Why work at Barnardos?
At Barnardos we seek to ensure that we have the best people working with us to support our work with children and families. The benefits of working with Barnardos are designed to promote continual professional development and a work-life balance for the most rewarding working experience.
- Barnardos offers a competitive salary – recognising the experience you bring to the role
- Generous annual leave entitlements plus discretionary Company days
- Positive working environment with family friendly ethos and work – life balance policy
- Tax saver and bike to work schemes in operation
- Employee pension scheme with employer contribution
- Company Sick Pay Scheme
- An opportunity to help improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families by working in a trauma informed way
- Access to regular trauma informed support and supervision
- Ongoing support and access to training and professional development opportunities
- An opportunity to be part of a supportive team
- Access to the Employee Assistance Program for employees and their immediate family members
- Regular Breath, Body and mind sessions to support staff well-being
Address/Location: 31 Bawnlea Green, Tallaght, Dublin 24, D24 T2HF
Would you like to work with children and their families in a trauma informed way?
Barnardos is Ireland’s leading children’s charity for over 60 years and has been working in the Tallaght area since 1980.
Barnardos’ mission is to deliver services and work with families, communities, and our partners to transform the lives of vulnerable children who are affected by adverse childhood experiences.
The Barnardos Child & Family Centre, Bawnlea provides a trauma-informed family support service, which operates a keyworker system for children and their families, assigned by the case manager.
The Centre mostly provides services for families presenting with complex needs, impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the majority of referrals are from the Tusla Child & Family Agency, although parents and can also self-refer.
Barnardos works in close partnership with families, statutory bodies and voluntary agencies, to bring about better outcomes for children, using a mind, heart and body approach.
Service interventions include:
- Just Right State Programme: An intervention to facilitate children to learn how to self-regulate their emotional states and actions, and also to enable parents to provide an enriched environment in their home in order to promote connected parent-child engagement.
- Non-Violent Resistance (NVR): An evidence-based programme to facilitate parents to address in a safe way: incidents of aggressive, violent or controlling behaviours from their child or young person.
- Partnership with Parents (PwP): An evidenced based and home-based, individual parenting programme to support parents to develop healthy relationships with their children.
- Solution Focused / Brief Intervention: A solution-focused approach to facilitate positive change for parents and their families.
- This Is Me: A one-to-one programme for children aged 6 to 12 years, to promote resilience, well-being and the capacity to grow and develop in the context of adverse events.
- Advocacy support: A time-limited process to facilitate parents to access supports and provisions within their community in order to address their own unmet needs and / or to access services and resources on behalf of their child, to address their child’s needs.
- Practical Family Support: A time-limited provision of support, advocacy work and crisis intervention focused on improving the living environment and if required, practical parenting inputs, to facilitate the development of home management skills for parents.
Where we work
Services are provided in our Centre in Jobstown (Tallaght, Dublin 24), in the homes of participating families and in local community settings as appropriate to the needs of the child and family. The Centre’s current catchment area covers Dublin 12 and Dublin 24. Services are also provided on-line, as required.
The service is a key participant with the Tusla Child & Family Agency’s ‘Comhar’ process, which seeks to provide accessible and focused interventions to children and families, not involved with the Social Work department.
The Centre is funded by the Tusla Child & Family Agency, the Health Service Executive (HSE), and Barnardos voluntary funds.
The successful candidate will support and manage a team of experienced Project Staff to deliver evidence informed services to children and families within a trauma-informed context with a focus on promoting regulation and enhancing parent – child attachment
Job Description
Post: Project Leader
Location: Bawnlea, Tallaght
Responsible to: Assistant Director of Children’s Services, Dublin South Region
Works with: Internal stakeholders, National & Regional Offices, other Managers, Barnardos teams, volunteers, service users, families, and external agencies.
Job Purpose
To ensure the development, management, delivery and review of Barnardos services within your area of responsibility, within the strategic direction of Barnardos and to participate in the overall development of the region and organisation.
Core Job Requirements
Management
- Responsible for the delivery, management, development and review of Barnardos work with children and families within your area of responsibility.
- To propose a budget for the service, participate in budget planning and manage the approved budget(s) for your area of responsibility in line with Barnardos financial procedures and compliance practice.
- To pursue funding opportunities to support the work, and to prepare and submit funding proposals in consultation with the Assistant Director.
- To undertake the duties of Designated Person for the project under the Children First National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children.
- To ensure that the protection and welfare of children is a primary concern of all staff and that, when child protection issues arise, Barnardos policies and procedures are fully adhered to.
