Assistant Residential Child Care Practitioners

We are recruiting full-time and part-time Assistant Residential Child Care practitioners at Aldine House Secure Children's Home. As an Assistant practitioner, you will provide the highest standards of care to young people. We are licensed to care for, educate and support up to ten children and young people aged 10 to 18. As a specialist service, we provide a critical first-line child protection and public protection service.

You will provide positive, assertive and child-centred parenting, with clear and consistent boundaries. You will work with individuals and small groups to support day-to-day wellbeing, deliver leisure activities and group work, and lead one-to-one key-work sessions. We particularly welcome applicants with experience in residential childcare, youth justice, special education or a related field, including work with vulnerable children, young people or adults.

The role operates on a rota and includes regular weekend work, sleep-ins and bank holidays. Enhanced rates are paid for unsociable hours, and the role also attracts a secure children's home allowance.

Assistant Residential Child Care practitioners - Aldine House Secure Children's Home

Aldine House is a very special children's home, caring for some of the country's most vulnerable and complex children. We are looking for exceptional people with the drive to care for children and young people during a brief but potentially transformative chapter in their lives.

Children stay at Aldine House because they are considered too vulnerable for an open residential placement. Each amazing young person has unique needs, so our staff work together to build trusted relationships, provide stability and help them make progress.

Our team need a high level of resilience and resourcefulness and be able to respond effectively and with compassion to the unexpected.

Aldine House provides a holistic, wraparound model of care, including excellent education opportunities for children, physical health support and comprehensive emotional wellbeing support from our CAMHS team, alongside speech and language and occupational therapy colleagues.

A highly competitive overall package, including the secure unit allowance and enhancements for working unsociable hours.

• Opportunities to work additional hours.
• The chance to join an experienced, genuinely passionate multi-agency professional team.
• Excellent training, professional development and career progression opportunities.
• A fully funded Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare, with supported study time and opportunities to progress beyond this qualification. Achievement of this diploma will allow you to progress to a Residential Child Care practitioner on a higher salary.

As a representative of Sheffield City Council, you will be expected to meet and exceed the standards set out in the Code of Conduct. Appointment is subject to an enhanced barred DBS check for children and adults and other safeguarding checks as part of our rigorous recruitment process including previous employment history. We set high standards and invest significantly in our employees through continuous training, professional development and support, enabling you to become an outstanding practitioner.

This support includes monthly supervision with your line manager and monthly probationary review meetings throughout your six months in the role.

This role offers significant professional rewards alongside real challenges. Are you ready to join the team?

Applicants must be over 23 years of age to work at Aldine House. Staff are required to complete Crisis Prevention training, and physical interventions may sometimes be necessary to keep children and staff safe. The role often involves spending much of the day on your feet.

Aldine House is undertaking an exciting staff expansion programme, and we would welcome your application to join our dedicated team.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Aldine House on 0114 2621160 and leave contact details.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we'll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Read about the new job evaluation process to be introduced at Sheffield City Council.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.