Waking night staff home care support worker

Job introduction

Do you have a background of working with children with learning disabilities? Are you someone who enjoys working in a rewarding, supportive, and a challenging environment? Can you work with a diverse range of stakeholders in an inclusive and accessible way?

We have an exciting opportunity within our Families, Children and Learning Directorate where you will get to make a real difference in the lives of children with learning difficulties. 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 are committed to delivering an outstanding service and to making Health and Disability Services accessible to everyone. 

If you would like to discuss this role, please email karen.shaw@brighton-hove.gov.uk to arrange a conversation.

About the role

Rainbow Lodge is a new children's home due to open mid April in the Woodinngdean area. We will provide full-time placements for young people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge between the ages of 5 and 17.

Staff will work 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. 

As a Home Care Support Worker, you will: 

• Support our young people from diverse backgrounds with intimate personal care when required.
• Use a range of inclusive and accessible communication tools to help our young people express themselves.
• Undertake a range of domestic tasks including cleaning, shopping, providing freshly prepared meals.
• Support your colleagues and yourself to stay safe during times of challenging behaviour.

You will be someone with:

• The experience of looking after children with learning disabilities.
• Inclusive and accessible communication skills for interaction with service users, families, social workers, and medical professionals.
• The ability to apply restrictive interventions to support young people in line with their behaviour support plans.
• A clear Enhanced DBS Certificate

Benefits: 

• Funding and support within two years for a Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare (or equivalent qualification).
• Support with in-house training to improve skills and knowledge.
• An opportunity to increase your skill and experience for future roles within social care, education and childcare.
• Enhancements over weekends, and bank holidays.

You will need to be able to work a 4-week rolling rota as follows:

Night shifts: 9.15pm to 7.15am 

There is an expectation waking night staff will attend one team meeting a month and undertake necessary training which is included in number of hours worked.

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 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 provide answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they 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 (Application form guidance) and Shortlisting questions guidance as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us

Company information

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 How we create a fair and inclusive workplace.

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