Project Lead

Project Lead (16929)

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: 37

Salary: £32,324

Closing Date: 3rd December 2023

Interview Date: TBC

Barnardo's are seeking a Project Lead to join the team delivering a highly regarded  Short Breaks service for children with disabilities, in the London Borough of Sutton. 

Barnardo's are ambitious for children with disabilities in Sutton and want to support all children to experience positive outcomes. Barnardo's basis and values are to work with hope, recognise the unique worth of every individual and encourage to children fulfil their potential and this service lives and breaths these values.

About the Role

The Short Breaks service provides group-based activities for children with disabilities aged 8-18 years. In this role you will be developing nurturing relationships to build on and promote children's independence, wellbeing, strengths, and capabilities. You will be creating safe and stimulating social environments, where children can develop friendships and take part in fun and engaging activities designed to support them to learn and develop skills that support their development towards adult life and independence. Most of all you will be able to provide children with a service they enjoy attending.  The service is also plays a vital role in providing families and carers respite from their caring responsibilities.

Groups are delivered every Saturday during term time and on a weekday during school holidays (pre-agreed within the staffing team before they are shared with families).  

The working pattern will include:

• Core group delivery on a Saturday between 9:45am-5:15pm (with 1 hour unpaid lunch), term time only with a non working day in the week
• Core group delivery on a pre-agreed weekday between 9:45am-5:15pm (with 1 hour unpaid lunch) during school holidays, Monday to Friday working pattern
• Occasional targeted outreach support in the community supporting children against individual targets/goals to improve their independence skills

This role is subject to an enhanced children and adult DBS check.

About You

Previous experience working with children with disabilities is required for this role, alongside experience managing or leading a service and people.

We would love to hear from you if you are someone who works with ambition, dignity, respect and compassion for children with disabilities, and someone who shows reliability, tenacity, creativity and resilience. You will be able to evidence your ability to deliver and contribute to a high-quality service for children through planning activities against individual support plans, assessing risk and following safeguarding procedures. Alongside this, you will be able to demonstrate your ability to foster positive, professional and meaningful relationships with children with disabilities, their families, staff and professionals. These skills along with your child-led, person-centred and wellbeing focused approach should be evidenced in your application. 

It is helpful, but not essential (as training can be provided) if you have skills or experience in communication tools (such as Picture Exchange Communication or Makaton) and/or in moving and handling.    

Please Note:

Specific training will be provided for meeting particular care needs of children, as required.  

This role requires the post holder to be physically able to safely carry out work and caring duties with children with disabilities.

Although this contract has a permanent status, please be aware that this post is subject to funding.  Therefore, should this funding not be extended further, you may be subject to a redundancy consultation or a TUPE arrangement. 

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 also refer to your safeguarding knowledge, experience and training, with scenarios or examples of how this has been applied, in particular safeguarding children with SEND.

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.

For an informal discussion about this role, you can call Stephanie Hall, Children's Services Manager, on 07519 294409, or email stephanie.hall@barnardos.org.uk - Stephanie is the recruiting manager for this vacancy

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. 

Our basis and values