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers