Job title: Lead Key worker
£28-35,000 per annum
Location: Carney’s Community centre at 30 Petworth St, Battersea, SW11 4QW. The post will also involve working in the community so some local travel will be required.
Responsible to: CEO
Responsible for: Key work program and 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.
Application form: Download here – Carney’s Community application form
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 lead on and 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.
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. 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 systems and training to support the team of key workers. You will work to develop the staff team to support them to build key work skills. Our current goal is to increase our capacity and approach to key work, to develop the staff team’s capabilities in this area and build on the support we offer to those most in need.
It is essential that the candidate has proven experience of project based youth/key work delivery. The ability to empathise and mediate for young people is crucial. The appointed candidate will have a strong understanding of the local area, barriers facing young people, the interplay between material disadvantage, vulnerability and social exclusion and be highly skilled in diplomacy, professional distance, demonstrating empathy, boundaries and sound judgement.
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 our representation on our management team to reflect the community we serve.
Job Description:
This role has overall responsibility for all key work and the key working function at Carney’s Community.
Management
- Manage 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
- Budget oversight 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 one-to-one working relationships with an identified 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 the identified participants, through arranged 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. This will involve taking on the role of the lead professional for a certain number of young people on the caseload;
- Research and provide participants with information on the range of 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 or under achieving, be a source of support over issues that arise from participants learning outside main stream education;
- Link young people to appropriate organisations according to their individual needs and accompany them on visits 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 Offending Team, probation and voluntary and community 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;
- Create methods through which people participating in the programme can effectively and fully take part in the design, delivery and evaluation of the programme.
General duties
- Attend regular supervision and team meetings as agreed with line manager
- Carry out all duties in accordance with Carney’s Community’s Equal Opportunities policy, actively promoting equality and seeking to prevent and overcome disadvantage and discrimination.
- Work flexibly across the service, assisting the CEO as commensurate and necessary.
- Use information technology to research information, produce reports and correspondence, keep statistics and oversee all administrative arrangements required
- Ensure that legislation relating to the health safety and protection of young people, staff and the general public 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 be fully aware of and understand the duties and responsibilities arising from the Children Act 2004 and Working Together in relation to child protection and safeguarding children and young people as this applies to your role within the organisation.
- To also be fully aware of the principles of safeguarding as they apply to vulnerable adults in relation to your work role.
- To ensure that your line manager is made aware and kept fully informed of any concerns which you may have in relation to safeguarding and/or child protection
- In this role, close attention must be paid to requirements of data protection and safeguarding.
- Work within the policies and processes set out by Carney’s Community.
- Any other tasks that are requested of you by the CEO which reasonably fit within your capabilities and broad role description.
Person Specification
Essential
- Clear commitment to the aims and objectives of Carney’s Community.
- Experience of managing a team of staff, including experience of providing support, direction and motivation to staff.
- A proven track record of successfully working with vulnerable youth and young adults including offenders or those at risk of offending or those deemed to be vulnerable.
- Contemporary understanding of safeguarding issues – both in theory and in practice.
- Excellent people skills. You will be a strong negotiator, able to set clear boundaries and ready to offer mediation in a variety of 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 and demanding workload.
- A resourceful, pro-active approach with a high level of initiative. Capacity to analyse problems and identify solutions.
- A confident and assertive personality, with an aptitude to work with humour, tact and diplomacy.
- A track record of being punctual and reliable. Proven ability to be compassionately present for young people with complex needs.
- Suitable level 4 or degree level qualifications (e.g. Social Work, Youth and Community)
- Able to work flexible hours including some evening and weekend work.
Desirable
- Risk management and health and safety experience
- Knowledge of both health and safety and first aid. (Training in current regulations and practice will be offered to the successful applicant).
Terms and Conditions
Hours: This is a full time post, 37.5 hours/ week.
Contract: This is a three-year contract subject to a three month probationary period.
Salary: £28,000 -35,000 per annum.
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.
This post is offered subject to an enhanced DBS check, references and right-to-work checks.
Application Process: Your application should be made using the form provided, please also include a covering letter. CVs will not be considered.
Please send these to: alex.bowles@carneyscommunity.org
Closing date: 18/02/22
