Senior Practitioner

About the role

The Senior Practitioner will provide day to day care of children and young people within an environment that promotes positive attachments and relationships. You will be based across Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Richmond and Kingston upon Thames within provider services, children's homes.

You will lead and supervise the staff on shift to ensure that they carry out their duties and behave appropriately at all times. You will support children and young people in maximising their potential in a safe, caring and nurturing home. You will also support the management team in all aspects of a child centred service.

This role requires shift work across all 7 days of the week, throughout the full year, including Christmas, New Year and other bank holidays. The role includes sleep-in duties with a sleep-in allowance paid where applicable. You will be working 36 hours per week.

Key responsibilities include:

• Responding to times of crises and supporting the team
• Ensuring a therapeutic environment for the children and supporting them directly
• Ensuring safeguarding policies and procedures are adhered to
• Maintaining the upkeep of the home
• Liaising with agencies, stakeholders and services associated with the home

The service will aim to achieve the highest standard of service delivery as measured by Ofsted against the Children's Homes Regulations and Quality Standards.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Christine Flowers via email: christine.flowers@achievingforchildren.org.uk. Due to the nature of working in Children's Homes, enhanced vetting is required including reviewing your full employment history from the point you left school. This role does not offer sponsorship.

About You

We are seeking an experienced professional who can lead by example and create positive outcomes for children and young people in residential care. You will have the skills to supervise staff and work collaboratively across multiple stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will:

• Be educated to degree level with a relevant professional qualification in social work
• Hold a Level 3 Health and Social care qualification
• Have experience in leading a team, undertaking line management and performance management
• Possess knowledge of relevant theory that informs practice delivery
• Have experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families
• Be skilled in advocating the voices of those we are working with
• Have experience of keeping and maintaining records in accordance with local policy and producing accurate reports and written updates to a range of stakeholders
• Possess knowledge of statutory legislation such as the Children's Act and national policy drivers

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and appointment will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Achieving for Children's Offer to You

We're proud to announce that Achieving for Children's Children's Services in Richmond have been awarded an Outstanding rating by Ofsted. This places Richmond alongside Kingston, which also holds an Outstanding rating, as a top-performing service. Our separately inspected Fostering Service has achieved a strong 'Good' rating, recognising our skilled and dedicated fostering workforce.

Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company that has a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate enabling us to do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), we offer the freedoms of a social enterprise with the employment benefits of local government.

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. Benefits include:

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
• Flexible working options helping to keep a good work life balance
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of staff benefits and discounts
• An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway