Young Persons Practitioner

**Young Persons Practitioner**

**Salary**:Starting from** **£21,672 per annum.

**Location**:Covering the** **North West of England.

**Contract/Hours**:Permanent - Full-Time - 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday with a flexible working pattern that will include some evenings and occasional weekends.

**Benefits**:29 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays, professional qualifications, excellent training and development opportunities, flexible maternity, adoption and paternity packages, up to 7% employer contribution pension, discount portal with your favourite brands.

**Vulnerable children in the UK need your help**

Wherever you work in the Action for Children family, you'll be helping to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in the UK.

Last year, we helped more than 670,000 children and families across the UK. From direct work in communities to national campaigning, we are focused on making sure every child has a safe and happy childhood, and the foundations they need to thrive.

**Why Action for Children?**

Working here is more than a job. Everyone in the Action for Children family is passionate about protecting and supporting children. It's the sense of purpose that drives us every single day. Because we know that, when we work together, we can make a huge difference to bring lasting improvements to vulnerable children's lives.

**A bit about the role**

North West Fostering service offers fostering placements using a therapeutic framework which draws upon theory and evidence around attachment and trauma-informed principles to scaffold the support that we offer to children and young people. Our aim is to provide safe, stable, supportive homes for children and young people who have a history of attachment disruption, abuse, neglect and trauma.

We also offer an innovative WRAP service that supports children and young people who are either in Local Authority/IFA fostering and whose placements are at risk of breakdown. The Wrap service is designed to help prevent placement breakdown and maximize stability for a young person.

Support will focus on children in care with the most complex needs and with significant adverse childhood experiences. The service will use trauma informed practice and attachment theory and provide a range of evidence-based therapies including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Theraplay, and PACE.

**How you'll help to create brighter futures**

As a Young Person's Practitioner, you will work closely with Supervising Social Worker / Lead Therapeutic Practitioner and provide trauma informed 1:1 sessions accustomed to the young person's needs which could include emotional regulation, identity needs, managing relationships, behavioural and educational needs. You will be supporting young people within their foster / Wrap placements and therefore will regularly feed into their care plans while liaising with other professionals and agencies to ensure safeguarding procedures are met at all times. You will help by:

- Being responsible for delivering high quality therapeutic intervention to children and young people with trauma history and complex needs.
- Being part of our multi-disciplinary team and working as part of this team approach is an important aspect of this role.
- Helping with set up and lead on group work and the participation of young people and to support with the delivery of training.

**Let's talk about you**

There is always opportunity for development with Action for Children. In this role, you will receive monthly supervision with a Team Manager but also engage in consultations were you can explore some of your cases with the guidance and support of a clinical psychologist and other team members. Our job description for the Young Persons Practitioner outlines the requirements of the role but the ‘must-haves' are:

- NVQ level 3 in childcare, family support or health and social care or equivalent experience working within a social care or health environment with vulnerable young people aged 8-18 and families.
- Experience of delivering outcome-based programmes or initiatives, completing assessments, planning and reviews to ensure positive outcomes.
- Knowledge of PACE and attachment theory (desirable).
- Experience of working therapeutically with young people (desirable).
- Experience of delivering training and group work with young people (desirable).
- You will need access to transport to travel to locations across the North West.

**Good to know**

Application Process: There are five sections to complete: Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration.

**Diversity, equality and inclusion**

Male staff are under-represented within our Children Service roles. We would like to encourage more male applicants for our Children Service roles.

**Don't meet every single requirement?**

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