- To prepare reports on the work, as required; and to maintain effective working relationships with funders as appropriate.
- To ensure all case, financial and administrative records and files are maintained to a high standard and case records are accessible to service users, seeking permission from third parties as appropriate.
- To ensure up to date Health and Safety procedures including Risk Assessments and a Safety Statement is accessible and available and is adhered to and any health and safety concerns are dealt with effectively and efficiently.
- To ensure the information for the database is gathered and inputed within the required time scale.
- To develop and facilitate a culture of service users consultation and involvement in all aspects of the work.
Staff and Supervision
- To ensure all staff, students and volunteers receive regular and professional supervision and appraisals.
- To ensure training needs are identified and addressed to ensure learning is promoted within your area of responsibility.
- To manage the recruitment process for staff to the service.
Delivery of Services
- To ensure effective referral, assessment, planning and review processes are in place to meet the needs of children and families participating in the service.
- To ensure quality and best standards are adhered to in all aspects of the work.
- To maintain appropriate relationships with external agencies in order to ensure that the needs of children and families are met in an integrated and co-ordinated manner.
- To ensure that legislation and statutory guidelines, organisational policy and the corporate plan are fully implemented within your area of responsibility.
- To ensure programmes are planned, delivered and evaluated in response to the needs of children and families attending the service.
- Identify the needs of children and families attending the service that are not being met and to advocate at an individual, service and organisational level for them to be met.
- To ensure that regular contact is maintained with referrers and other relevant agencies to ensure an integrated response to the needs of children and families.
- To ensure the service participates in case conferences and other meetings in relation to the welfare of children and families.
- To undertake direct practice as appropriate.
Development of the Service
- To develop appropriate relationships with external agencies in order to ensure that the needs of children and families are met in an integrated and co-ordinated manner.
- To pro-actively pursue the development of services to meet the needs of children and families within the catchments area of your responsibility through appropriate participation in community and interagency structures.
- Identify recruitment needs for the service, review and propose job descriptions and person specifications.
- To participate in the overall development of good practice models within the organisation.
Organisational Role
- To participate in the development of organisational policy and plans to ensure they are implemented within the work of the project.
- To ensure that the service operates in a cohesive way within the region and organisation and to participate in service development for a within the organisation.
- To participate at regional management level and other appropriate groups to contribute to the development of strategies and policies within the organisation.
- To represent Barnardos as appropriate at local / regional or national level, which may involve media and advocacy work.
- To undertake specific regional / organisational tasks in agreement with the line manager.
Requirements Specific to this Post
- To inform and guide staff ensuring that they are supported to deliver evidence informed services to children and families within a trauma-informed context with a focus on promoting regulation and enhancing parent – child attachment.
- To actively participate in the Dublin South Regional Management Team and other forum as relevant to the needs of the project, role and organisation.
- To provide line management to the Coordinator of the Barnardos Special Needs Service
- To participate in the local Tusla Comhar Process, accepting referrals for families seeking support who have come to attention of Tusla but do not meet the child protection and welfare threshold
- To oversee the delivery of HSE Sláinte Care Healthy Communities Parenting Initiative in Dublin 24
- To proactively manage the waiting list for the service
Note: this Job Description will be reviewed and updated in line with the needs of the work.
Personal attributes
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to manage in a dynamic and busy environment
- Teamwork required and the ability to work in collaboration with others
- Ability to lead and manage the staff team
- Ability to prioritise competing demands.
- Ability to work autonomously but see advice as appropriate.
- Ability to manage complexity and diversity.
- Ability to develop, manage and maintain complex internal and external relationships with a range of stakeholders.
- Ability to assess needs and identify appropriate service responses.
- Ability to work to standards and work within policy framework and legislation.
- Ability to demonstrate high level dynamic skills of responsiveness, flexibility, creativity and problem solving.
- Ability to be analytical and critical.
- Flexibility and adaptability is essential for this post.
Experience
- A minimum of five years’ post-qualification experience and demonstrable competencies in terms of management ability essential.
- Prior management experience highly desirable.
- Experience of brief intervention methods and other evidence informed approaches to family support are highly desirable.
Qualifications
- Relevant professional 3rd level qualification essential, for example:
- Social Work, Social Care, Child Care, Youth and Community Work, Psychology or equivalent.
- Management training highly desirable.
Full driving licence and access to a suitably insured car is essential.
Barnardos is an equal opportunity employer.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all.
