About UP
Unlocking Potential deliver high performing therapeutic programmes and education provision for children and young people with SEMH needs. We work in collaboration with families, communities, and other partners to ensure that children and young people access the interventions they need to thrive.
Mission
We work collaboratively with communities to enable children and young people with social, emotional, and mental health needs to unlock their full potential
Values
Trust
We build trust by being honest, transparent, and accountable in the way we work with children and young people, staff, and partners and by providing services and programmes whose outcomes are measurable and evidenced based.
Collaborative
Relationships are at the heart of our work. We prioritise communication and collaboration with partners, families, and communities, believing that by working together we create more effective and holistic outcomes for children and young people.
Empowering
We co-create opportunities for our children, young people, parents/carers and staff to actively participate in decision-making that influences change. We promote the voices of children and young people in our organisation and the wider community.
Nurturing
We provide a nurturing approach based on safety and space for creativity, exploration, and growth. We support and care for our children, young people, and staff to realise their potential.
Impact
We are committed to measuring our impact through a data driven method to develop our programmes and make a greater difference to the lives of children, young people, and their parents and carers.
Overview
We will be launching our new programme from September 2025, initially as a pilot working with families across Wandsworth, with aims to be able to expand and continue beyond this.
We are seeking an experienced and passionate Family Support Manager to play a pivotal role in establishing our new Family Support programme. Your initial focus will be leading on the development of the service, implementing policies and procedures, building referral pathways, and recruiting a team of skilled Family Support Workers.
Once the service is established, you will manage a high-quality programme providing support and guidance to families facing complex challenges. Your role will involve overseeing a team of Family Support Workers, case management, fostering effective collaboration with internal and external multidisciplinary teams, and leading the service under a shared vision to ensure the well-being of children and their families.
Using a restorative approach, you will develop strong relationships to support families and empower them to take an active role in their own support plans and interventions, helping them build resilience and make informed decisions. A commitment to safeguarding excellence will be at the heart of everything you do.
This role would be an exciting opportunity for a qualified Social Worker or an experienced professional with a background in setting up and developing family support services. It offers a genuine opportunity to shape a new service and build an impactful team to make a real difference in the lives of children, young people, and their families.
Hours: 35 hours per week. We are open to considering a job share arrangement for the right candidates.
Salary: £39,000.
Location: Homeworking.
Reports to: Head of Programmes.
Oversight of a delivery team: Yes (currently 30 plus self-employed coordinators).
Travel: Travel across the country to visit our activities, including overnight stays, is part of this role. All related expenses will be covered by The Country Trust.
Annual leave: 25 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays (FTE).
Benefits: Workplace pension. Homeworking, some flexibility on working hours.
Are you passionate about connecting disadvantaged children with food, farming, and nature?
We're looking for a dedicated and experienced Programme Manager—an inspiring, child-centred educator with a deep commitment to tackling poverty of opportunity.
Through effective team management and leadership, and collaboration with colleagues, this role enables a large team of expert practitioners to deliver the charity’s mission of providing high quality, educational, relevant, safe and impactful Farm Discovery visits and related activities for disadvantaged children across England and North Wales.
Could you:
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Lead our dispersed Farm Discovery team of expert practitioners, ensuring all our processes - recruitment, training, administration, reporting, information management, communication, budgeting, evaluation and of course our delivery - enable us to achieve amazing things with primary school communities in disadvantaged areas around the country?
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Work with others to grow and shape our programmes to achieve our vision?
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As an inspiring advocate of our work, build our contribution to the national conversation around food, farming and nature education?
If so, would love to hear from you!
Due to our safer recruitment process we are not able to accept CVs for this position.
Applications close: noon 30th April
First round interviews (held virtually) will be on Wednesday 7th May. Second round interviews will be held face-to-face in London on Wednesday 14th May.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
About Us
Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future.
St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK & Isle of Man. We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do. We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home.
We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong.We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities.
St Christopher’s Academy
At St Christopher`s we can provide more than just a care job. We can offer you a career where you can develop your skills and knowledge while making a difference to young people’s lives.
When you join St Christopher’s, we will set you up in your career with a tailored development plan. Whether you want to move across to a different service, become a Manager or just explore further your current role, we will support you to map out your career trajectory and help you achieve your professional ambitions. If you want to learn more about St Christopher’s Academy, please click here
We are proud that 84% of all our Team Leaders, Deputies and Managers are internal promotions.
About the role
As an Experienced Practitioner, you will provide direct support and care for our young people who have complex emotional and mental health difficulties (such as trauma and loss) and can struggle to regulate their emotions.
Working within a therapeutic framework, you will develop a direct programme of work aimed at developing authentic relationships with our children and young people (aged 12 – 17 years old), you will also have responsibility for making sure our residents are safe, providing support, liaison with other professionals and completion of support documents to record information.
If applying for the Waking Night role, you will have the additional support of an on-call manager should there be any emergencies. Further to this, you will be involved in monthly team meetings and receive monthly supervision.
Applicants should have
- Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare or equivalent (i.e. Level 3 Diploma Children and Young People Workforce with the children's social care pathway) or be willing to achieve the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare within 2 years as per Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 (England).
- Minimum of 1 years’ experience working and supporting children and Young People to achieve their full potential.
- Genuine commitment to working with and supporting children and Young People to achieve their full potential; with the ability to build and promote trusted relationships while maintaining professional boundaries.
- An understanding of the issues facing children and Young People and a basic understanding of safeguarding Regulations and Procedures.
- The ability to cope effectively with challenging behaviour.
- Good communication and team working skills.
- Flexibility to work shifts, including weekends and bank holidays.
- Commitment to undertake any mandatory training (outside of working hours) and continuous learning to ensure a high level of service.
- Creativity, enthusiasm and energy to inspire and encourage young people to achieve their goals.
What you should expect from us
- Salary: £28,912 per annum. Overtime / bank holidays paid time-and-a-half and 2 weekends off per month.
- A friendly working environment, a fun, open and honest culture.
- 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
- Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
- Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme.
- UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary.
- BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK.
- Discretionary funded training programs.
- Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
- Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services.
Recruitment Process
At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements.
Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to starting.
First Stage Interview – Tuesdays & Thursdays throughout April & May 2025
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview at our Head Office
Second Stage
Successful candidates will then attend the second stage interview at the home they have applied for.
We advise you to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Please note:
- This post has a minimum age restriction of 21 year for roles working directly with children and young people in our residential and supported accommodation Homes in line with the Equality Act ‘occupational requirement’.
- It is illegal to apply for any role that involves working with children and young people under the age of 18, if you know you are barred from working with children.
- all shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit a Self-Declaration and Disclosure form which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked.