Job Role: Residential Children's Support Worker

White Trees group is owned and operated by SureCare Residential Ltd. Our role as a company is to provide a home for vulnerable and complex young people who find themselves in residential care for a magnitude of reasons, often completely out of their control and/or comprehension. Our company was founded on the belief that what we do, not only keeps our young people safe and away from harm, we actually grow and develop and build brighter futures for all of the young people in our care.

It is important that you understand your role within the company as a Therapeutic Project Worker and spend as much time as possible learning about and understanding your role within the company. It's not the individual that makes the difference in the long-term changes to a young person, it's the continuity that's provided through rigorous care planning, therapeutic interventions and understanding that the consistency of the team approach is what builds the brighter futures for all of our young people.

Personal Specification

• You will be kind, caring, professional and understanding, even when highly volatile and challenging situations occur. We are here to support young people in their time of need, when they are at their worst.
• You will be proactive, and inventive, to ensure a bespoke and individualised service is provided for each young person within the home.
• You will have a positive outlook, and always strive to find new ways to respond to any difficulties faced.

Main Duties - In the Home  

• To always hold in mind you are working in somebody else's home. You are here to provide nurture, love, guidance and support - it’s the small things that matter. Cleaning, tidying and generally making the home a nice/homely place to be, is in itself the most therapeutic thing you can do to support our young people to grow in their day-to-day lives.
• You will empower and encourage young people to develop their life skills and independence skills, adhering to any independence programmes in place. (Preparing meals, travel training, domestic duties)
• Ensure a detailed handover is given to staff coming on shift, and shift plans for the day are made in good time and are effective.
• Ensure the young people’s paperwork is completed fully and includes all relevant information for that young person including their engagement, mood, conversations, thoughts and feelings. Ensure that all records completed are accurate and reflective.
• To make sure that the day-to-day operations of the House are followed, safety checks are completed and that the home is clean, tidy and feels warm and welcoming.
• Engage with our Wellbeing Services to ensure all of our young people get access to therapeutic support.
• You will support the administering of medication in line with White Trees policy and regulatory expectations.
• To be accountable when handling petty cash, ensuring all petty cash records are completed and accurate and inform manager of any discrepancies
• Driving company cars to transport our young people to attend education, contact meetings and activities etc. You should ensure the car safety checks are completed prior to any journey taking place.
• Occasionally you may have to provide personal care to the young people who are unwell or struggling to keep themselves on track with their own personal hygiene.
• To ensure that you are up to date with all policies and procedures, and are familiar with how to implement these within your working practice.

Main Duties – Care Planning

• Encourage our young people to share their views, wishes, worries and concerns, to have a voice in their care planning. Develop individualised care plans for each young person, and ensure they are updated monthly (minimum).
• Ensure our young people are actively involved in decision making around their own care. Advocate on their behalf, be their champion.
• Actively look for ways to support our young people to achieve their targets set within their care plan - be inventive.
• Ensure you are familiar with, and follow, the individual’s positive behaviour plan. Use the agreed strategies and discuss/share with your team if new positive ways are discovered.
• Develop Risk Assessments (RAMPs) and Positive Behaviour Plans for each young person and ensure these are updated monthly, to reflect the changes in the young people. All staff to be familiar with all risk assessments in place for the young people within the home.
• Use approved NFPS techniques when a situation results in physical interventions. Partake in debriefs following this, to reflect on the incident and how you handled this.
• Actively encourage our young people to engage in activities and opportunities that enrich their lives and provide opportunities to grow and develop both in and outside of the home.
• Recognise the importance of recordkeeping and recording and all of the information and the consequences to the home and a young person if paperwork is substandard or incomplete
• To understand how going against the structure of the home and plans drawn up by the team as a collective can be detrimental in the longer term and can even cause young people's development or placements to be hindered.
• To be a key worker to young people – completing all relevant paperwork in timescales set, including weekly reports.

Support/Training

• Partake in monthly Supervisions from your Senior Leadership Team and Wellbeing Service to support your Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
• Undertake White Trees Induction Programme – (4 days).
• Complete regular NFPS Physical Intervention and Behaviour Management Training (At times and as a last resort, you may need to use physical intervention to keep young people safe from themselves and to keep other young people, yourself and your colleagues safe)
• Ensure all mandatory training is kept up-to-date, so you can be aware of the most up to date relevant legislations.
• Attend all training which is booked in for you – these are all of value, and should be privileged.
• Level 3 is essential; it is desirable upon application and it is a legislative requirement that you must complete the qualification within 2 years.
• Access to Level 5 through our internal promotions programme.