Transforming children's lives.
Channels & Choices is a centre of excellence in therapeutic child care. Our community, based in Kent, is made up of 7 therapeutic residential children’s homes, a school (which offers primary and secondary education) and a therapeutic fostering service. As a member of our community you would play a key part in transforming children’s lives and helping them reach their full potential. If you want to know more about our journey so far, you can read about it here.
Hard work is recognised & there are great opportunities for career development” (Residential worker)
Valuing staff and developing careers
Our work is relationship-based and therefore all of our staff from across the whole of the community are at the heart of what we do. We aim to create an environment whereby our staff feel valued and motivated. If you join us at Channels & Choices you will have the opportunity to develop your career so that you can reach your goals. The majority of our management team started their careers as care workers in the homes, and have completed their qualifications whilst gaining experience of working with Channels & Choices. Our turnover of staff is low as working with us is a fun place to be. We will help to train, support and guide you whatever your career targets may be.
Don’t just take our word for it- take a look at what Sophie has to say:
Here’s 5 Reasons why you should apply to join us:
- Our recruitment process is straight forward – This means you could be working with us sooner than you think. We offer full time, part time and bank staff contracts.
- The core age of children we work with is 8-13 years old – Research shows this is an optimal time to help children make significant progress in their lives which you could help shape and deliver.
- Progress quickly– our career progression is performance based so hard work is rewarded. Many of our Managers and Senior Managers started with us as residential care workers. We also provide fantastic experience for those who want a career in other social care fields such as Social Work, Psychology, and Therapy.
- You will be trained by some of the country’s experts in their fields such as Professor David Shemmings – David and his team have developed the ARP (Attachment and Relationship- based Practice) project which we have now incorporated in to our therapeutic framework.
- We are an outstanding therapeutic community – Not only do we provide residential care for children but we also have our own fostering service, school (which provides primary and secondary education), and therapy team. You would become part of our community, working with a fantastic multi-skilled group of practitioners. Additionally you will have a significant impact on a child’s life, most of whom will progress from our residential homes to one of our foster families.
No two days are the same and you get to take part in so many different activities with the children” (Residential worker)
Ongoing, comprehensive training
At Channels & Choices we passionately believe in having highly professional and skilled staff members. We support our staff with ongoing training; support that enables them to provide the best therapeutic care possible to the children and young people placed with us. As such we have a comprehensive list of training courses which take place throughout the year. We also arrange bespoke training according to the needs of our staff and the children placed with us. All staff members complete a detailed induction process when they start working with us which not only builds your skills and knowledge of working with children, but it also gives you that ‘something extra’ as you learn the unique way of how we work as a therapeutic community.
Wide range of courses and workshops
We provide a wide and varied range of mandatory and optional courses as well as our bespoke workshops which are designed to help enhance the skills and knowledge of our staff. These courses compliment and build upon the statutory diplomas for working with children.
Train alongside professionals
As a staff member at Channels & Choices you will meet and learn with other professionals from the community. In any training course, you will most likely sit alongside members from our fostering team, school team and therapy team. We believe that reflection and sharing as a group is a huge resource which allows staff to develop and broaden their understanding and skill base.
Learn from the experts
We have some of the country’s experts in therapeutic child care working alongside us at Channels & Choices. Many of whom provide on-going training to our staff such as Professor David Shemmings whose ARP project has been incorporated in to our therapeutic framework, and forms part of our core training for all staff. Our in house therapy team and Social Work practitioners also provide innovative workshops and training to our staff.
Group therapeutic support sessions
The Channels & Choices community provides a huge level of support to our staff members especially our therapy team. The team provide individual and group support to children as well as training across the community. One of their most valuable inputs according to our staff is the group meeting process; the therapy team have a structured period with each staff team devoted to therapeutic thinking. This reflective culture is at the heart of the staff team as it allows us to reflect on our practices and deepen our understanding of the child’s behaviour.
Generous support package
It’s not just fantastic training that we offer. Our support packages are excellent, and all vacant job positions come with a competitive salary attached. Here are some of the fantastic benefits you’ll receive as a part of our community:
- 28 days paid holiday per year
- Staff pension scheme
- Staff loyalty and long service scheme which includes increase in pay, extra annual leave days and performance bonuses
- Regular team building days
- Exciting Christmas get-together
The teams at Channels & Choices are extremely well trained and very experienced. Whichever part of the community that you work with you will have a supportive management team to help guide you.
Send us a text!
Use our shortcode text to receive more information about what it’s like working for Channels and Choices.
