November 8, 2024

Barnardo's

Blackpool

OTHER

Play Worker (SEND)

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you enjoy working with children & young people and positively impacting their lives? We have an exciting opportunity for a Play Worker to join our friendly, passionate and dedicated team at our Include Me 2 Service based in Blackpool on a part time, permanent basis.
About the Service:
Our Include Me 2 Service is a short breaks service facilitating group sessions for children & young people aged 4 – 18 with a wide range of Special Educational Needs/disabilities offering them opportunities to get involved in play and leisure activities such as arts & crafts, cooking and trips out in the community whilst offering valuable respite to their families. We are a fun-loving team looking for an enthusiastic, happy and kind individual to join us as our Play Worker!
Location:
Church Street, Blackpool, FY1 3PB
Working Pattern:
18 hours a week to include delivery sessions which run Monday's 4pm – 7pm, Thursday's 4pm – 7pm and Saturday's 10am – 4pm
Essential Requirements to evidence in your written application:

Experience of working with children & young people (gained either in employment or volunteer capacity)
Ability to work well as part of a team
Ability to communicate effectively with children & young people
Ability to demonstrate a good understanding of safeguarding and the commitment to adhere to Barnardo's safeguarding & child protection policies/procedures.
Awareness of various factors impacting the families we work with such as poverty
Most importantly, you will need to enjoy the challenges and rewards of working with children & young people!

A car driver would be preferable, but not essential.
Some of the main responsibilities include but are not limited to:

To contribute to the planning of sessions and activities.
Delivering and recording group sessions.
Facilitating activities and days out.
To ensure the sessions run smoothly and our safeguarding policies and procedures are adhered to at all times.
To provide a safe, fun and inclusive environment for all our service users.

For more information about the role, please contact Emma Coupe - emma.coupe@barnardos.org.uk
When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you
The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Holiday Plus scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is reflected in our values and our practice, and we have invested in this area of our work to ensure that we can deliver on our commitments to be an inclusive employer. EDI is a key enabler of our purpose as a charity and we want to ensure that the diversity of our teams is reflective of the communities we serve and that we continue to learn and develop our work with a focus on inclusion. We particularly encourage applications from candidates from Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Communities, candidates who are LGBT+ and Disabled candidates.