As and When Children and Young Peoples Practitioner

Location: Stratford District Children & Family Centres, Warwickshire.

Areas covered: Stratford upon Avon, Alcester and Lighthorne Heath.

Service Objectives

The Stratford District Children & Family Centre services improve the outcomes and life chances for all children, young people and their families by offering effective preventative and early intervention services, with a focus on those who are hardest to reach and are experiencing the greatest challenges in life.

This role is based in Barnardo's Stratford District Locality, requires flexibility from both parties and the postholder may be asked to work evenings and weekends.

Roles and responsibilities specific to this post

The role of the Practitioner will be to deliver direct services to families through one-to-one support, groups, activities and courses. This may be delivered through a variety of means, including virtual platforms; and by phone; but mostly in person. Our primary focus will be working with children aged 0-11 years and their parents, as well as some groups for young people aged up to 19 years (25 years with SEND). Our work is all about making the biggest impact during the best window of opportunity in a child's life.

The postholder will be required to be flexible to work across the Stratford District in our centres and community venues, as outreach work is a significant and regular part of our work. For this reason, access to your own transport would be essential.

This role requires flexibility from both parties and the postholder may be asked to work evenings and weekends -

We are looking to appoint an experienced Practitioner, but would also consider applicants who are committed to completing a level 3 childcare qualification. This is a busy and varied role where you will be required to work autonomously (lone working) and as part of a team to deliver a range of services.

• Offer fun and engaging activities to support children to develop positive social and emotional skills;
• Offer engaging groups for Young People
• Plan activities in line with the EYFS;
• Build positive relationships with parents/ carers;
• Hold sometimes difficult/ challenging conversations with parents;
• Offer advice and support, or signpost and refer parents to the most appropriate service.

Job specific requirements:
It is especially important that the successful candidate is able to demonstrate experience of and/or an understanding of the following:

• Knowledge and practical experience of the EYFS, including a childcare qualification to at least level 2.
• Experience of working with and supporting young children and their parents/ carers.
• Confidence in communicating effectively with parents/ carers, colleagues and other professionals.
• Competence in IT and email, working with Word and other Microsoft packages.
• Experience of delivering Early Years' services in community settings is desirable.
• Qualified to deliver Baby Massage and Chatter Matter's courses is desirable.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's  values .  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our  People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is reflected in our values and our practice, and we have invested in this area of our work to ensure that we can deliver on our commitments to be an inclusive employer. EDI is a key enabler of our purpose as a charity and we want to ensure that the diversity of our teams is reflective of the communities we serve and that we continue to learn and develop our work with a focus on inclusion. We particularly encourage applications from candidates from Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Communities, candidates who are LGBT+ and Disabled candidates.