Lancing

Welfare Manager

Reporting to:
Centre Director

Qualifications:

Although no specific qualifications are necessary, it is essential that the Welfare Manager is passionate about the welfare of children because this job is extremely challenging and yet also highly rewarding. The Welfare Manager will be someone who has extensive experience of dealing with young people in a professional setting.

Salary:
The salary for this position starts at £500 per week

Working Day:
In the mornings, you will spend a considerable amount of time in the student Houses and liaising with the main school staff assigned to the Houses e.g. maintenance staff, cleaners and people employed to do the students’ laundry. It is essential that you maintain good relations with these key people as we rely on them to make summer school work. Time spent building the relationships is an important aspect of the Welfare Manager’s job.

During this time you will also be able to check whether the high standards expected at St Bede’s are being met i.e. laundry being done at least twice a week, sleeping areas being cleaned on a regular basis and bathrooms being cleaned every day.

You will be responsible for allocating students to bedrooms and ensuring that as far as possible special requests are being met. You will also be responsible for sorting out any of the problems associated with rooms e.g. minor squabbles with roommates. It is crucial that rooming lists are kept up-to-date and displayed with the correct information as we need to know which students are sleeping where.

Having a Welfare Room is another of your responsibilities and it is a place where students are able to come if they are feeling homesick or they would like to phone home or if they would just like to spend some time in a calm, quiet place. It is important that the Welfare Room is calm and quiet as this is the place where students who are sick and under the supervision of the School Nurse can spend time.

You are directly responsible for the House Parents and so in the evenings, it will be important to spend some time in the Houses liaising with them and finding out if there are any possible welfare issues. On Sundays, it will be necessary to go along to the House Meeting to introduce yourself an to ensure that House Parents are giving students all of the required information. The Group Leaders will also be your responsibility.

In the evening, your attendance at the daily staff meeting is very important as it is here that staff will be informed about any incidents which have made it into the Observations Book. It is important that you encourage all staff to use the Observations Book.

Main Duties:

  • Assuming overall responsibility for the welfare of all students but particularly juniors aged up to 11
  • Working closely with the Centre Director and other members of the Senior Team
  • Overseeing the House Parent System and ensuring that House Parents are doing their job correctly
  • Leading the ‘Welfare’ section of the Staff Meetings
  • Liaising with school domestic, catering and maintenance staff to ensure that the high standards expected are maintained
  • Preparing rooming for students
  • Being a ‘mum’ particularly to younger students when homesickness occurs
  • Arranging telephone times for the youngest students
  • Sorting out simple, non-aggressive disputes between students
  • Overseeing issues of hygiene
  • Taking responsibility for the junior boys and girls’ laundry
  • Overseeing tidiness in the Houses
  • Ensuring that students are eating properly
  • Being responsible for the Group Leaders
  • Attending daily staff meetings
  • Other duties involved in the day-to-day running of Summer School


Essential Qualities

  • Professional experience with young people
  • Flexibility
  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Excellent PR skills
  • Professional manner and appearance
  • Safety conscious
  • Patience
  • Sensitive and caring manner


Desirable Qualities

  • Previous experience of Summer Schools
  • A Driver
  • First Aid Qualification (St John’s Ambulance First Aid at Work, Appointed Person, Emergency First Aid)