Specialist Support Worker

If you think a Support Worker role with Protective Care Group is the same as every other residential childcare role, **think again.**

We’d love to be able to give you every eventuality of what you could encounter in this role, but the reality is the young people that we provide support to are **unpredictable **and demonstrate **extremely challenging behaviours**, so we often don’t know what one minute will look like to the next.

This role is demanding both physically and mentally so resilience is key. Prior experience in a similar role or relevant training in physical restraint techniques is highly desirable.

What we can tell you is that this role will involve:

- Providing person-centred and trauma informed care to young people with unique and complex needs, like severe attachment disorders, that stem can from childhood trauma, abuse and exploitation.
- Young people exhibiting extremely challenging behaviours like intense physical aggression and violence, threats, being targeted, sexualised behaviour, self-harm and absconding. These behaviours will cause our young people to regularly compromise their safety, so you need to be prepared that physical intervention can be necessary to protect them.
- Working in small teams in ratios of a minimum of 2:1.
- Developing young people via coaching and mentoring to support them in making positive behaviour changes, gain life skills and engage in activities that set them up for future success.
- Working collaboratively with external stakeholders to ensure the safety and needs of the young people in our care.

This is going to be a challenging role, but you’ll be part of a community who understand this and will support you. We are one big team who share the same goal of improving the quality of life for young people.

**Requirements**:
**We are looking for Support Workers who can demonstrate that they can respond to unpredictable behaviours and situations with adaptability, calmness, kindness and resilience. In addition to this we are looking for**:

- Flexibility with your working location. You could be asked to work anywhere in the North East, so need to comfortable travelling for work and often staying away from home during your shift pattern.
- Flexibility with your working hours. Most of our teams will work at 4 on 4 off rolling rota where you will be asked to work 12-hour day shifts, 12 hour waking night shifts and 12-hour day shifts followed by a sleeping night. Each team has a rota pattern designed to meet their young person’s individual needs so working hours may vary from team to team.
- A genuine passion for making a difference to the lives of young people.
- Knowledge of Safeguarding policies and procedures.
- A full UK manual driving license and are happy and comfortable travelling for work.
- Full right to work in the UK.

**Benefits**

**Whilst most of this role is unpredictable, if you are successful, we can predict that you will receive**:

- A PAYE role, so no need to worry about consistency of shifts and pay.
- A competitive basic salary of £32,000 plus uplifts for each shift you work with a young person and for sleeping nights.
- The training you need to do your role well, including paying for you to complete your NVQ Level 3 in Residential Childcare if you do not already have it.
- Genuine investment in you - in return for your dedication to supporting our young people’s future’s, it’s only right that we do the same for you. We’ll support your ambitions with progression plans and training designed to help you get where you want to be.
- Dedicated wellbeing support from supervisions, Regional Managers, internal Wellbeing Specialist and free confidential counselling services.
- Holiday allowance that increases with length of service.
- Company Pension scheme.
- Company sick pay.
- Active and generous refer a friend scheme.