Employee Benefits:

• Permanent, Full-Time Employment
• Salary: £27,040 - £30,472 per annum*
• Fully funded Level 4 and 5 Diplomas
• Casual dress
• Company events
• Staff meals whilst on shift
• Wellness programmes
• Employee Assistance Programme - Powered by Health Assured
• Access to in-house Mental Health First Aiders
• A rewarding career in Children's Services
• Making a real difference in young people's lives and improving outcomes for young people
• Peoples Pension scheme
• Ongoing support in advancing your career.
• Great discounts on gym membership, cinema tickets, driving lessons, holidays, family days out, restaurants and high street shopping.

*average salary - based on £11.00p/h - £12.65p/h, 40 hours per week plus two sleep-ins - actual hours/pay may vary. shift patterns and actual hours vary from home to home - New Horizons is not responsible for the content of adverts reposted by outside agencies.

We are looking for an experienced Children's Residential Support Worker to join the well established team at our home in Bury. Ideally you will have experience of similar settings and have achieved your CACHE Level 3/Level 4 Diploma in Children and Young People.

About Oakdene

Oakdene is a warm and caring home offering young people a safe and nurturing environment and a place that they can really call ‘home’. The staff team ensure that they are holistic and nurturing at all times ensuring that they are focusing on the young people’s needs, therefore improving their outcomes and giving them every opportunity to succeed at their own pace and level of understanding. This is achieved by building positive relationships with the placing authorities and other stakeholders.

Oakdene offers residential placements for six young people of either gender from 5 -18 years ideally medium to long term, however, this will be assessed at point of referral and short-term placements may be offered pending on the current young people in placement. It is acknowledged that when a young person reaches their eighteenth birthday, we may need to extend their placement at Oakdene whilst/during a suitable provision/transition plan is identified. With this in mind Oakdene will work closely with the local authority to ensure there is no delay in any planned transition. “The Care Standards Act 2000 requires a children’s home to provide care and accommodation ‘wholly or mainly’ for children. This does not prevent a home from accommodating a young adult or

adults, as long as it accommodates more children than adults. A child is defined as a person aged 17 or under”.

We would like all placements to be planned, this however, is not always possible and emergency placements may be considered. This would be dependent on the matching process and impact on the young people in placement and the young person being referred.

This is to ensure that the placement will be right for both that individual and the young people already living with us. All our placements are reviewed and monitored according to the individual’s needs, age, functioning skills and Care Plan – with a huge emphasis placed on partnership-working to improve as many outcomes as is possible during their time with us.

Aims of Oakdene

Here at Oakdene we feel that for a young person to achieve and maximise their potential; emphasis is placed on a tailored - child centred approach. We believe each young person is individual and therefore great care to detail is needed when admitting a young person to make sure that it is right for them.

• By providing a safe and nurturing environment that enables a young person to overcome any traumas or abuse they may have suffered in their past. Empowering the young person by maximising their potential and life chances in their development.

• Young people are supported with their social skills and personal development, by individual social story work, social scaffolding when facing new social challenges. Prompting and rewarding of all positive choices that the young person makes. Enhancing the relevant social skills that are needed for a young person to achieve their desired outcomes.

• Enhancing and building the requisite skillset to enable a young person to smoothly transition whether they are returning to the family home, supported lodgings/foster placement or onto independent living.

• To ensure that all young people are protected from harm and safeguarded as much as possible by creating an environment and a culture that promotes their safety, their education and their well-being. This is of paramount importance and we will work tirelessly to engage young people in all aspect of their development.

• To provide caring and nurturing staff, who are fun and are seen as positive role models to the young people. The staff team is built up of both genders and varied ages with diverse and interesting backgrounds.

We empower young people to have a voice whilst respecting their dignity and giving them safe choices to enhance their personal development. By doing this a young person feels respected and listened too whilst learning boundaries and acceptable behaviours.

• To assist and support young people to access all health services

• To signpost our young people to additional services that are available and then support them to access and benefit from these services in the future

• To promote healthy, appropriate relationships built on trust and respect between all parties

• To ensure that there are adequate staffing levels to meet the individual’s needs at all times

• To safeguard Children from Harm as much as is possible

• To instil confidence in young people, to promote their self-worth and to allow them to learn from their mistakes

• To empower all our young people to make informed choices – knowing that they have a team of adults to rely upon should they need advice

• To promote and support resilience. Oakdene has an experienced and professional staff team, who are committed to delivering a service that is consistent and focuses on the young person’s development not their history. Working closely with the young people, we strive to build positive and trusting relationships with them in a non-judgemental manner. This ensures that the young people experience positive outcomes whilst enhancing their development into their independence.

Caring for Children

The staff team are fully committed and experienced in supporting young people in a residential setting. Safeguarding is at the forefront of everything we do, all staff receive safeguarding training and regular updates.

The care and support provided at Oakdene focuses on with the young person as an individual with a nurturing and holistic approach in all aspects of a young person development educationally, mentally and physically. 

About The Company

New Horizons was established over 25 years ago with the intention to “Build Brighter Futures”, over the years we have organically grown and now have five children’s homes over Stockport and Greater Manchester. We have built a reputation as a leading provider of residential childcare, and aim to provide long-term, stable and secure placements to young people who have known chaotic childhoods, multiple placement breakdowns or may have come from failed foster care or adoption placements.

We are now a “preferred provider” with most Local Authorities across the UK, and regularly receive upwards of 600 referrals a month from Local Authorities wishing to place young people with us. This hard work has also been recognised and celebrated by Ofsted, placing authorities, the young peoples families and other external agencies.