Stormbreak Together Programme Manager

Are you passionate about children’s mental and physical health? Do you want to positively shape and impact children’s lives and create healthy, happy humans? Do you believe it matters and it matters now?

Stormbreak supports children’s mental health through working with trusted adults and children to embed mentally healthy movement every day for every child.

At stormbreak, we work together to provide preventative, accessible programmes and services that support organisations, communities, trusted adults and the children in their care to embed mentally healthy movement every day, for every child and in doing so improve children’s lives. 

Stormbreak’s vision is to embed mentally healthy movement programmes and services that reach and help every child requiring support at a preventative level through education, health and social sectors. Stormbreak supports trusted adults that live with, work with, care for and support children to recognise, respond and regulate their mental health through movement.

Stormbreak has developed and delivered (face to face and digital) Together programmes for foster and adoption families guiding them to use mentally healthy movement to support the emotional health and wellbeing of their foster and birth children.

There is a growing need to support the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of children in order to reduce the potential onset of long term mental ill health, mitigate escalation and prevent crisis point. Recent years have seen an unprecedented surge in demand for mental health care in children across the UK.

Looked after children are highly vulnerable to emotional and relationship difficulties, putting them at risk of long-term mental health issues and placement breakdown with their carers. 

Many foster parents struggle to cope with the emotional and mental health challenges of the children they look after.  If they cannot access support or do not develop the necessary skills and emotional capacity, this can lead to placements breaking down and more resulting mental health challenges for the foster children who can then feel even more unloved, uncared for and abandoned.

Primary Responsibilities:  

• To support the stormbreak Together programme delivery (face to face and online). 

• To establish and collaborate with external project partners and stakeholders, e.g. local authorities, independent fostering and adoption agencies, residential care settings.

• To identify and develop partnership networks of local delivery partners/stakeholders and project beneficiaries including (but not limited to) local authorities, independent fostering and adoption agencies, residential care settings, health and education professionals, family support practitioners and other professionals to raise awareness and promote engagement in the programmes. 

• To support the ongoing development of programme delivery content and materials, including digital content.

• To support the digital development and implementation of the ‘stormbreak shine’ early opportunity intervention programme in children’s mental health and emotional health.

Knowledge/Skills:

Understanding of Social Care Sector: Deep understanding of the social care sector, including both independent and local authority fostering and adoption services. (Essential)

Effective Communication: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to liaise effectively with various stakeholders, including families, social care teams, and external partners. (Essential)

Teamwork: Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team to ensure seamless programme delivery and support. (Essential)

Safeguarding Knowledge: Rich and detailed knowledge of the breadth of issues affecting children in care and an unrivalled capacity to implement, develop and follow safeguarding policy and procedures to ensure the safety and well-being of all participants in the programme. (Essential)

Programme Management Skills: Proven ability to manage and deliver intervention programmes, both face-to-face and online, ensuring successful implementation and operation. (Essential)

High Relational Ability: Exceptional relational skills to build trust and effective working relationships with families, social care teams, and multidisciplinary partners. (Essential)

Evaluation and Reporting: Ability to contribute to project effectiveness through evaluation, insight monitoring, and impact report writing and dissemination. (Desirable)

Integrity, openness, professionalism, confidentiality and care.

Experience:

Experience with Looked After Children: Direct, recent experience in working with looked after children and supervising foster carers to effectively manage the unique challenges and requirements of these groups. (Essential)

Experience in CYP Mental Health Services: Proven experience working within Child and Young People (CYP) mental health service provision in education and social settings. (Essential)

Experience in Content Creation: Experience in creating, writing, and delivering engaging and innovative content in different media formats for CYP mental health. (Desirable)

Qualifications:

Qualified Social Worker: Must be a qualified social worker to effectively understand and manage the needs of the children and foster parents involved in the programme. (Essential)

Degree Level Qualification: A relevant degree to ensure a strong foundation of knowledge applicable to the role. (Essential)

Stormbreak is committed to being an equal, diverse and inclusive charity accessible for all. The aim is for our workforce, including our board of trustees, to be truly representative of all sections of society and our stakeholders, and for everyone to feel respected, valued and able to give their best. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and communities.