Residential Childcare Worker
Darlington Borough CouncilTBC, North East
AI insight: this role at a glance
This role involves working with children and young people with complex needs in a residential care setting, providing support and care to help them thrive. The ideal candidate will be child-focused, enthusiastic, and creative. This job suits individuals who are passionate about working with vulnerable children and have experience in a similar setting.
Key points
- Salary: Band 8 (£32,061 - £34,343) or Band 9 (£35,412 - £38,220) per annum
- Permanent, full-time contract
- Location: To Be Confirmed (TBC)
- Shift work, sleep overs, bank holidays, and weekend working required
- Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check required
- Closing date: August 31, 2026
You'll need
- Experience of working with children and young people
- Willingness to work towards a Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (Band 8)
- Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare or equivalent (Band 9)
How to stand out
- 1Tailor your application to demonstrate your experience and skills in working with children and young people with complex needs
- 2Emphasize your ability to work flexibly, including shift work and sleep overs
- 3Show enthusiasm and creativity in your approach to childcare and supporting vulnerable children
- 4Ensure you address the essential criteria explicitly in your application, including your willingness to work towards a Level 3 Diploma (if applicable)
- 5Research the council's values and mission to demonstrate your understanding of their priorities and how you can contribute to them
- 6Prepare examples of your experience and skills to discuss at interview, using the STAR method to structure your responses
Recommended reading: How to get a job in local government
Recommended reading: Writing a public-sector CV that gets shortlisted
Generated by AI from the advert text — it can miss detail or misread nuance. Always check the official advert and person specification before applying.
Job description
We are looking for exceptional, enthusiastic and creative child focused people to work within our Children Homes, to work with young people with complex and additional needs.
The ideal candidates must also be able to effectively extend these skills to the young people’s families/carers and professionals.
The Residential Homes care for children who are looked after by the local authority. We also provide a Short Breaks Service for children with disabilities. These vacancies support children and young people across both our residential homes and Short Breaks Service.
The overall aims as a Residential Child Care Worker is to act as a corporate parent for Children Looked After and be an assertive champion for Children in Need in accordance with the Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards. To ensure children and young people are nurtured, happy, healthy and safe from harm, able to develop, thrive and fulfil their full potential.
Applicants should have experience of working with children and young people either in a residential care or related setting.
Band 8- Must be willing to work towards a Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare.
Band 9- Applicants should hold a Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare or equivalent.
This post involves shift work, sleep overs, bank holidays and weekend working.
The rewards for working at Darlington Borough Council go beyond the salary you will receive; we have numerous additional benefits such as:
- 32 days Annual Leave, plus Bank Holidays, with option to purchase additional Annual Leave (pro-rata for part time working)
- Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme with option to make Additional Voluntary Contributions
- Flexible working
- Generous Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave schemes
- Staff equality forums
- Green Car Leasing Scheme
- Access to a wide range of training, learning and development
- Physiotherapy service
- Confidential counselling service
- Great wellbeing offer
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Dolphin Centre Fit for Life Discounts
- Local and National retailer discounts
- Vivup employee benefit app and Lifestyle Savings
- Arriva Employee Travel Club
For the full range of benefits we offer, please see our Why work for us internet page, which also includes our Total Reward Booklet and Employee Benefit Video.
https://www.darlington.gov.uk/jobs-and-careers-1/why-work-for-us/
Find out further information about us and what it’s like to work for our great team by visiting the Jobs and Careers home page.
https://www.darlington.gov.uk/jobs-and-careers/
The successful applicants will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.
For an informal discussion please contact Sadie McCartney, Manager on 07787247582.
General Information for Applicants:
If you have any further questions regarding applying for this role or the questions and required fields within the application form, please contact the HR Support team on 01325 403217 or HR@darlington.gov.uk.
If you are experiencing problems with the NE Jobs website, such as logging in, saving pages, on account queries please fill out the form within the link below.
https://www.northeastjobs.org.uk/contactus
All applicant email correspondence will come from donotreply@northeastjobs.org.uk and may be directed to your Junk folder depending on the settings of your email account. Please check both your email and Junk folder as all applicants will be notified whether they have been shortlisted.
You must ensure that anything submitted in your application is factually accurate. Plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. Whilst we accept candidates may use AI tools within job applications; submissions must be truthful and relevant to your own experience.
We are an equal opportunities' employer. We welcome applicants from all sections of the community. We aim to interview any applicant who declares a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job.
How this role compares
We hold 350 council vacancies in North East that publish a salary, and their median advertised starting figure is £33,699. This role sits close to the middle of the range.
There are 4,945 council roles open across the UK on GovJobs right now, 555 of them in North East.
You have 1 day left to apply. Council adverts we hold typically run for around 26 days, so this is a shorter window than usual.
Darlington Borough Council has 16 other vacancies open on GovJobs, with a breakdown of what they pay and the kinds of roles they recruit for.
These figures are calculated from the vacancies GovJobs currently holds, not from official pay statistics. They are a guide to the market, not a valuation of this post.
How to apply
GovJobs does not take applications or send your details to the employer. Use the apply button to open the official Northeast Jobs advert, then check the employer's instructions, attachments, person specification and closing time before applying.
This listing was last checked on 28 Aug 2026, 15:09. If the official advert has changed or closed, report it and we will review the listing.
Why this listing is on GovJobs
GovJobs indexes public-sector vacancies from official sources, normalises the title, employer, location, salary and deadline, and links back to the source so you can verify the advert yourself.
The source for this role is Northeast Jobs. Applications stay on the official employer or source website, not on GovJobs.