Senior Youth Practitioner

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About The Role

Dorset is committed to creating environments for our children and young people to thrive. This is an exciting opportunity to join our new service as a Senior Youth Practitioner, providing care and support to children and young people initially in a residential setting working with a small staff team and subsequently working across our communities and in homes to improve the lives of our children.

The priorities for our Dorset children are; that they stay in Dorset, which is the best place for them to live, that they are given the best start in life through good care provision and the best education and training opportunities, which enable them to thrive and be the best they can be.

The role of Senior Youth Practitioner is to ensure a safe and nurturing environment in which children and young people can thrive and develop self-reliance in reaching their potential. The work will include some evening, weekend work including sleep-ins for which there is an allowance and bank holidays. We are a flexible employer and would welcome a discussion around a variety of hours to be mutually agreeable.

At the harbour, we never give up. No matter what, we stick with the child. Our service is designed to wrap around a child's needs, rather than trying to make them fit around ours. We have an evidence informed approach to risk and we are heavily invested in a supportive working environment, including a whole team development plan above and beyond mandatory requirements. We have a multi-agency integrated through co-location, sharing of learning and tasks. Our children are helped by people who make things happen.

What you can expect to be doing:

You will be passionate and aspirational in supporting young people through a variety of activities which will help you build a strong and resilient relationship which will be sustained. Activities will include introducing children and young people to new environments, sports and leisure as well as supporting them in education training and employment and promoting a clean safe and nurturing home environment in which they can develop skills for independence.

You will form positive relationships with our children, young people and families and together, work productively with partner agency and allocated social workers to identify and achieve the best outcomes for our children. You will work to mend relationships and reunify families when appropriate to do so. You will be aspirational in outlook and flexible in delivery, to promote growth, learning and responsibility. You will be able to work autonomously and as part of a team responding flexibly to dynamic situations. We are aspirational for our staff as well as our children.

You will be joining a supportive and inclusive Council who will provide nurture and invest in you to enable you to thrive in your job. A comprehensive training programme is available in addition to the mandatory training, to enable your professional growth and development.

About you:

• You will be a kind and caring person with a passion for improving lives, be aspirational in attitude and resilient and flexible in approach.
• Hold QCF level 3 Health and social Care or equivalent.
• Good level of education including good numeracy and literacy skills
• High quality recording and report writing skills.
• Experience and resilience working with children and young people and managing risk, including children showing challenging behaviours.
• Ability to work flexibly across a range of settings.
• Proven effectiveness of direct work with families.
• Have a proven track record of problem-solving skills.
• Be skilled in forming and maintaining relationships with young people.
• Have a proven ability to find innovative solutions.
• Have good communication, interpersonal negotiation and advocacy skills.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of key childcare legislation.
• Have strong team working and leadership skills.
• Have experience in a supervisory role.
• Have skills and a proven track record in inter-agency collaboration.
• Have effective IT skills to use the recording systems.
• Be willing to undertake training.
• Be an excellent role model for staff, children and young people.

Further Information

You must be able to work some evenings, weekends and bank holidays. As a 24hr service we are a flexible employer and would welcome a discussion around a variety of hours to be mutually agreeable, be it weekend only, part-time, full time etc.

This post requires travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders .

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people .

About Us

We're passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents.
• have ambitious aspirations.
• are excited about our future.
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success.

You will:

have access to a range of employee benefits

• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progressio n
• We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.
• We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.
• We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.
• We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours . We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders .

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people .

See our adult safeguarding policy .

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn .

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply .