Night Care Assistant - The Firs bei Harrow Council

The London Borough of Harrow is looking for a Night Care Assistant to provide a high-quality service for children/young people with mild/moderate/severe learning disabilities, including those with physical disabilities and behaviours that can challenge and/or on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in order to support their families/carers.

The Waking Night Care Assistant is a member of the team, but much of their work will be carried out without the teams immediate involvement as they will be lone working at night. You will be expected to remain awake at night and act with initiative, skill and responsibility. During half term holidays, you will also support day care, where the team work will be more prominent. 

The position will be based at the The Firs; a four-bedded short breaks centre based in the west of the Borough of Harrow.  

It is a permanent, part time position 20 hrs a week, covering Thursday and Sunday nights each week.

There may be opportunities for additional night and daytime hours, especially during half-terms when overnight stays are paused. Flexibility is essential,  you may be asked to join a standby rota and support the team during staff shortages or changing service needs.

This post is exempt under the Employment (Sex Discrimination) Act 2000 therefore only female staff can apply.

The successful candidate will have:

• Good working knowledge of the needs of people with a learning disability.
• Willingness to learn about childcare or other relevant law i.e. the Children Act 1989 & 2004, the Children’s Home Regulations and Quality Standards 2015 / data protection.
• Good experience of working with children or adults with or without disabilities.
• Experience of taking responsibility for children/young people and/or experience of helping people in their personal care e.g. helping with toilet and eating needs. 
• Ability to Gastrostomy feed the children/young people or the willingness to take part in training to be able to meet this need within a timescale.
• Understanding of both verbal and non-verbal communication.
• Capacity to deal with aggressive and challenging behaviour and take part in the Physical Intervention Training which will be provided by Harrow Council.
• Level 3 Diploma for Residential Child Care (England) or a qualification that the registered person considers to be equivalent. If you do not have this, the willingness to attain it within the relevant timescale.
• Ability to work Waking Night Care Assistant Shifts (mainly during term time) and Care Assistant daytime hour shifts midweek (mainly during half term) in order to meet service need. Also, willingness to stand by on a rota basis and to support staff shortages at other times as required.

This post is subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check. 

For more information, please refer to the Role Profile/Selection Criteria