WHAT THE WORK ACTUALLY IS

Some days it is board games, cooking, long walks, and getting someone back into a classroom for the first time in months. On other days a young person will be in real distress, and the job is to stay calm, stay close and stay kind until it passes.

The staff in our homes may be sworn at. Sometimes the words will be chosen to wound, and that can include discriminatory and racist language. It is never acceptable and it is never ignored, but it is understood for what it is: a child who has learned that hurting people is how you get their attention.

Every colleague who experiences this is debriefed, backed up, and never asked to carry it on their own. Teaching people how to do all of that, and how to keep themselves and the child safe while they do it, is your job.

WHAT WE ARE NOT

We do not run zero-tolerance homes. Reaching for the police every time a young person loses their temper hands them a criminal record and teaches them nothing. We work to the National Protocol on Reducing Unnecessary Criminalisation of Looked-after Children and Care Leavers: police involvement when it is genuinely needed, never as a substitute for good practice.

Nor do we run homes without boundaries. Expectations are clear, consequences are proportionate and explained in advance, and every one of them is followed by repair. Children feel safest with adults who mean what they say.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Become our certified in-house trainer. We will fund you through a train-the-trainer programme with an accredited provider certified against the Restraint Reduction Network Training Standards. You will then deliver initial and refresher courses in de-escalation, positive behaviour support and, only where it is ever needed, safe physical intervention (the management of violence and aggression) to support workers, nurses and the other professionals in our multidisciplinary teams, and keep your own certification current.
• Bring our policies to life. Design and deliver sessions, over Teams and face to face, that turn our behaviour management, safeguarding, missing-from-home, recording, complaints and online-safety policies into what staff actually do, grounded in the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015, the Quality Standards and what Ofsted expects to see in practice.
• Run induction. Lead the structured induction to the PACE model and our practice framework for every new starter, and support care workers towards the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare within the timescale the Regulations require.
• Own the training matrix. Keep every home’s mandatory training current, recorded and ready for inspection, and report gaps and progress to the Head of Practice and Quality.
• Train teams around one child. When a home is built for a child, help the team understand that child’s plan, triggers and what helps, before the child moves in and as the plan changes.
• Reduce restraint. Review incident, restraint and debrief data with the Head of Practice and Quality, feed the learning back into your courses, and coach in the homes, on shift, where practice actually happens.
• Teach on our development programme for Nominated Managers and Nominated Responsible Individuals, so that the people who will lead our new homes learn practice from someone who has done it.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

You come from children’s residential care, with a Local Authority, Ofsted or a provider, and you have current, working knowledge of the sector: the Regulations, the Quality Standards, what Ofsted looks for and why. You are passionate about teaching, about helping people become a better version of themselves in this environment, and about the difference that makes to a child. Whether you already train, or lead a team and know you should, we want to hear from you.

• Experience in children’s residential care at manager level, or as a practice, quality or training lead in Local Authority children’s services.
• Experience of delivering training, induction or coaching to care staff, and the presence to hold a room, and a Teams call, for a full day.
• Level 3+ Diploma for Residential Childcare or equivalent; a teaching qualification such as the Level 3 Award in Education and Training, and an existing physical intervention trainer certification, are an advantage, not a requirement.
• Understanding of trauma-informed, relationship-based practice and the PACE model, and of restraint reduction, including the requirements on the use and recording of restraint in children’s homes.
• Willing to complete the train-the-trainer programme and annual re-certification, and physically able to demonstrate and teach physical skills safely; reasonable adjustments will be discussed.
• Based in Devon or willing to relocate; full UK driving licence and willing to travel, with occasional overnight stays, for face-to-face courses.

BEFORE YOU APPLY

This post involves regulated activity with children and is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Appointment is subject to an enhanced DBS check including a check of the children’s barred list, and to the full pre-employment checks required by Schedule 2 to the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, send your CV with a short covering letter that tells us about one person you trained or coached who became better at this work because of it, and what you learned from them.

OUR COMMITMENT

Frontline Social Care is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects every colleague to share that commitment. We practise safer recruitment. We are committed to anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice in the care we provide and in how we recruit, and we welcome applications from people with lived experience of care. Reasonable adjustments will be made throughout the recruitment process on request.