Are you a brilliant tutor, teacher, children’s or education/ learning worker with experience in special education needs and social, emotional, and mental health needs? Do you want to be the person who really makes a difference for amazing young people who need someone who really cares?
This is what our children and parents could soon be saying about you …
‘I feel like some of the darkness has turned to light’.
‘It’s like an egg has been opened up and all the good is coming out…. Life feels like it is on the right track’.
We need you and more importantly, our children and young people need you! Join our lovely charity team as an education and wellbeing practitioner working with children and young people with SEND and mental health needs.
At Love Squared, our children’s mental health charity, we believe education and wellbeing are fundamentally linked, so our education and wellbeing practitioners focus on positively transforming not only educational outcomes, but also young people’s social, emotional and mental health. Through our one to one education and wellbeing placements, you will approach this role looking at issues holistically and will have the opportunity to make a huge difference to the young people we support.
A little bit about Love Squared …
Our vision is a society where imagination, love, and kindness are the everyday words that people associate with child and family services. It is a vision where young people can walk into their futures with joy. We want to bring love to children and families’ services. We don’t think it’s enough to care a bit, you have to care a lot if you want to transform outcomes.
We want to change the national landscape of how children experience the mental health system, putting kindness at the forefront of every interaction. Building awareness, starting a movement, hearing the children’s voices and those of their loved ones: we want to transform the experience of those impacted by mental health.
We are on a mission to ensure that no child has to lose out on a world of potential because of mental health. We don’t have magic wands, but we do believe that every child and family has the right to get services designed and delivered for their individual needs, and with love and imagination. Everyone has a right to have their story remembered and treated with curiosity and sensitivity.
We directly deliver imaginative, and carefully case managed services for children and young people with social, emotional, and mental health needs ( working in the intersectional needs of mental health and SEND). We do this through our work as a specialist non-school part time alternative provision for children with education, health and care plans (where this particular advertised role sits!) and through our Glow services where we provide a number of therapeutic projects such as our children’s listening helpline, Drop the Pressure, online mentoring projects such as Transitions, Game On and Remix, 1:1 counselling and mentoring in schools, and therapeutic mentoring workshops in schools as well as holiday groups in nature, and with cooking and a range of other activities. We believe that you can’t change outcomes without looking at issues holistically and thoughtfully. For us it’s about long-term change.
As one of our education and wellbeing practitioners on our non school part time alternative provision, you will be part of our amazing team always seeking to make three key differences for our children and young people:
Improved mental health / Reduced social isolation / Increased ability to thrive in education
Love Squared is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We foster a child-focused culture where the welfare of children is paramount.
All staff and volunteers are expected to share this commitment and uphold safeguarding best practice as part of their roles.
The Role:
We are looking for wonderful self-employed/ freelance practitioners based in Bristol able to work on home, community, and school based placements in the Bristol area. You will be providing imaginative and thoughtful tutoring and/or mentoring across a range of subjects, often with a specific focus on Maths, Sciences, English and other core subjects to support our amazing children and young people in our part time primary and secondary placements working in partnership with families, schools, and local authorities.
‘I am so grateful to you both for your support this year, having Love Squared work with my child has been transformational and so positive. She has grown in confidence and is so much happier, even with all her health challenges. The work you do really does change lives’.
This is a self-employed role and practitioners can choose which placements they want to accept with us although most of our practitioners work on a number of placements for us. We match the practitioners carefully to the individual child or young person and we do ask that you commit to your young people once placed; they really need you to be reliable for them, so if you are looking for something very short term this might not be the right fit for you …
‘The best thing is probably the persistence to not be given up on’
Payment rates are currently £27 per hour and payments are made for sessions that are not cancelled by the practitioner, and most placements are at least 2 hours long if not longer: Our average session length is actually around 3.5 hours, for example. (e.g. we would not be expecting you to travel for one hour!). Sessions often take place within family homes, the local communities or sometimes in schools or community based settings so you will need to be confident about working with children independently although you will be supported by our lovely case managers with regular contact points and a dedicated point of contact for sharing thoughts, ideas, worries and concerns. .
Some of our team are full-time professional tutors and/or mentors, but our placements can fit around other commitments, session lengths vary and you can accept as many of the placements that we offer you that you want. The placements tend to take place Monday - Friday mostly in school hours. This role is in our contracted services team, which works with local authorities and other commissioning bodies to provide part time education and wellbeing packages for young people who need specialist, thoughtful and personalised learning support, teaching and mentoring due to special educational and mental health needs.
What qualities and experience you need …
- 2+ years teaching/ tutoring/ education and mentoring experience working with secondary or primary age young people in core subjects, experienced in supporting children with mental health needs and SEND and SEMH. Whilst a QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) is desirable, it is not essential and Special Educational Needs and independent tutoring experience is so relevant.
- Understanding of effective lesson/ session planning and devising personalised and holistic learning programmes for young people that bring joy as well as tangible learning outcomes.
- Confidence in supporting emotional regulation, able to deploy trauma informed and/or therapeutic tactics in your practice, confident in how to respond to a child who might be feeling dysregulated or distressed in a session, and being able to personalise this to individual needs as well as understanding best practice approaches.
- An absolute commitment, to safeguarding best practice and a willingness to keep learning and reflecting on this and engage with regular safeguarding training and safeguarding processes as well as committing to abide by our values and code of conduct and behavioral framework, being able to have proactive and sensitive conversations with families and professionals with support from our case managers and safeguarding team always being empathic, curious, proactive and child focused.
- Up to date knowledge of mental health and SEND/ SEMH and passionate about best practice and ongoing learning and reflection.
- A track record for showing fantastic progress where you have made a significant difference in young people's outcomes, and
- Effective and warm communication skills and proven record of building wonderful relationships with young people, families and the people you work with.
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail to ensure relevant mandatory documents and reports are completed promptly and effectively, understanding why reliability and being committed to young people is so important.
- Understanding of risk assessment and health and safety and ability to be organised and effective about communicating and mitigating risks in a practical and thoughtful manner.
- Imaginative and creative problem-solving skills and ability to proactively adapt provision to best meet young person's needs.
- Willingness to go above and beyond for the young people and families that you work with, inspiring them to reach their full potential.
- A commitment to equality and diversity in a meaningful way.
- Ability to commit to placements once you’ve accepted a placement with a child/ young person.
- Happy to travel to placements in Bristol (and if you can go further out that is brilliant too!) as well as the ability to travel with young people for trips and activities when needed (please note we can fund travel with the children but we can’t fund your petrol costs/ other travel costs to get to your placements!).
- Up-to-date, or willing to obtain, current enhanced DBS check for working with children and vulnerable adults and be registered on the update service as well as undertake our other safer recruitment checks.
Most importantly …
You will align with our key values of:
- Love, imagination, Nurture, and Brave.
Our team commits to these in all their interactions and through our code of conduct and behavioural framework as part of our wider safeguarding culture and best practice which includes our wonderful self-employed practitioners!
So why work for us?
Our work is sometimes challenging and tender, but it is also enriching, rewarding, and well supported by a dedicated core team who are always looking for your vision and input into how we fulfil our social mission as we grow as a charity.
We run peer reflective practice sessions, offer free immediate access to our counselling services for additional support which currently includes access to 1:1 counselling (which does not have to be work related) as well as lots of training opportunities including advanced trauma training ( again please note we can only fund your time for delivered sessions but it does mean you get access to lots of wonderful training as a self employed practitioner). We facilitate social and networking opportunities within our practitioner community and our insurance covers all our self-employed practitioners during their work for us. We are also currently looking at increased pay for practitioners who continue to work with us for length of service ( e.g. after one year in a number of placements).
