Job title: Senior Key Worker
£28-35,000 per annum (depending on experience)
Location: Carney’s Community, 30 Petworth St, SW11 4QW and some local travel for work in the community. Some home working allowed by agreement, after successful completion of probation period.
Responsible to: CEO
Responsible for: Key workers
Contract: Full time, 37.5 hours/ week. 3 year contract based on funding currently secured.
Benefits: Workplace pension in line with current legislation, 28 days annual leave including statutory public holidays, 3 month probationary period. Training will be provided.
Organisation
Carney’s Community’s services are targeted at disadvantaged young people aged 11 to 30 who come from deprived backgrounds in Wandsworth, Lambeth and the surrounding areas. Our aim is to reduce offending, re-offending and anti-social behaviour in the area, whilst improving social mobility and community cohesion. We aim to build the self-discipline, self-esteem, confidence and employability of young people to reduce offending and anti-social behaviour and enable disadvantaged young people to reach their full potential. We engage young people in positive and constructive activity (including boxing) whilst providing intensive, long-term and consistent one-to-one mentoring which offers unconditional support with empathy. Overall, we believe that by empowering young people through these activities, focusing on their strengths and learning from each other, they can improve their future opportunities, and the local community.
Our home is Carney’s Community Centre, which houses a boxing gym, youth club, music studio, bike workshop, kitchen, and our offices. We run our sessions here, and also support some older participants to organise new activities and businesses of their own.
Role Overview
As part of the Carney’s team, your role will be to oversee all key work activity at Carney’s Community. This includes one to one, group work and supervision of a small team of key workers. You will work closely with the CEO to develop, manage and deliver these services. It will provide you with the opportunity to put your mark on the work we deliver and make the role your own.
You will provide advice, practical support and befriending to a caseload of participants, aged 11-30, who are at risk of offending or social exclusion; to encourage and enable them to participate in Carney’s Community’s personal development opportunities and to access the wider services and support they may need in order to give them the best chances of being “the best they can be”.
This will involve supporting young people to engage in positive and constructive activities, attend YOT/Probation appointments and creating opportunities for their personal, social and emotional development. As the work we deliver is holistic, it is a great opportunity to network with our partners in the youth justice system, probation, HMPs, local authority and voluntary sector. You will arrange workshops for young people on appropriate topics like employability skills e.g. CV building and interview skills. You will be committed to ensuring that provision is accessible and relevant to the target group regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability and social background.
The person who takes on this role, will also work to develop and grow a small team of key workers. You will develop the staff team to support them to build key work skills. This will help us reach our goal to increase our capacity and build on the support we offer to those most in need. We are looking for someone with significant experience of key work and who wants to grow and develop. For a hardworking and committed candidate there is the possibility to develop to Lead Key Worker.
Carney’s Community is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants who meet the requirements of the role will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or marital status. Having said that, our community of participants is made up of over 50% black young people so we particularly encourage black applicants to apply for this role to help improve representation on our team to reflect the community we serve.
Job Description:
This role supports all key work and the key working function at Carney’s Community.
Management
- Supervise a small team of key workers.
- Undertake regular supervision meetings, annual appraisals and create development plans with each
team member. - Recruitment, induction, development and training of staff
- Ensure staff work within policies and procedures for the organisation
- Developing programmes and oversight of delivery through the staff team
- Oversight of expenditure for key work
- Responsible for all monitoring and evaluation activity required for key work
- Report to trustees on progress
- Contribute to strategic development of Carney’s Community
Individual work with participants
- Develop effective 1:1 working relationships with a group of at-risk participants, their families/carers and provide intensive, individual support and mentoring. This may involve outreach and a range of other youth work strategies to engage the interest of young people and families;
- Work with each participant through their Personal Development Plans to identify barriers to their achievement and personal development and set individual goals to support learning or personal development targets and action plans, monitor reviews and celebrate progress towards these targets;
- Keep in regular contact with keywork participants, through appointments and informally, and provide ongoing advice, practical support and encouragement to enable them to participate in positive and constructive activities and a range of informal learning and personal development opportunities.
