Job Title: Short Breaks Worker
Hourly Rate: £14.79- £15.88 per hour
Hours: 10:45am to 3:15pm every Saturday during term time (choice of 9, 18 or 36 week contract)
Reporting To: Short Breaks Manager
Location: Fortune Green Playcentre, West Hampstead – Sessions will be delivered in Fortune Green and some Offsite trips in local community.
Training: Candidates will be given a full induction and relevant training

Key Purpose and context:

Upon joining PACE, you will help to build the reputation of our established organisation by contributing to the delivery of truly inclusive services and striving for excellence.

Your primary responsibilities will be supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) aged 12-18 years old at Fortune Green Play Centre and in the local community, providing short breaks for the families coping with the demands of caring for their child/ young person who has additional needs.

The Main Purpose of the Job:

• Provide child centred care which contributes to the child/young person who have SEND living within their family, promotes social inclusion, independence, and empowerment
• To ensure that children have the opportunity to explore a wide range of positive physical activities and experiences.

Main Responsibilities:

• Provide regular, planned periods of short breaks to families/carers of children/young people who have SEND and other complex individual needs, as agreed with the parents/carers.
• Supporting, encouraging, and enhancing children with SEND needs in their homes or in the local community, depending on the individual care and social needs of the child/young person.
• To be able to quickly respond to situations that could lead to danger for the children and young people or other staff members.
• Service provision will need to be made up of a wide range of physical activities, there is a structure and routine that must be followed to support the personal care, social, emotional, and intellectual care.
• Maintain the usual routine of those children being cared for during the short break period. This could include assisting with activities such as physical activities, local community trips, picking up and dropping young people home using different transport methods.
• Using a wide range of visual aids to support the needs of child and young people e.g., Visual cues, social stories, Makaton, now and next boards etc
• Engage with the child/young person in activities outside the home, which the child/young person has identified they would like to take part in.
• Develop and maintain excellent relationships with children, young people and families who use the service
• Create and contribute to a working culture and practices that recognise, respect and value difference.
• Work respectfully with children and their families and responding positively to diversity. • Implement safeguarding, health and safety policies and procedures and conduct site and equipment inspections to check that they are fit for purpose and report any maintenance issues or risks to the line manager.
• Undertake individual risk/benefit assessments and ensure that children are supported in their play to take safe risks and acquire the skills for self-managed risk assessment.
• Support children with any personal needs i.e., toileting, feeding and administer medication/treatments in line with PACE’s ethos and policies ensuring the child’s rights to respect and dignity.
• Provide behaviour management strategies that fit the different needs of all young people • The ability to think on your feet and stay calm in stressful situations
• To input ideas and creative activities to support the service needs
• Attending staff training, team meeting and core personal development days
• Undertake any other duties as may be required from time to time.

Person Specification

Essential requirements of the post:
1. Experience and Qualifications
• Experience of working with children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties
• Experience of working with children with complex learning difficulties, emotional, behavioural and communication difficulties and those with autistic spectrum continuum (ASC)

2. Knowledge and Understanding
• Understanding of the importance of person-centred care, empowering children and maintain their dignity at all times.
• The ideal candidate needs to have understanding of good practice working with children with severe ASD, complex needs and challenging behaviour.
• Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, health and safety policies and procedures and the professional confidence to implement them appropriately.

3. Skills and Abilities
• To work effectively with children and young people, parents, carers and professionals.
• To communicate with people in a form and manner that is consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred way of communicating.
• The ability to work independently and use initiative.
• An ability to reflect on own practice with an objective eye to further develop professional practice and ability to advocate for the need of children’s with SEND.

4. Personal Qualities
• Flexibility and the ability to vary, change and adapt and differentiate according to young people’s needs.
• Strong team player
• Patience, calming and display empathy
• A child centred attitude
• Caring and understanding
• Optimistic, reliable, and enthusiastic
• Being proactive and willing
• Sense of humour
• Effective communication
• Consistency
• Good organisational and time management skills
• Self-awareness and able to acknowledge own limitations in terms of knowledge, skills and experience.

5. Desirable
• Experience of caring for children with complex medical needs including use of manual handling aids, feeding aids and administration of medication.
• A relevant Cache/NVQ Level 2 or above qualification in play, childcare or equivalent.
• Accredited training in Team-teach
• First Aid qualification and Food Hygiene certificate.

To apply for the Short Breaks Worker post, please email Dominque Stewart dstewart@paceforall.com