Health and Wellbeing Practitioner

About the role

If you have the skills that will enable us to continue to enhance our practice and improve outcomes for children further, we want to hear from you. We are looking for bright, enthusiastic people who have the passion and the drive to make a positive difference to children’s lives. By recognising and championing strengths we know we can make a real difference. It’s a genuine team effort in AfC. That’s why we want talented people, like you, to join us and help create a brighter future for children and families.

As a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner for Achieving for Children, you will be responsible for:

• This role will work directly with young people who have a problematic issue with substances who require specialist 1:1 intervention, you will manage a caseload of complex young people as part of a multi disciplinary team.  
• You will need a good understanding of safeguarding, the recognition of safeguarding concerns, re appropriate recording and information sharing. 
• The accurate recording of information across various platforms, in a timely manner.

If you would like to find out more about this exciting opportunity, please contact Andrea Soumare - Health and Wellbeing Hub Manager, on andrea.soumare@ahcievingforchildren.org.uk to request an informal discussion.  

About you

To be a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner for AfC, you will be passionate about making a positive difference to the lives of children and young people as well as demonstrating the following:

• Educated at level 4 or above professional qualification in a relevant discipline (e.g youth work  Children and Youth, Social Care, Education, Substance Misuse Qualifications) 
• Evidence of continuing professional development. 
• Experience of positively engaging and forming a relationship of trust with young people that have been faced with early childhood adversity and present challenging behaviour, including engagement in risky behaviour such as offending, gangs, going missing, drug misuse.
• Someone who is flexible, creative and able to work using their own initiative.  
• Experience in working directly with young people who have misused substances. 
• Experience in working directly with young people who have been subject to the Leaving Care and or Looked After Process. 
• Experience in working with young people who are subject to the youth justice system.
• Experience in multi agency working care planning and partnership working. 
• Experience in directly delivering interventions on a 1:1 basis.
• Experience in providing training to small groups of young people, professionals and parents. 
• Knowledge of relevant theory that informs practice delivery. 
• Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with. 
• Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them.

About our benefits

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
• Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of staff benefits and discounts
• An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway

To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children click here. For our social work offer click here. For our Recruitment Journey, click here.

Important Information

Start dates: Achieving for Children have set start dates meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.

Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.

Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.