Groups and Short Breaks Coordinator
10 days ago
Birmingham
POST: Groups and short breaks coordinator - 2x positions LOCATION: RfA Birmingham office and other Birmingham and Walsall locations SALARY: £30,000 per annum HOURS: Full time (37.5 hours) Will require regular evening/weekend work Reports to: Head of CYP Direct Reports: Leaders and Support Workers About Resources for Autism (RfA) Since 1997 when we started as a small playgroup set up by parents dismayed at the lack of provision for their autistic children, Resources for Autism (RfA) has grown into a major deliverer of services and support in London and the West Midlands with a turnover of around £2.5m per year. Our mission is to support and enable autistic people to live happy and fulfilling lives. We want to change society’s attitude to autism whilst also providing essential services and enriching opportunities to autistic people. We are a values-driven organisation which employs values-driven people who want to make a difference. Our values are: Inclusion, Creativity, Compassion, Courageousness and Expert. You will play a vital part in ensuring that we can resource and sustain this amazing work. Our Services All of our services across children and adults and parent/carers, mirror the wider organisational mission of providing safe, fun and meaningful support that enables personal development. We provide this support by ensuring our staff are skilfully trained, meet the highest safeguarding expectations and are encouraged to develop and upskill throughout their career with Resources for Autism. The Role As one of three Groups and Short Breaks Coordinators, you will play a key role in delivering and developing our Short Breaks and group-based services for autistic children and young people with a wide range of support needs. This is a flexible role: • Depending on skills, experience and need, each Coordinator will take the lead on specific areas of the service for example; term-time clubs, holiday schemes, Ofsted-registered under 8s provision, Family Days etc., • All Coordinators will be needed to do some weekend and evening work and to contribute to direct group delivery, service planning, staff supervision and ensuring high-quality and safe support across our offer., • You will work closely with the Head of Service and fellow Coordinators to help shape a vibrant, inclusive and responsive service aligned with RfA’s 2025–2030 strategy. Main Responsibilities: The role will combine leading groups for autistic children and young people with a range of needs, supporting the delivery of others as needed and setting up and successfully running under 8’s clubs in line with Ofsted best practice requirements. Your time will be dedicated to delivering high quality, impactful services, associated admin related tasks, overseeing some groups, ensuring delivery standards are consistent, and supporting the development of our teams. Service Delivery & Development: • Oversee and be part of the delivery of group services for children and young people, including term-time and holiday programmes., • Where allocated, support the development and/or delivery of specialist areas such as: Ofsted registered under 8s provision, Family Days, scheme planning and logistical coordination, • Develop activity programmes and plans, sometimes these will need to be in line with Ofsted requirements, ensuring these are person centred and autism specific., • Monitor service quality, ensuring activities are well-planned, inclusive, and meet the needs of individuals with both complex and lower support needs., • Analyse service data and feedback to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities for development., • With your team, develop processes and procedures to develop the services., • Lead and deliver autism specific sessions, including session planning, meaningful activities and set up of resources and equipment., • Facilitate pre and post session team meetings to reflect on the session, activities, and young people’s needs., • Oversee staff-child ratios, individual support plans and medical plans., • Offer high quality autism specific support based on the young people’s interests and needs., • To be involved in the Family Days we will deliver across the year. Safeguarding, Risk & Behaviour Support: • Actively promote the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all children, young people and vulnerable adults accessing the service., • Follow organisational safeguarding policies, procedures and codes of conduct at all times., • Maintain clear professional boundaries and model safe, respectful and appropriate behaviour., • Recognise and respond appropriately to safeguarding, welfare or behaviour-related concerns, reporting these promptly and in line with organisational procedures., • Work in a way that reduces risk and supports positive behaviour, emotional regulation and individual communication needs., • Contribute to a culture where safeguarding concerns are shared appropriately, listened to, and taken seriously. Core duties for all staff: • Uphold and adhere to the values of RfA at all time, • Ensure there is always compliance with RfA’s safeguarding policies and procedures, • All staff are expected to promote equality in the workplace and in our services, • Undertake any other duties asked of you that are commensurate with your grade Note: This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. All applicants will be subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, including a check of the relevant Barred List(s), in line with DBS eligibility criteria and the DBS Code of Practice. Flexible working: Person Specification Essential Skills • Experience working with autistic children and young people, including those with a range of support needs and behaviours that may challenge, • Experience running group activities or sessions with positive outcomes, • Experience working in or contributing to Ofsted‑registered early years or children’s clubs, or similar regulated settings, • Experience supervising or supporting staff teams and contributing to high‑quality service delivery, • Knowledge of safeguarding responsibilities, policies, and procedures, • Understanding of risk assessment and managing risks in group environments, • Knowledge of person‑centred practice and how to deliver inclusive, meaningful activities, • Awareness of behaviour support approaches that promote dignity, respect, and wellbeing, • Strong organisational skills, including coordinating staff, equipment and logistics for group delivery, • Experience coordinating holiday schemes, clubs, or structured short‑breaks provision, • Experience supporting service development, reviewing data/feedback, and improving processes, • Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) adaptable to different populations including: colleagues, external professionals, service users, families, volunteers, donors, • Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, • Good understanding of Safeguarding, • IT skills: proficient with Office 365, • Self-starter and able to work independently, using own initiative, • Non-judgemental, compassionate Confidentiality You will have access to confidential information concerning families and other service users and will be required to maintain confidentiality at all times. Staff Benefits 90% of our staff say that Resources for Autism is “a great place to work”. Not only will the work you do ensure we are making vital differences and inspiring others, but our other benefits also include: • flexible working patterns with the option to work in a hybrid way (only available for some roles), • 25 days of leave (pro rata for part time roles) each year plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 Celebration days that could be used between Christmas and new year, but may be used for other religious days or significant days such as your birthday, • access to ongoing training and progress in the areas that interest you, • access to our wellbeing initiatives and an Employee Assistance Programme, • enrolment on to our pension scheme, • a supportive, warm and fun working environment made up of values driven people who are passionate about changing the world for autistic people Application process: In order that we adhere to Safer Recruitment processes, all applicants are required to complete an application form which must include your full employment history with clear details, any gaps in employment need to be outlined and explained. You are also required to provide details of your education history. In your personal statement we would like to see how you feel you meet the person specification and the requirements/responsibilities of the role. If for any reason, such as due to accessibility, you feel you would struggle to complete an application form you can contact us via the below email and we may explore other options with you. We particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates, LGBTQIA+ candidates and disabled candidates, because we would like to increase the representation of these groups at Resources for Autism. We want to do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater results for our community. As you would expect, we are a neuro-affirming employer, with a strengths and rights based approach to neurodiversity which affirms neurodivergent identity – we don’t want to “fix” or “cure” autism, and we don’t see it as a “disability” however we do recognise it can be “disabling”. We are working to improve the ways in which we recruit and support neurodiverse employees and those with lived experience of neurodiversity. RfA is a Disability Confidant employer and candidates who meet the minimum essential criteria, that have a disability will be guaranteed an interview.
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