Residential Practitioner, Gloucester Children's Home (Bank)

·         Salary: £15.12 - £16.41 per hour (plus enhanced pay for unsociable hours and sleep-in allowance)

·         Hours per week: various

·         Contract Type: casual

·         Closing Date: 12/04/2026

·         This post is not open to job share

Make a Real Difference – Join Us as a Residential Practitioner

Are you driven by purpose? Do you believe every child deserves safety, love, and the chance to thrive? If you're passionate about transforming lives and want to be part of something truly meaningful, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for compassionate, resilient, and dedicated individuals to join our growing team across our newly opened children’s homes. This is more than a job — it’s an opportunity to be a stabilising, trusted adult in a child’s life, every single day.

In accordance with Schedule 9, Part 1, of the Equality Act 2010, this role has a Genuine Occupational Requirement for the postholder to be aged 21 years or above. This is an essential and proportionate requirement to ensure the effective and appropriate delivery of the service due to the nature of the duties of the role and the ages and complex needs of the children and young people in our care.

About us

Right child, right support, right time, every time.

In our recent inspection in June 2025, our Children’s Services have been officially judged as ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements. Ofsted also said ‘Leaders have set out a clear vision for delivering success for children, by modelling values and creating a culture where the workforce, children and families feel valued and heard; risk is managed confidently with bottom lines clearly set out.’

This marks an important step in our journey to improve outcomes for our children and young people, and we remain focused on our mission: to continue building on this success and ensure that every child and young person in our county has the opportunity to thrive.

Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. We are 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.

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 people who are:

• passionate about helping children flourish
• empathetic, patient, and resilient
• able to build strong, trusting relationships
• good communicators and collaborative team players
• flexible to work shifts, evenings, weekends, and sleep‑ins
• committed to reflection and professional development

Experience is welcomed but not essential — full training is provided.

Requirements

• level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) or an equivalent qualification, or a commitment to achieving the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare within two years of commencing employment at the home if you do not already have this qualification
• full driving licence and wiliness to drive in the job
• Enhanced DBS (Adults & Children)

About the role

As a Residential Practitioner, you will:

• deliver high‑quality, personalised care
• use trauma‑informed approaches to support emotional healing
• encourage independence, life skills, and positive routines
• work closely with a multidisciplinary team
• support children in education, recreation and personal growth
• respond to challenges with confidence and curiosity
• ensure the home meets safeguarding and regulatory standards

If you would like to find out more about our Children's Service please take a look here: Children's Social Care Careers | Gloucestershire County Council

* 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 Bank Residential Practitioner vacancies are filled.

Candidates will be contacted by phone to arrange a face to face interview at Shire Hall.

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.

This position is subject to a DBS check.

Please ensure that your personal statement relates to this particular role and that a full CV is attached.

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.

For more information about the job, view links, download attachments and apply please click on the Apply Now button.