Children's Residential Team Leader (Senior Practitioner) (reference: SCC/TP/288898/3950)

Surrey County Council; Walton-on-Thames; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government organization in Walton-on-Thames seeks a Senior Practitioner to lead a children's residential team. This role offers the chance to directly support children while guiding staff, requiring experience in residential care, a Level 3 Diploma, and the ability to build positive relationships. The position includes a competitive salary and numerous benefits, creating a fulfilling work environment for those passionate about child care.

Benefits

26 days holiday

Pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Wellbeing discounts

Qualifications

• Previous experience in Residential Children's Care.
• Ability to establish and maintain positive relationships.
• Applied knowledge of contextual safeguarding issues.

Responsibilities

• Support and guide team members in decision-making.
• Directly support children in managing emotions and behaviors.
• Collaborate with multi-agency professionals for care planning.

Skills

Building positive relationships

Emotional support and resilience

Effective assessment skills

Multi-agency working

Education

Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare

Willingness to pursue Level 5 in Management

Job description

Children's Residential Team Leader (Senior Practitioner)

The starting salary for this role is £36,873 per annum for working 36 hours per week plus enhanced rates of pay for weekends, bank holidays and sleep in duties.

Are you ready to take the next step in your career in residential children's care?

We currently have an opportunity for a Senior Practitioner to join our Children's Residential Home in Walton-on-Thames. If you are considering a move from the private children's residential care sector, or another care background this role may more commonly be known as a Residential Team or Shift Leader.

This is one of the best roles in our homes — offering a balance between direct work with our children and young people and the opportunity to contribute to the development of your team.

Our Offer to You

• 26 days' holiday, rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 31 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave and 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Wellbeing and lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, and shopping
• A chance to make a real difference to the lives of our residents

Our Senior Practitioner role is one that is both structured and varied, where you'll have a foot in two camps:

Directly supporting our children and young people, building trusted relationships, and helping them manage their emotions and behaviours, process trauma, and navigate complex family dynamics. You'll bring empathy, consistency, and resilience to your work — creating positive experiences filled with laughter, fun, and love, while helping our children and young people to develop healthy routines and coping strategies through meaningful activities including education and contributing to everyday life within the home.

Supporting and guiding staff, you will use your previous experience and sense of personal authority, professionalism, and integrity to lead by example, helping team members to make safe, and informed decisions in sometimes challenging circumstances. You will work closely with management within the home to maintain a safe, nurturing environment and collaborate with multi-agency professionals involved in the lives of our children and young people to contribute to meaningful care planning.

Shortlisting Criteria

• Previous experience of working in Residential Children's Care
• A Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare, or equivalent. You will have the option to work towards completing Level 5 in Management and Leadership
• Your ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with children, adolescents, their families, and other care professionals
• An applied knowledge of contextual children's safeguarding and associated issues
• Proven experience of multi-agency working
• Skills in effective assessment, risk management, and strengths-based care planning
• Experience of delivering statutory childcare services including the residential care of children and knowledge of the Children's Homes Regulations 2015 and Quality Standards

In this role, you'll be expected to provide supervision to more junior team members. While previous supervisory experience isn't essential, you must be confident in offering guidance and support, and willing to take on this responsibility as part of your development.

We are committed to the safe recruitment of staff in our Residential homes across Surrey therefore if you are successful in being offered a role within our service, we will work with you to collect all required checks in line with government guidance.

Our Requirements

Surrey has both urban and rural areas and our residential workforce will be expected to have a valid driving licence to drive in the UK and access to a vehicle, to support our young people to attend appointments, activities or trips as agreed. Reasonable adjustments where needed will be made for successful applicants who have a disability or long-term health condition to enable them to fulfil the requirements of the job.

How to Apply

Please submit your application, including your CV and answers to the following questions:

• Please tell us what has motivated you to apply for this role?
• Please tell us about the skills and experience you have of providing children's residential care?
• Please tell us about any experience you have of multiagency working and why this is important.
• The work we do is challenging (but rewarding). Using an example tell us about a time when you dealt with a challenging work situation effectively. What was the outcome and what did you learn from it?

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

This advert closes at 23:59 on the 26th of October with interviews to follow.

We are a disability confident employer which means if you have shared a disability on your application form and have evidenced you meet the minimum criteria, we guarantee you an interview.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Your skills and experience truly matter to us. From application to your first day, we're committed to supporting you with any adjustments you need, we value inclusion and warmly welcome you to join and help build a workplace where everyone belongs.