Job Details

Job introduction

Brighton & Hove is a great place to live, learn, work and visit. Our diverse and vibrant community is passionate about the city and there’s a shared commitment to celebrating and promoting all that makes Brighton & Hove so unique.

We are committed to delivering an outstanding service and to making Health and Disability Services within our Families, Children and Learning Directorate the right choice for you to work.

If you are looking to work in a supportive and forward-thinking organisation, where every day is rewarding and provides a fresh challenge, and you have a background of working with children with learning disabilities, then we would love to hear from you.

About us

At Drove Road we provide a mixture of short breaks and full-time placements for young people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour between the ages of 8 and 18. Many of our young people have Autism with associated complex needs. Our dedicated team of staff works hard to create a positive, safe, stimulating and homely environment in which each young person’s specific needs are met and they are supported to develop and learn new skills while having fun. Particular emphasis is given to those skills that promote independence.

We value each of our young people, encourage them, celebrate their achievements and treat them with dignity and respect. We provide lots of opportunities for our young people to have leisure, sporting, learning and social activities, as well as developing their skills to participate fully in daily life. Every team member plays a vital part in helping our young people to thrive, and as a highly successful team we support each other to deliver our service with fairness and inclusivity.

We can offer you a competitive salary; salary enhancements for weekend, bank holiday, nights and sleep-in’s; job-specific training and development; opportunities for career progression; regular supervision and team meetings; a generous annual leave allowance with the opportunity to buy extra days; staff discounts; and admittance into the Local Government Pension Scheme.

We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, so we welcome and encourage applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background.  If you are successful in your application, we have the following employee networks here to support you throughout your employment with us: BME Workers, Disabled Workers and Carers, LGBTQ Workers, and Women’s Network.

Interview date: week beginning 17th April 23

For an informal discussion, please contact Karen Rusbridge - Practice Manager on 01273 295320 or Vikki Witham Practice Manager on 01273 295194

About the role

About you

As a Senior Care Officer, you will be part of the senior team, identifying and reviewing young people’s needs, as well as supporting and supervising a team of staff. You will need to have:

• Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (or equivalent qualification) and have the willingness to complete a Level 5 Diploma whilst in post
• experience of looking after children or young people, either in an educational or social care setting
• the ability to provide senior cover on shift and oversee / cover shifts on the rota
• supervisory experience of Home Care Support Workers, Care Crew and agency staff (or equivalent) on shift and through monthly 1:1's
• experience of attending reviews and preparing written reports about young people to regularly review their needs with senior staff, family and other professionals
• experience of leading and participating in staff meetings, training and the young people's meetings.
• experience of being involved in recruitment and / or the induction of new staff
• excellent communication skills including verbal and written for daily notes, emails and phone calls with families and other professionals
• good number and organisational skills for medication administration and planning a shift
• the ability to use your own initiative and think quickly in a difficult situation, supporting your colleagues and yourself to stay safe during times of challenging behaviour
• the ability to meet the physical, emotional and mental demands of the job e.g. be able to use restrictive interventions to restrain the young people in line with their behaviour support plans
• A clear Enhanced DBS Certificate

You will need to be able to work a four-week rolling rota as follows:

• Early shifts: 7.00am to 2.30pm (until 11.00am in term time)
• Late shifts: 2.00pm to 9.30pm or 10.00pm
• Work two weekends per month
• Sleep-in duty once per month
• As a Senior Care Officer, you will be allocated one admin day per week

For more information about the organisation and the specific tasks required, please download the job description / person specification.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to complete your education and work history and upload a supporting statement. Your supporting statement is the most important part of your application as it will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Supporting statement guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

If you do not make it clear in your statement how you meet the criteria for the role, it is unlikely you will be shortlisted for interview.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is part-time or term-time only.

Work Permits: We may be able to obtain a Work Permit for this post but this is subject to meeting the requirements of the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Points-based Immigration System. Please see Gov.uk for more information on the Skilled Worker Visa.

Company information

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Files

• Job Description and Person Specification
• Applicant Cover Letter