Job Title: Senior Support Worker
Job Location: Barnstaple
Salary: £30,368.00 based on 40 hours per week, plus potential sleep-in allowance
Contract Type: Permanent
Will You Be There for Me?
Phoenix Learning & Care are looking for an experienced Senior Residential Support Worker to join the team in my home, and I wanted to share what that really means from my side of the story. Because someone like you could make all the difference in my world.
Sometimes, life feels really hard. I’ve been through things that make me feel sad, angry, or confused. And sometimes, those big feelings come out in ways I can’t always control. On those days, I need someone who understands that I’m not being difficult, I’m just trying to cope.
This job won’t always be easy. There will be tough moments, and I might test your patience. But when someone kind shows up, someone who listens, helps me feel safe, and makes me laugh, it’s like the sun comes out again.
We don’t need superheroes. We need people who care. People who show up every day, even when we’re having a bad one. People who help us with homework, cook dinner with us, and play silly games. People who remind us we’re not alone and it’s okay to have fun and be a child.
If you’re someone who’s good at helping others, who doesn’t give up easily, and who can make a house feel like a home, then maybe you’re the person we’ve been waiting for. You could be the one who helps us believe in ourselves again.
We might not always say what we feel, but we notice everything. We notice when you’re patient. When you’re kind. When you care.
So, if you’re thinking about joining the team, just know this: you won’t just be doing a job. You’ll be changing lives. You’ll be changing my life.
And I think that’s pretty amazing.
A day in the life of a Senior Support Worker will involve:
- Assisting the manager with recruitment, supervision, meetings, and inspections.
- Supporting children to have the best quality of life possible. Whether it be through baking at home, fun days out, or taking them on holiday. You could be doing anything from making sure the children have a healthy diet to going to Quince Honey Farm!
- Ensuring our children are kept safe and their plans are suitable for their needs. We’ll need you to help monitor their development by keeping our systems and records up to date. Don’t worry though, you’ll get all the training you need.
- Taking part in our on-call rota, averaging 1 on-call per week. You’ll get an additional allowance for this!
To be a successful Senior Support Worker, you’ll need:
- Patience, compassion, and resilience – The children you support may have experienced trauma, which may have an impact on their behaviour.
- Great communication skills – Both verbal and written communication is important in this role as you’ll be speaking to a lot of different people at different times and need to be able to update the children’s plans.
- A driving licence – Our children love to be out in the community. We need you to be able to drive them to where they need to go. We have the cars, you just need the licence.
- To be flexible – You’ll need to be able to sleep at the home during your shifts. The children need support 24 hours a day. This does mean you’ll be able to work your full week in 2-3 days!
- Ideally, you’ll hold a qualification in residential childcare. If you don’t it’s key that you have this within your first 2 years of working in the sector. We will pay for and support this if you don’t already hold it.
In return for your time, you’ll get:
- Holidays – You’ll get 28 days annual leave. You’ll still need to work on bank holidays if the rota requires.
- Pension scheme– Our pension scheme is based on you paying in 5%, and us adding 3%.
- Learning & Development Opportunities – We provide comprehensive learning opportunities for team members to develop themselves.
- Discounts – You’ll have access to brilliant discounts through the Blue Light Card and our own employee benefits platform.
- Wellbeing Support – Your wellbeing is always our priority. You’ll have access to mental health and wellbeing support. On top of this, our therapies team offers a six weekly confidential check in clinic, and group reflective practice sessions.
- Cycle2Work -The cycle to work scheme enables you to buy a bicycle at a discounted rate.
- DBS – As this role required you to have an enhanced DBS carried out, we will cover this cost.
- Sleep-in Allowance - You have the potential to earn up to an additional £6,183 per year, based on completing 10 sleep-in shifts per month - but these are not guaranteed.
- After 12 months service - You’ll be eligible for our Medicash scheme which covers a wide range of medical, health and wellbeing expenses (Including immediate access to a GP!). You’ll get life assurance paid at 2 x your annual salary, and even more high street discounts.
In line with safer recruitment guidelines, we will run an online check on the successful candidate. This can and may include any public social media profiles.
At Phoenix Learning and Care, we pride ourselves on our diverse workforce, and ensuring we have an inclusive environment for all our team members. We remain committed to ensuring our teams can bring their true selves to work without risk or fear of discrimination.
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