Residential Child Care Workers

Harmeny Education Trust is a charitable organisation providing therapeutic care and education to children who have experienced early years trauma through abuse, neglect and family disruption, referred from all over Scotland. We currently work with children and young people aged 5-18, both on a day and all-year-round residential basis.- Our core service, Harmeny School, comprises:
- An education service, which includes an outdoor learning team.- A care service, with five residential cottages and one day service cottage.- Support services, made up of a therapies manager coordinating evidence-informed approaches for children and young people, finance, estates, catering and domestic services, fundraising, IT, HR, learning and development, and admin teams.- Harmeny is committed to achieving the highest possible standards of care and education and to continuously improving our work. We have recently developed a practice framework, The Harmeny Way, which describes the unique combination of therapeutic approaches used to guide our work and ensure consistent practice with children and young people placed with us.- We are looking for **Residential Child Care Workers** to join our Care staff team, which operates all year round. The post holders will contribute to the creation of a culture and ethos in which the needs of the children are paramount and provide them with security, safety, care and social development to enable them to reach their potential.- While we are seeking for care workers for children aged 5-18, we are particularly keen to draw on the skills and knowledge of those who have experience working with the older young people (aged 15-18), or are keen to do so.- We will consider experienced and inexperienced applicants, with or without the necessary qualifications. We have a robust induction to support staff to work at Harmeny, and we will provide full funding and support for staff who need to undertake qualifications for their role.- The salary for the post is as follows:
- £28,123 (unqualified)
- £29,624 (part-qualified)
- £32,455 to £35,605 (qualified)
- Generous sleepover allowance of £75 per session is paid in addition to salary.-
- **Rota system**

Harmeny runs a nine-week rotating pattern in the care team. Full time Residential Child Care Workers work five weekends out of nine, so approx. every second weekend. On two of the five weekends, a 13-hour shift is worked on one of the days. On other shifts, timings are either 7:30am-3:15pm or 2:15pm-10:00pm / 2:45pm-10:30pm.- Sleepover duties (10:30pm-7:30am) are required as part of rota too and one will work approx. three to four per month. Rota is issued one month in advance, however ‘off duty’ pattern is available for the year (April to March).-
Key Responsibilities
- Promote a positive ethos in the school consistent with Harmeny’s vision, purpose and core values.
- Support the Residential Team Manager with the implementation of management decisions, consistent with the Harmeny and cottage plans, policies and procedures.
- Be an integral part of the Care staff team.
- Care for the children’s everyday requirements and to help create a homely, caring and safe environment for all the children at Harmeny.
- Communicate and interact positively with children using solution-focussed and strengths-based principles in line with Harmeny policy, procedures and core values.
- Develop and implement care plans which address the needs of the child.
- Be involved in the development and implementation of risk assessment planning for children.
- Understand children’s behaviour and support them to manage their behaviour themselves.
- Be involved in the development and implementation of cottage improvement plans that reflect recommendations from the Independent Care Review outcomes - “The Promise”.
- Where required, as a last resort, implement physical intervention techniques.
- Support children’s learning during and out with the formal school day.
- Be a designated keyworker as directed by the Residential Team Manager or Care Management Team.
- As designated keyworker, participate in regular reviews and submit written reports on individual children.
- Attend regular staff and children’s meetings as required.
- Ensure that all children’s personal records including case notes, reviews and medical information are kept up to date.
- Attend supervision, Annual Performance Review, training and other meetings as required.
- Undertake sleeping-in duties as required by the staffing rota.
- Participate in residential trips and holidays when required.
- Have a flexible approach to the timetable and working patterns at the discretion of the Residential Team Manager or Care Management Team.
- Undertake domestic and food preparation duties as directed, and ensure that others in the team also do so.Undertake induction and other relevant training as required to fulfil the duties of the post and maintain SSSC registration.
- Undertake any other duties as delegate