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Date: 19 Jul 2025

Job Location:

Gloucester

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

• Job Title: Residential Practitioner, Children's Home Bank
• Job Location: Gloucester
• Salary: £15.12 - £16.41 per hour (plus enhanced pay for unsociable hours and sleep-in allowance)
• Contract Type: Casual
• Closing Date: Ongoing
• Job Requisition Number: 11614

We are looking for individuals who are passionate and who share our deep commitment to ensuring that every child, especially our most vulnerable, receives the care, love, and support they need to thrive. If you share our vision about making a lasting difference in the lives of children and young people, we want you to join us in this transformative journey.

About us

Gloucestershire Children’s Services are improving. Our latest Ofsted inspection (February 2022) identified that:

‘Significant progress has been made in many areas of Gloucestershire’s children’s services… significant financial investment and the backing of political leaders, has led toimproved services that are now more effective in meeting the needs of children and families’.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

We're excited to be opening our new children’s homes. Each home has a specific purpose. We have one small home dedicated to providing short term care, supporting younger children to make the transition to foster care or to return home. We have a larger home for older children with a plan of long term residential care and we will support them to transition towards independence through the use of our supported accommodation studios. Our third home will be supporting older children with a plan of ‘step down’ from residential care to foster care or a return home.

We are committed to supporting our staff in delivering the highest quality of care to the children in our homes. To strengthen this, we have recruited 2 Children and mental health clinicians, who will have a regular presence in the home to guide and support our team in working in a trauma-informed way.

In addition, we have integrated an Advanced Practitioner who will lead residential training strategies focused on your professional development. This role will ensure that you receive the skills, knowledge, and ongoing support needed to thrive in your position and to continuously improve the care you provide.

About you

We are looking for individuals who are:

• Passionate about supporting children and young people to thrive.
• Resilient, empathetic, and patient, with strong communication and teamwork skills.
• Able to build trust and positive relationships with children who may have experienced trauma.
• Willing to work flexible hours, including evenings, weekends, and sleep-ins.
• Committed to professional development and continuous learning.
• Experience working in a residential or care setting is desirable but not essential. Full training will be provided, along with opportunities for ongoing development.

As well as your experience of working with children, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

• Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) or an equivalent qualification
• A full driving licence and willingness to drive
• DBS clearance

About the role

As a Residential Practitioner, you will:

• Provide high-quality, personalized care to children and young people in a residential setting.
• Promote a trauma-informed approach to care, using your understanding of each child’s individual needs and experiences.
• Encourage positive behaviour and support the young people in developing life skills, emotional resilience, and independence.
• Work as part of a multidisciplinary team to deliver tailored care plans, ensuring the safety, welfare, and well-being of every child.
• Build positive relationships with the children, their families, and other professionals involved in their care.
• Manage challenging behaviours calmly and professionally, applying therapeutic techniques to support children through difficult times.
• Help children engage in education, recreational activities, and personal development opportunities.
• Support the daily operations of the home, ensuring compliance with all safeguarding and regulatory requirements.

How to apply

For additional information about this role please reach out toChildrenHomeRecruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk

* Any hours worked between 20.00 – 06.00, weekends and Bank Holidays attract an unsociable payment over and above the basic salary for this post.

This is a rolling advert and will remain live until all our current Residential Practitioner vacancies are filled.

Interviews for shortlisted candidates wil be held on Thursdays.

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees.We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior).To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

This position is subject to a DBS check.

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.