We want every practitioner to love working for us, feel part of a team, and feel like they are an ambassador for the charity, spreading the word about what we do and the impact we have, for the sake of the children and families we serve, and we will celebrate each and every achievement with you from the tiny ( they said ‘hello!’) to the big ones, as well as the tougher moments - we work as a team, supporting and nurturing each other.
If you have very limited availability, want a role with a commercial tutoring approach, and don’t align with our values, this might not be the right fit for you ( which doesn’t mean you are not amazing!). If you love our values, are happy being self-employed, and passionate about children’s mental health and tutoring and 1:1 SEND work this might be your dream role!
Most importantly, it’s this:
‘I never knew I could be so good at Maths and English.’
‘Your work has been life changing, and in each conversation we feel so listened to’
How to apply and some important things!
To apply, please email our administrator [email protected] to request an application form. We will then email you an application form to complete and send back to Tuesday!
An application form is required as part of the recruitment process (we can’t accept just a CV!) and any appointment to joining our practitioner team will involve appropriate safeguarding checks for regulated activity with children and adults in line with our safer recruitment process such as appropriate DBS and other relevant safer recruitment checks, as well as being able to demonstrate right to work in the UK and you would be required to sign up to the DBS update service and have or obtain an appropriate DBS check for working with children and vulnerable adults.
As this is a self employed role for experienced professionals, we are happy to support the process if a new DBS is required but the responsibility for payment of that DBS and then ensuring you remain on the update service stays with the applicant as it’s a requirement for the role ( as standard for self-employment). Please note that as a self-employed role, you are responsible for your own tax and national insurance as a self employed person and that you would be responsible for claiming back any work related expenses yourself.
We may also carry out proportional online searches on candidates who are shortlisted for interviews.
Please be aware that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. It is an offence to apply for the role if the applicant is barred from engaging in regulated activity relating to children.
Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a confidential self-declaration form of their criminal record and other relevant checks as part of our safer recruitment process. Please note that we operate a positive disclosure policy for cautions and convictions and historic convictions that are not related to offences against children or vulnerable adults, Love Squared would normally be willing to undertake a careful risk assessment with the applicant’s permission before coming to a decision about whether the application can be taken further.
The interview process will include more than one stage, beginning with a “getting to know you” conversation as part of our safer recruitment process in which we will ask about any gaps in your employment history and explore a bit more about you and also try and answer any questions you might have which is then followed by an interview which often has a written task component.
Due to capacity ( we are a busy charity with a small team!) we are so sorry ( and we really mean this) but we unfortunately cannot offer feedback to candidates who have not been shortlisted ( eg. where we don’t progress an application form to the next stage).
Please note we are a children’s charity not a commercial tutoring agency or a school. Please also note this role is for a self-employed position and this means that even after a successful recruitment process, we cannot provide guaranteed work or hours as we match to the individual needs of each child. However, we will also add that we work very hard to do this, and currently our team are all doing the hours they want, we just can’t guarantee this as we carefully match to the child and the practitioner. Please note that as a self-employed role we only fund delivery hours spent with the children, although we do fund sessions cancelled by the families ( so you still get paid if they are unwell for example), and always try to offer funded notice periods where placements are ending so you don’t suddenly lose hours.
We're committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applicants from under-represented groups, diverse backgrounds, and those who don't always get their voices heard. If you have any access requirements or need reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process, then please let us know, and we'll make every effort to ensure these are supported.
And Finally …
We are so excited to hear from you! If you think this sounds like you, please request an application form from [email protected] and get it back to us! If you feel like you want to explore more or that this role is not quite right for you but you are interested in following us as a charity or other opportunities such as volunteering on our brilliant children’s projects or just being involved in some way, please follow us on social media on instagram @lovesquaredcharity and find us on facebook as Love Squared (we will be launching some exciting things soon!) to stay updated and connected (and please do just follow us anyway!). Alternatively, just let Tuesday know if you are interested in learning more!
Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about this role and we really hope to hear from you soon!
Job Type: Freelance
Pay: £27.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