- Research and provide participants with information on learning, training and career options and support available to them, referring to other services and specialists where needed;
- Support participants as they move between school, college and work; oversee off-site learning for those at risk of dropping out, support participants learning outside mainstream education;
- Link young people to appropriate organisations according to their individual needs and accompany
them to interviews and events; - Take appropriate actions to negotiate with and advocate for the participants to overcome barriers and
achieve individual goals; - Carry out home visits and provide information and advice to the families of the identified participants;
- Maintain accurate, up to date records of case work, record and monitor participant’s progress and outcomes and supply information to relevant partners, and input into Carney’s database, Views.
Group work and work with partner agencies
- Network with a wide range of specialist organisations and agencies e.g. education providers, health and specialist services, Youth Justice Service, probation and voluntary groups;
- In collaboration with other Carney’s staff, link key worked participants into group activities during holiday and after school/ college hours.
- Work with partner agencies to ensure effective targeting and referrals of participants to the programme; set up approaches to involve the hard-to-reach including liaison with estate and community based workers and outreach direct to young people;
- Help monitor and evaluate the success of the programme, providing written reports when required;
- Enable participants to effectively contribute to programme design, delivery and evaluation.
General duties
- Attend regular supervision and team meetings as agreed with line manager
- Carry out all duties in accordance with our Equal Opportunities policy, actively promoting equality and seeking to prevent and overcome disadvantage and discrimination.
- Use IT to do research, produce reports and correspondence, keep statistics and undertake all admin required for the post.
- Ensure that legislation relating to the health safety is complied with at all times
- Maintain appropriate boundaries and confidentiality with participants, staff and volunteers.
- Attend training events and undertake other professional development
- To understand the duties and responsibilities arising from the Children Act 2004 and Working Together in relation to safeguarding children and young people as this applies to your role.
- Be fully aware of safeguarding principles relating to vulnerable adults.
- Promptly update line manager of any concerns in relation to safeguarding
- Work within the policies and processes set out by Carney’s Community.
- Any other tasks that are requested of you by the CEO or COO which reasonably fit within your capabilities and broad role description.
Person Specification
Essential
- Proven experience of project based youth and/ or key work delivery.
- Clear commitment to the aims and objectives of Carney’s Community.
- Some experience of supervising staff, including providing support, direction and motivation.
- A proven track record of successful work with vulnerable youth including offenders or those at-risk.
- Contemporary understanding of safeguarding issues – both in theory and in practice.
- Excellent people skills, able to set clear boundaries and offer mediation in various settings.
- Good working knowledge of IT systems (including Word and Excel).
- Excellent organisational and administrative skills.
- The ability to work under pressure, with minimal supervision and to prioritise a varied workload.
- A resourceful approach with a high level of initiative.
- Capacity to analyse problems and find solutions.
- A confident and assertive personality, with an aptitude to work with humour, tact and diplomacy.
- A track record of being punctual and reliable.
- The ability to empathise and mediate for young people
- Suitable level 4 or degree level qualifications (e.g. Social Work, Youth and Community) or equivalent
experience. - Able to work flexible hours including regular Monday and Wednesday evenings and occasional weekend work.
Desirable
- Risk management experience
- Knowledge of health and safety and first aid
Terms and Conditions
Pension: We will offer a workplace pension in line with the current legislation.
Annual Leave: 28 days including statutory public holidays pro rata for days worked.
Application Process: Your application should be made using the form provided. Please address all aspects of the person specification in the key competencies section. CVs will not be considered.
Senior Key Worker application form
Senior Key Worker job specification
Please send these to: alice.miltondoyle@carneyscommunity.org
This post is offered subject to an enhanced DBS check, references and right-to-work checks.
Closing date: Sunday 19th March.
Please note we are looking for someone to start as soon as possible, so please apply straight away, rather than waiting for the closing date, and we will close the post once we find someone suitable
