Senior Residential Care Officer

**How you'll make a difference**:
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**This role is restricted to permanent and temporary employees of South Gloucestershire Council**

Vinney Green Secure Children’s Home offers young people a safe, caring environment, where they will experience quality care, education, vocational and life skills training. You will provide supervision and leadership to a team of Residential Care Officer’s (RCO’s) to help young people develop the values, skills, knowledge, self-control and direction that will enable them to return to the community in a more positive and purposeful way.
- The home is licensed for operation by Ofsted and it contracts with the Youth Custody Service to provide placements for up to 24 children and young people age between 10-18. The length of time a child or young person spends at the Home depends on the legal reason for them being detained. The children and young people are offered a safe and caring environment where they will experience quality care, education, vocational and life skills training. Your role will be to help young people develop the values, skills, knowledge, self-control and direction within this secure setting.**What you will be doing**
- You will be required to supervise and monitor staff performance using the personal development and performance review process (PDPR).You will work with staff to evaluate competence and identify areas of development and where necessary, improvement. This includes acting as the senior member of staff on duty, out of hours, when ‘sleeping in’; coordinating and liaising with the Night Care Staff and on-call manager regarding any significant issues, as they arise
- You will work to ensure security procedures, routines and recording functions are carried out to ensure the smooth running of the Home. You will be responsible for preventing absconding or any attempt to escape; ensuring young people are appropriately and securely locked within their own designated areas at the correct times; and undertaking room searches as required.
- You will ensure Health and Safety regulations are adhered to, including ensuring the maintenance of fire precautions, fire drills and familiarisation of evacuation procedures.
- You will provide on-going care and support of the young people residing within the Home, which will involve engaging in activities with them, dealing with challenging and difficult situations and supporting them with their own day to day care. This is all done within the framework of the regulations which govern secure accommodation.
- You will contribute to the protection of young people from abuse including bullying and intimidation by others and assisting in the identification and assessment of their problems, needs and potential.
- You will organise, plan and oversee individual and group activities, designed to enrich the young people’s experience at the Home and you will participate in the education of the young people, including the assisting with in-class studies and homework.
- You will need to set and maintain appropriate limits on young people’s behaviour and create opportunities for them to develop more positive behavioural responses, promoting pro-social conduct.
- On a regular basis you will take a lead role in the co-ordination of daily activities and routines as delegated by the Unit Manager and Head of Education on a rotational basis. You will be responsible for assigning staff appropriately to the activities and managing membership of the groups of young people based on risk assessment and individual needs, ensuring key worker duties are carried out within agreed timescales, recorded accurately and their effectiveness evaluated.

**What we need from you**:
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- An RQF Level 3 Qualification (or equivalent) in Residential Childcare is essential, along with significant experience of working with young people within a secure residential setting.
- It is essential you have supervisory experience gained within an environment working with children or young people. For example, residential care, youth offending or youth work.
- You will possess excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) able to record and communicate essential information. This will include the use of basic computer packages such as MS Word and MS Excel.
- You will have an understanding of the demands of working with young people who may have complex needs and to be able to deal with these in a non-judgemental manner.
- Ideally you will also have previous experience of working in a secure setting or working with young people who present challenging behaviour.

**Things we need you to know**:
**Salary Band**:£28,371 to £31,099 per annum, plus Secure Unit allowance of £2,460 per annum and enhancements for Sunday and Bank Holiday working,

The home operates on shift patterns, you will be working an average of 37 hours per week, following a designated shift pattern working between the hours of 7.30am - 10.30pm, alternate weekends and an aver