Hub Practitioner l Children's Residential Service - SPACE Hub | Multiple Locations

Lancashire County Council; Lancashire; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in the UK is seeking a Residential Child Care Worker to provide targeted support and interventions for families in need. This role involves working directly with children and parents, planning activities, and collaborating with various professionals. Strong interpersonal skills and a genuine passion for making a difference are essential. The position offers a supportive work environment and opportunities for training and development.

Benefits

Access to free courses

Monthly reflective space with managers

Membership of Blue Light Card

Qualifications

• Experience in community-based work or family support services is preferred.
• Genuine passion for creating safe and enriching experiences for children.
• Strong interpersonal skills necessary to build trusting relationships.

Responsibilities

• Deliver early intervention and targeted support to families.
• Plan and lead purposeful activities to build confidence.
• Collaborate with schools, social workers, and professionals for coordinated support.

Skills

Passion for supporting children

Team player

Creativity in engagement

Job description

Locations

• Accrington (with travel required across East Lancashire) - Full Time Vacancies & Part Time Vacancy (18.5 hours Per Week)
• Skelmersdale (with travel required across Central Lancashire) - Full Time Vacancies & Part Time Vacancy (18.5 hours Per Week)
• Lancaster (with travel required across North Lancashire) - Full Time Vacancies

Please note, this role will involve working on a rota basis, which will include a combination of day shifts, evening shifts, weekend working and the occasional sleep‑in shifts.

About Us

SPACE hubs are a new, exciting initiative designed to support children, young people and families across Lancashire. SPACE (Supporting and Preventing Additional Care Experiences) hubs offer a dynamic, community‑based approach to care and support for children, young people and families.

Each hub provides four core services:

• Diversion from care – offering immediate and preventative support to help families stay together.
• Reunification – supporting children in care to return safely to their families.
• Stabilisation of care arrangements – strengthening existing care arrangements including SGO, foster care and more to prevent unplanned endings.
• Tailored support – enhancing our Pause and Reflect care arrangements and the 16/17 year old homeless protocol.

Our teams work flexibly and responsively – delivering support directly to children, young people and their parents/carers, both individually and as family units. Group work is also a key feature, helping to build resilience and shared understanding. Support is delivered in the community, from our specially designed hubs, and within family homes. For families needing additional help, we also offer overnight planned breaks, available on both an emergency and scheduled basis. The SPACE hubs represent a significant step forward in our commitment to early intervention, family preservation and care stability.

Role Overview

As a Residential Child Care Worker in our SPACE Hubs, you will be responsible for delivering early intervention and targeted support to families facing a range of challenges. You will work directly with children, young people, parents and carers, in their homes and community settings, providing one‑to‑one interventions that promote emotional wellbeing and resilience. Your role will involve planning and leading purposeful activities designed to build confidence and strengthen relationships. You will collaborate closely with schools, social workers, and other professionals to ensure a coordinated approach to support. Through your work, you will help families develop stronger connections and achieve positive, lasting outcomes.

We are seeking individuals who are committed to empowering parents and enabling young people to thrive. The ideal candidate will have experience in community‑based work, youth engagement, residential, or family support services, and will demonstrate a genuine passion for creating safe and enriching experiences. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build trusting relationships are essential, as is a motivation to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

About You

• Passion – Thinking creatively to ensure that our children are supported to achieve their aspirations (no matter how big or small) will need to be top of your list! We are looking for passionate practitioners (irrespective of length of experience) who truly care and want to make a difference to children, young people and families.
• Challenge – Some days will be tough, for our children, for you, and for your colleagues – we’re after someone who is dedicated and committed, and who will always go that extra mile for our children (even on the bad days). Working as part of a close professional team is really important and you will need to be a team player to get through those tough times.
• Forward thinking – We are an expanding service with big ideas and aspirational views. We are looking for workers who can join our team and join us on this exciting journey, making contributions to help shape and inform the future of the service for our children.

Values

We are looking for someone who has values aligned to those that are integral to our service and our organisation – supportive, innovative, respectful and collaborative.

What our children want from you

We encourage our children to participate and get involved in all decisions, and recruitment is no different. It is really important to us that any worker joining the Residential team has the skills, abilities, and outlook that our children tell us they need from us.

Training & Development

We have an ambitious, confident, and motivated management team who are experienced, supportive, and keen to help you learn and grow. We have over 50 free courses for you to learn new things and even have funded qualifications we can support you with obtaining, up to degree level, should this be something that interests you.

We have a detailed induction programme specifically designed to cover all elements of the role, so that you have all the tools and knowledge ready to get going. For all permanent staff, we will provide a monthly 1:1 reflective space with managers, a comprehensive Employee Support Offer, and lots of opportunity to network with other professionals that support children.

Benefits

As an organisation we offer a wide range of staff benefits including access to our "Blues and Twos Credit" Union, Membership of Blue Light Card, and various discounts at local retailers.