Residential Child Support Worker - Cumbria
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
We are seeking dedicated and experienced Residential Child Support Workers to join our team, providing essential support within various children's homes across the North West locality. If you are passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of children with emotional and behavioural needs, including challenging behaviours, we encourage you to apply.
Key Responsibilities:- Provide dedicated support to children within residential settings, addressing their emotional and behavioural needs.
- Assist in managing challenging behaviours with a focus on safety and well-being.
- Contribute to a nurturing and stable environment for the children.
- Adhere to all safeguarding policies and procedures.
- Travel to various residential homes within the locality, up to an hour's travel time.
- Day Rate: £15.35 per hour
- Waking Night Rate: £16.88 per hour
- Sleep-in Rate: £63.04 flat rate
- Flexible working arrangements for day shifts with sleeps.
- Opportunities to work across diverse locations in Cumbria, including Penrith, Carlisle, Wigton, Kendal, and Workington.
- A supportive team environment committed to your professional development.
- Minimum of 6 months of UK experience in residential children's services.
- Enhanced Child & Adult DBS on the update service.
- Valid mandatory training certificates.
- Professional references from the past 3 years of employment/academics.
- Unrestricted right to work in the UK.
- Ideally, a car driver, though not essential.
- Flexibility to work a variety of shifts, including days and nights.
- Ability to travel up to 1 hour to homes around the locality.
- Eligibility to work full-time hours in the UK (no 20-hour restrictions).
Please note: This role mandates a minimum of 36.5 hours per week. Therefore, we cannot accept applications from individuals holding a Skilled Worker/Student visa, as visa requirements may conflict with these hours.
To Apply:If you are ready to take on this rewarding role and meet the requirements, please click the 'Apply' button or email your CV to Sumaira in Randstad Care Team
Randstad Care acts as an employment business when supplying temporary staff and as an employment agency when introducing candidates for permanent employment with a client. Randstad Care is an equal opportunities employer and decisions are made on merits alone.
Did you know that Randstad Care have been awarded a place on the National Clinical Staffing Framework for the NHS? This means we will be able to bring you more opportunities within nursing & midwifery and clinical staffing.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Lead your Personal Statement with your residential childcare experience — the advert requires a minimum of 6 months UK residential children's services experience, so state your exact duration (e.g. '14 months in a residential children's home') in the first two lines.
📊 Quantify your impact where possible: e.g. 'Supported 6 young people with EBN across two residential homes, contributing to a 20% reduction in recorded behavioural incidents over 3 months'.
🎯 Explicitly list your valid mandatory training certificates (e.g. Team Teach, First Aid, Safeguarding Level 2) in a dedicated 'Certifications' section — the advert flags these as a hard requirement.
🌐 Confirm your Enhanced Child & Adult DBS on the update service status directly on your CV — recruiters screen for this immediately and it signals you are placement-ready.
🤝 Highlight your flexibility across shift patterns (days, waking nights, sleep-ins) and willingness to travel up to one hour across Cumbria locations such as Carlisle, Penrith, and Workington, as the advert specifically calls this out.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Supported 5 looked-after children with emotional and behavioural needs across 2 residential homes in Cumbria, maintaining zero safeguarding breaches over a 12-month placement.
- •Completed 48 waking night and sleep-in shifts over 6 months, de-escalating 3 high-risk behavioural incidents per month on average using Team Teach techniques.
- •Maintained up-to-date mandatory training portfolio including Safeguarding Level 2, First Aid, and Team Teach, enabling immediate deployment across 4 residential home sites within a 1-hour travel radius.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
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Letter preview — tailored to Randstad Care
Dear Hiring Manager,
Randstad Care's Residential Child Support Worker positions across Cumbria align directly with my hands-on experience in residential childcare and my commitment to safeguarding children with emotional and behavioural needs. Having worked within residential children's homes and maintained a valid Enhanced Child & Adult DBS on the update service, I am placement-ready and fully compliant with the requirements outlined in your advert.
My background in residential childcare includes supporting young people through challenging behaviours using de-escalation techniques and trauma-informed approaches, contributing to stable and nurturing home environments. I hold current mandatory training certificates and have consistently adhered to safeguarding policies and procedures across day, waking night, and sleep-in shifts. I am comfortable travelling across localities and adapting quickly to different home settings and team dynamics.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How do you apply safeguarding policies when a child discloses abuse during a residential shift?
- ›Describe your approach to de-escalating a young person displaying severely challenging behaviour in a residential setting.
- ›What mandatory training certificates do you currently hold, and when are they due for renewal?
- ›How do you complete and maintain accurate care records and incident reports in a residential children's home?
- ›What frameworks or models (e.g. Trauma-Informed Care, PACE) have you used to support children with emotional and behavioural needs?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you managed a particularly challenging behaviour from a young person — what did you do and what was the outcome?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to work a difficult overnight shift. How did you maintain the safety and well-being of the children in your care?
- ›Give an example of when you contributed to creating a stable and nurturing environment for a child who had experienced significant trauma.
- ›Tell me about a time you had to adhere strictly to a safeguarding procedure even when it was difficult — what happened?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to travel at short notice to a different residential home. How did you adapt quickly to a new environment and team?
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you managed a particularly challenging behaviour from a young person — what did you do and what was the outcome?
Describe a situation where you had to adhere strictly to a safeguarding procedure even when it was difficult — what happened?