Casual Home Care Support Worker Children's Residential Establishments

Casual Residential Care Officers needed to work with children and young people aged 5-18 with disabilities and/or challenging behaviour in residential and respite settings.

This position offers an exciting and challenging opportunity for anyone interested in a career with children with disabilities.

Brighton and Hove City Council provides respite and full-time residential care through three care homes in the city. Our homes offer a wide range of leisure activities as well as social and learning opportunities such shopping, cooking and independent travel.

Tudor House

The young people staying at Tudor House all have a learning disability. Some have additional needs such as a physical disability or a diagnosis of autism (ASD). Supporting young people at Tudor House may involve a higher level of personal care, some hoisting and assistance with mealtimes.

Tudor House: Kathy Egan 01273 296190, Kathy.Egan@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Drove Road

The young people staying at Drove Road all have a learning disability, and a diagnosis of autism. They need support managing their emotions and behaviour. Supporting young people at Drove Road involves varying degrees of personal care, promoting independence and a significant degree of managing challenges such as an individual hurting themselves as well as aggression towards staff and other young people.

Drove Road: 01273 295320, simon.kinyua@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Rainbow Lodge

Rainbow Lodge is a children’s home in Woodingdean which provides full time care to children and young people between the ages of 5 and 17. The young people that live at Rainbow Lodge will have learning disabilities and complex needs, and some may have behaviours that challenge. We are an enthusiastic welcoming team who are striving to provide our young people with a warm and nurturing home environment where they feel safe and cared for and encouraged to reach their full potential.

Rainbow Lodge: 01273296950, marcos.maroto@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Shift Pattern: 7-11 and 2-9.30 during the week term time,

and 7-2pm, 2.00-9.15 weekends and school holidays.

Interview date: To be confirmed.

Job Introduction

As a member of the team, you will:-

• Be committed to providing opportunities for inclusion of the young people within the service and out in the community.
• Support individuals to communicate verbally and non-verbally via communication aids.
• Have experience of working with people with disabilities or an interest in this area.
• Be able to manage challenging behaviour in a calm and professional manner.
• Be able to support young people with complex needs in all aspects of their daily living.
• Work on a casual basis, including weekends and evenings, to complete daily tasks and ensure high standards within the home.

Casual Residential care workers are allocated to one or more services according to their skills, interests and the level of need of each service. Candidates will ideally have some experience of supporting children although it is not essential. Availability and flexibility is important.

We encourage applications from people without prior professional experience but with an interest in working with Children and Young People with Disabilities.

Joining the relief team is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to explore a career in this area

Team members are supported with supervision and training.

Please note: Successful candidates will be required to attend a minimum of 2.5 days of mandatory training or provide proof of equivalent training.

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).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
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 provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/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 Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

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

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

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.

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