JOB DESCRIPTION: Schools Project Officer

Title:Schools Project Officer (term-time only)

Hours:21 x hours per week

@ £12 per hour (£9,828 per annum)

Location:Working within schools in Lambeth, reporting back into the Young Carers Project, Carers Hub Lambeth.

Responsible to: Young Carers Project Lead

Liaising With:All members of Help For Carers, parents, teachers, school staff,voluntary / statutory agencies

Overall Purpose

To provide support to an identified cohort of young carers within the London Borough of Lambeth as part of The Young Carers Project (YCP). The YCP works with children & young people (5-18yrs) who care for or help to care for a family member with a disability or long term illness. All services are aimed to support Young Carers in their caring role. The YCP is managed by Carers Hub Lambeth, Help For Carers.

Job Summary

To identify and assess new young carers within schools to improve their educational, attainment and attendance carrying out individual assessments to create and facilitate plans to enhance existing educational goals/attainment.

Attendand contribute to other services/activities within the Young Carers Project as required.

Principalduties and responsibilities

  • Identify and work with schools in Lambeth who are keen on working with the Young Carers Projectand encourage them to sign up to the Young carers in Schools Award.
  • Train at least one member of staff per school as the ‘Young Carers Champion’ to identify young carers.
  • Identify young carerswho would benefit from support to improve their educational, aspirations and attainment, within the school environment.
  • Assess and regularly review young carers educational, aspirational and support needsand work with young people to identify future support needs.
  • Refer and signpost Young carers to longer term support services in Lambeth internal or external
  • Liaise and co-operatively work with teachers and pastoral staff within schools towards addressing Young Carers issues.
  • Ensure school staff complete monitoring evaluation tool to measure the progress of each of the young carers.
  • Enter all information and data onto Young Carers Project data monitoring system to provide monthly reports against identified outcomes for Team Lead and funders when requested.
  • In conjunction with the Young Carers project help promote and raise awareness of young carers with teaching staff/young people within Lambeth Schools via assemblies / meetings

Other duties and requirements

  • Maintain detailed, accurate and timely records of all client work.
  • Respect confidential information obtained in the course of all duties
  • Attend quarterly Good Practice Steering Group meetings and training sessions when requested with LQ Group funders
  • To be familiar with the policies and procedures of Help For Carers and their implementation
  • Be familiar with the implementation of any policies, procedures or legislation which relate to safeguarding children and young people, alerting the school immediately with any safeguarding concerns
  • Develop the educational work whilemaintaining effective communication with identified individuals, partners and external agencies.
  • Keep abreast of all current legislation appertaining to young carers and current educational curriculums used in schools.
  • Participate in the supervision process and attendinduction/training days as requested.
  • The postholder must, at all times, carry out their duties and responsibilities with due regard to theOrganisations Equality Opportunities and Diversity Policy
  • To carry out any other tasks at the discretion Young Carers Project Leador any other member of the Senior Management Team of Help For Carers
  • Act at all times in accordance with the organisation’s policies and procedures.

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT CONFIDENTIALITY BE RESPECTED AT ALL TIMES.

Person Specification

Essential

Education/Qualifications

  • Anappropriate educationalqualificationand/or a qualification in Education, Youth or Community Development Work

And/Or Experience

  • Significant experience of working within an educational setting on a one to one basis with young people

Knowledge and Skills

  • Assessmentof young carers in relation to their educational, aspirationalneedswithin a school environment.
  • Excellent understanding and experience of IT Microsoft Office and other database monitoring systems and the use of Outlook, Word etc.
  • An understanding of the effects of disability and responsibilities of being a young carer.
  • Understanding and knowledge of Safeguarding Children – ‘Working Together’
  • An understanding of the principles of risk management/assessing risk
  • An understanding of Equal Opportunities and Diversity

Experience / Abilities

  • Ability to recognise and develop the needs of young carersand report any significant changes in the physical and/or emotional well-being of individuals and act sensitively to the needs of young carers and their families.
  • Ability to set achievable goals, motivate young people and develop clear monitoring processes.
  • Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing
  • Experience of delivering basic training sessions / workshops to others.
  • Experience of using monitoring and reporting data systems to input, collate, and monitor information in order to submit / contribute to quarterly and annual reports
  • To be able to liaise with all partners, maintain good working relations, forge new partnerships with all professionals, to improve the lives of young carers
  • The proven ability to work alone and manage own workload and work well as part of a team
  • The ability to occasionally work unsociable and flexible hours in response to needs of individuals and organisation

Desirable

Experience
  • Previous experience of working with young carers.
Knowledge and skills
  • Understanding and knowledge of the referral process (CAF)for those individuals with additional needs.

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