Play Worker (Casual)
Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Salary: SC5 £30,033 - £31,926
Contract Type: Casual
Working hours per week: 3.5hr shifts Monday to Friday for up to 35 hours per week
Application Deadline: 19.06.24
Proposed Interview Date(s): 02.07.24 / 03.07.24
Reference: 1244
About Us:
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
About the role:
Are you an enthusiastic, creative and self-motivated person with experience of delivering high quality play-based activities for young people aged 6 -11 and their families?
Do you have experience of supervising a range of children's activities, ensuring these are run safely at all times and presented to the highest levels of service delivery?
Are you passionate about ensuring that children, young people and families in Waltham Forest have access to positive, enjoyable activities that extend their imaginations and inspire them?
Then we want to hear from you!
Waltham Forest's Holiday Activity Programme has been running for ten years as part of the Council Leader's Pledge and supports the Council priorities to help all our residents enjoy a good quality of life. Part of the programme sees local schools opening their doors to enable play sessions to be delivered to local children and families. These are very popular and well received by local families and we are continually striving to improve the quality and variety of this provision.
We are looking for additional Play Workers to join the Waltham Forest's Holiday Activity Programme team. The successful candidates will be aware of Safeguarding and Health & Safety issues linked to leading play programmes and will be expected to show the ability to develop positive relationships with children, young people, their families and other Play specialists. You will be required to work on a casual basis in the School holidays for between 3.5 hour shifts and 7 hours shifts between 9.30am - 5:30pm Monday to Friday for up to 35 hours per week on schools sites across the borough.
>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<
Key Responsibilities:
To ensure a safe, creative and appropriate play opportunities are provided for children aged 5-11 in a safe and caring environment
Lead a team to organise, facilitate and lead a range of play-based activities which include sports, arts and crafts, games, drama and dance.
Lead on carrying out day to day administration to ensure a smooth and safe provision
Ensure that you promote good pupil behaviour, dealing promptly with conflict and incidents in line with established policies and procedures
To ensure all activities are inclusive for all children to take part in
Develop and maintain good relationships with parents / carers to facilitate high quality play sessions
Be aware of and comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection, health & safety, confidentiality and data protection
Manage a group of playworkers to ensure all activities are delivered in a safe environment
Qualifications and Requirements:
- Some experience of being involved with a play service in either a paid or voluntary capacity; for example, in playgrounds, junior playrooms, play centres or other equivalent play setting.
- To include organising and supervising activities.
- Some experience of managing a team either paid or voluntary
- Ability to relate well to children and an awareness of their needs.
- Knowledge of appropriate play activities e.g. sports, games, crafts, stories, song, dance etc.
- A basic awareness of health and safety practices.
- An understanding of relevant administration procedures including child registration requirements.
- Commitment to and understanding of equal opportunities.
- Good literacy and communication skills.
- Work constructively as part of a team.
Prepared to undertake a First Aid at Work qualification.
Terms and conditions:
Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
Satisfactory declaration of interest;
This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;
Satisfactory DBS check;
Continued professional body registration;
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Fern Edwards, Education Enrichment Project Manager at fern.edwards@walthamforest.gov.uk
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.
The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.