Childrens Residential Care Officer Level 2

We are looking for Children’s Residential Care Officers to join **Riverhead House**, our new 4 bedded home for children aged 12-18 years old based in Louth. The **therapeutic **nature of the home will be one of the first of its kind in Lincolnshire. **Riverhead House** will specialise in providing **care** and **support **to children with individual needs and strengths, with the aim of supporting their return home to families or to foster placements.

**This is an exciting time to join Lincolnshire County Council and support our Children in Care Transformation Programme. You can help us to be ambitious for Children and Young People in Lincolnshire. This new home will be designed** **to care for their individual needs and strengths, helping them to reach their aspirations.**

**About the Role**

As an **Outstanding Authority**, Lincolnshire County Council specialise in providing **excellent in-house** care and support for children and young people who have diverse needs as a result of their early experiences. We endeavour to create a **homely environment** that exceeds the needs of children and young people in our care, enabling them to **express their characters, feel safe and enrich their lives**.

The model of care in our home will combine trauma informed practice with social pedagogy, attachment theory and therapeutic care models to give our children the high level of care they need and deserve. Our **caring** staff will work alongside Child and Adolescent Mental Health Workers and other health professionals to develop individual, personalised therapeutic care plans that you will help develop and support.

**_“Seeing children achieve positive outcomes if by far the best thing”_**

We work shifts on a rota system that includes evenings, weekends, bank holidays and sleep in duties (example rota attached on LCC site). Please note these positions are permanent full time but we will also consider relief.

**About You**

As a Residential Care Officer in our team, you must be willing to go **above and beyond** for children in our care, ensuring an experience of childhood that is reflective of what we would want for our own children; filled with **fun, laughter, friendship** and **discovery**. Your **empathy** and **warmth** will enable you to support children who present with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. You will take on extra responsibilities such as supervision, shift leading, developing projects, developing direct work with children, mentoring and inspiring new staff. You will lead in different areas of practice such as **social pedagogy** or **restorative practice** and you will be expected to chair and take part in professional meetings.

**We are looking for someone who is**:

- **Compassionate** with demonstratable **patience** and **resilience.**:

- Able to find and use **creative** ways to communicate, meeting changing and challenging needs.
- **Caring, playful**, and enjoys spending time with children, helping them to stay connected to their families and friends.
- **Curious **and **enthusiastic** about a child’s needs, targeting individual requirements to achieve **full potential** and the **best outcome** possible.
- Able to set boundaries and utilise different approaches.
- Be a **keyworker** for one of our children. Find out more about what this involves by reading the attached Case Studies.
- Able to make **informed** decisions.
- Has a full UK driving licence and access to your own car with business use insurance preferable or agreement to work towards this in the future.

**A full person specification can be found within the Job Description **(attached on LCC site).

**Our Offer To You**

We are offering a competitive salary along with an extensive benefits package, details of which can be found in the attached (on LCC site) Residential Worker Benefits Document and our rewards and benefits brochure.

In joining us, you will be rewarded with a career defining opportunity to become part of an ambitious and growing service that is committed to staff retention, development and equality. We will provide you with the training, support and access to expertise and new skills that will enable you to provide the very best care for our children and young people and succeed in your career.

**PLEASE NOTE**:It is imperative that your covering letter/personal statement clearly states why you have applied, how you meet the essential and desirable criteria for the role as set out in the **Job Description (attached on LCC jobs Site)** and what you feel you can bring to this role, the team and the wider County Council.

**_Interview date to be confirmed_**
- Lincolnshire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment._

**_Fluency Duty_**:

- In accordance with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 (Fluency Duty), the ability to converse at ease with cust