Permanent (full-time and part-time) and Casual opportunities available Salary for full time roles 17,372 to 22,937 Salary for part time roles will be pro-rated Payment for casual work is 9.00 to 11.89 per hour (plus an enhancement for unsocial and weekend hours) Exact details of all the jobs available are provided in the attachment below called 'Current vacancies and contact details'. These posts are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Please note: We will be reviewing applications as they are received and interviewing for positions on an on-going basis. West Sussex County Council (WSCC) operates 7 residential units for children and young people. These homes have been rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted in recent inspections Two of the homes (Seaside and Teasel) provide medium- to long-term care for non-disabled children between the ages of around 10 and 16, supporting them to move on to a foster family, return home to their birth family, or helping them to prepare for semi- or fully-independent living, depending on their care plan. Four of the units provide services to children with severe learning disabilities, with three (Cissbury Lodge, Orchard House and High Trees) providing full-time, shared and short breaks care to children aged between approximately 8 and 18. Cissbury Lodge is specifically adapted to meet the needs of young people who have additional physical disabilities and can provide care to children with complex health needs. May House provides care for children between 8 and 12 on admission for periods of up to 18 months. The children accessing the service have complex learning disabilities high levels of challenging and complex needs and are at risk of exclusion from existing social care and educational resources. A multi-disciplinary team supports them to be able to be able to once again access local services and reduce the risk of needing to be placed in an external, often distant, placement. Beechfield is a 7 bedded secure children’s home for young people placed by local authorities nationally who need welfare (rather than youth justice) secure accommodation. In all of our homes, we care for some of the most vulnerable and challenging children.

As a Child Care Officer you will be working with children and young people with complex emotional needs and/or disabilities who often present challenging behaviour. You will need an appropriate understanding of young people’s needs, reasons behind behaviours and a non-judgmental attitude. You will need to have a good level of resilience to cope with this challenging but rewarding role. We are looking for people who are able to show care, understanding, flexibility and appropriate professional boundaries as well as being able to work as a part of a team. Whilst the needs of individual children are unique and will vary in each home, you will be working to help them achieve their potential every day. As well as supporting day-to-day living: getting up and off to school, back from school, relaxing, going out and/or doing activities, eating dinner, getting ready for bed and settling to sleep, you will be helping them achieve longer term targets to develop their self-help, independence skills, reducing risk taking and harmful behaviours, and improving long term outcomes for those in our care. You will need to have or develop a wide range of skills from defusing tense situations to managing challenging behaviour, dealing with personal care, persevering with and joining in with different activities, providing good quality recording and reports on young people, attending meetings and contributing to the development of their care plans. We know this is not an easy task, and as such have strong relationships with a range of partner organisations and colleagues to support our work, including social work colleagues, CAMHS, CLA nurses, other specialist health colleagues, the police, substance misuse workers, specialist interventions around Child Sexual Exploitation, etc. We recognise that our staff are our most valuable resource and offer high levels of support and an extensive training pathway (including Level 3 Diploma) to ensure our teams are equipped to meets the needs and challenges of the children we care for. We are constantly striving to improve our practice and the services we offer to children. Two of our homes have recently been part of a DfE funded pilot of a residential childcare training programme, there are currently a range of innovative developments across the service and children in our care were consulted by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner around the draft Children’s Homes Regulations before they came into force in April 2015. If you are interested in finding out more about these opportunities, please contact the manager at your preferred unit using the contact details provided on the 'Current vacancies and contact details' document. We would be happy for you to visit us to find out about the jobs in more detail and talk to some of our current team members. When you are ready to apply for one of our vacancies, you will need to download the application form below, complete it and return it directly to the manager at your chosen unit. You can do this by email, by post or feel free to drop off your completed application form by hand. We look forward to hearing from you.