Support Worker

PLEASE NOTE: Prospective start dates from January 2026

Did you know there are thousands of children across the country in incorrect or unsuitable care placements?

That’s thousands of children who do not have access to the care and support they need to thrive, thousands of children being let down repeatedly and thousands of children who are misunderstood.

Enter Protective Care Group, we exist to provide what we know is missing. We use a trauma informed approach, look past the challenging behaviour and recognise that beneath everything, there is a child who desperately needs the specialist support that our teams provide.

All the young people in our care receive:

• Robust, consistent, trauma informed care.
• Staff who won’t give up, no matter how challenging it gets.
• Truly person-centred care in solo residential placements.
• Care delivered by professionals trained in safeguarding, de-escalation, and therapeutic approaches.

To date, we have never given up on a young person, this has only been possible due to the hard work, understanding, experience and dedication our teams show daily.

What are we looking for in our Support Workers?

We recently asked one of our young people what they want in a support worker, they said ‘someone that is kind, someone that will help them and someone who will get involved in their hobbies’. As we are person centred it’s only right we take their lead.

Due to the level of care that we provide, we are looking for people that fit the following requirements: 

• Hold a Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare (or equivalent)
  – AND/OR -
• Have significant, relevant experience working with young people, particularly those who have experienced trauma or require high levels of support.
• If you don’t yet hold a qualification, you must be willing to work towards it as part of the role (with support and funding provided)
• In possession of a full UK manual driving licence (we currently cannot accept provisional, automatic or international driving licences).
• Empathetic, curious, and able to engage with young people in a supportive, age-appropriate way.
• Resilient and able to manage challenging behaviour such as severe physical aggression, verbal aggression, sexualised behaviour, CSE and CCE vulnerabilities, self harm and absconding.
• Flexible and able to work a varied shift pattern, such as 4 on 4 off (including day shifts, waking nights, and sleep-ins – this could be for the whole of your rotation, so be prepared to stay away from home if needed) 
• You may be placed in any of our teams across the North East. We carefully match Support Workers to the young people and teams where they’ll be the best fit, which means your placement might not be the one closest to home.

It’s important that you understand all aspects of the role before of applying, like the working hours, possible working locations and the types of challenges you may encounter. Please follow this link to find out more:  

https://protective-care.co.uk/careers/careers-faqs/

What you’ll get:

The ultimate reward is knowing you have made a difference to a young person however, all our support workers also receive:

• £32,000 base salary + generous shift uplifts & sleep-in pay.
• Fully funded industry recognised qualifications
• Clear pathways for internal career growth
• Paid annual leave that grows with service
• Sick pay, company pension & employee wellbeing support (including free counselling)