Jobs

FAQs on Care Roles in CSF

Residential Posts – Don’t be put off by the title, you don’t live in!

Residential work involves helping children and young people make sense of their past experiences. We work with them to provide stimulating and enjoyable experiences as well as assisting and supporting them in reaching their potential with regard to their social, educational and health development. We aim to provide them with good adult role models and assist them in securing positive attachments with other people, hopefully to achieve a positive and controllable future.

1. What will I be expected to do?

Child Care Worker & Waking Night Child Care Worker Posts
The Children’s Residential Care Service provides care for children and young people who are looked after by Hertfordshire County Council. The overall aim of the service is to provide care of the highest quality that allows children and young people to feel safe and nurtured. We have consistent policies, procedures and management across all homes / service. The Children and young people in our homes are aged 5 – 18 years.

There are 7 different homes that make up the service, each with its own set of tasks and functions. Two of our homes help children with disabilities through both respite and long term care.

2. What are the hours of the work? What time would I start/finish/have breaks?

All children’s homes operate 24 hours / 7 days per week service, 365 days a year.
Child Care Workers; You will be required to work a shift rota of 7am – 3pm / 2.00pm – 11.00 pm.
You will also be required to ‘sleep in’, on the premises on a rota basis. You will also be required to work 2 in 3 weekends, and bank holiday working is included as part of the normal shift rota.

Waking Night Workers; Your work starts at 10pm to 8am. These hours may slightly vary from home to home.
(Any further details required on shift working patterns can be answered at interview stage, as they are dependent on each home's particular working pattern. However, the shift hours will only vary slightly from the times given above).

3. How flexible can I be in emergencies, e.g. if my child is ill?

The County Council recognises that caring and parenting affects most employees at some stage. The Council is committed to helping its employees to find ways of successfully combining varied and often unpredictable caring responsibilities with their day to day work.

Whilst the needs of the service are paramount we do our best to be flexible and accommodate peoples needs.

4. What are the career development or training opportunities?

We are committed to you as an employee of HCC and therefore will give you all the support, encouragement and development you need to enable you to reach your full potential whilst giving the best possible care to children and young people.

We offer a two week induction to all new employees to help you settle in to the authority and find out everything you need to know. Once you start your job, we continue to support your training and development and help you to provide the best service to our children and young people through a comprehensive package of training courses, e.g. Child Protection, Communicating with Children, Keeping Safe (appropriate restraint handling), First Aid, Food Hygiene, Medication Administration etc. Children’s Residential also has a Learning & Development Officer dedicated to them.

You will be expected to undertake NVQ Level 3, ‘Caring for Children and Young People’, within the first 6 months of starting the post. This training is fully funded by CSF.

In addition to this you receive a monthly one to one meeting in private with a line manager, to discuss how things are going. An annual review takes place each year (sometimes called an appraisal) and a personal development plan based on your learning and development needs is produced.

5. What are the team working opportunities?

In our residential homes, all of our staff work within a structured and supportive team environment. Weekly staff meetings take place in all of our homes along with daily shift hand overs. You will be working on your own as well as working closely, and supportively, as a member of a committed team.

6. What is the salary/pay?

Child Care Worker & Waking Night Child Care Worker;

• The hourly rate of pay starts at £7.77 per hour (basic) rising to £10.25 per hour.
• Hourly rate for weekend working starts at £8.21 per hour to £10.59 per hour.
• Shift allowance paid for hours worked from 10pm) starts at £10.36 per hour rising to £13.67 per hour.

Waking Night Worker;

• The hourly rate of pay starts at £5.70 per hour rising to £6.26 per hour (basic).
• Hourly rate for weekend working starts at £6.07 per hour to £6.39 per hour.
• Shift working (hours worked from 10pm) starts at £7.60 per hour to £8.34 per hour.

7. How much annual leave would I be entitled to?

22 days per year, rising to 30 (depending on your grade and how long you have worked with us,) plus all 8 bank holidays and 1 statutory day, per annum.

8. What other benefits do you offer, e.g. pension, etc?

You would be eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme which is contributory and employees contribute 6% of their salary and the employer contributes 17.1% of your salary. This means that for every £100 you earn, you pay £6 and the County Council pays £17.10 into the pension fund.

HCC also offers employees a number of voluntary benefits, e.g. childcare assistance, healthcare plan, travel insurance and gym membership.