Could you help steer and govern a leading, high profile and dynamic East Anglian charity to new heights?

Are you committed to improving young lives?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity to join our organisation as a Trustee (voluntary position).

We are particularly seeking to recruit to the Board applicants with expertise in one of the following:

• Strategic leadership in children’s social care services
• Experienced public law solicitor or barrister
• Strategic leadership in business or entrepreneurial expertise

We are seeking to recruit three trustees with different areas of expertise who are committed to helping us to deliver our vision and mission.

We are committed to increasing the diversity of our Board and making sure we best reflect the young people and families we serve. For this reason, we would particularly welcome applications from:

• People, including young adults, who were in the care system themselves or who have lived experience of the care system
• Applicants from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds
•   Applicants who have a disability

Click here for full details

This Care Leavers Week we want to focus on young people who have left care through fostering and the positive impact it has had on them:
Foster families can be hugely instrumental in helping a young person living in care thrive. By offering stability, love, and encouragement, foster families give children the foundation they need to overcome past traumas and build a positive future.

With the right support, children in care can develop confidence, achieve their potential, and transition into independent adulthood with the tools they need to succeed - just like Tomasz. 

Click here to read the full article

Could you help steer and govern a leading, high profile and dynamic East Anglian charity to new heights?

Are you committed to improving young lives?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity to join our organisation as a Trustee (voluntary position).

We are particularly seeking to recruit to the Board applicants with expertise in one of the following:

• Strategic leadership in children’s social care services
• Experienced public law solicitor or barrister
• Strategic leadership in business or entrepreneurial expertise

What we are looking for:
We are seeking to recruit three trustees with different areas of expertise who are committed to helping us to deliver our vision and mission.

We are committed to increasing the diversity of our Board and making sure we best reflect the young people and families we serve.

Click here to read the full role details

As the foster panel advisor you will use your technical knowledge to advise foster panel members on regulations, policy and procedures relating to fostering or social work issues.  

You will liaise with social workers, the fostering manager and the panel chair to ensure the standard of the case being presented is sufficient to allow the panel to make a recommendation.

We are particularly interested in hearing from candidates who are or have been social work qualified and registered.

Click here for full job details

About the role
As a Break Transition Worker, you’ll be working closely with young people who have recently left their children’s residential care home and are taking their first steps into independence.

Success in this role will very much hinge on the strong, trusting relationship you’ll build with the group of young people you’re working with.

You’ll make regular visits to their home and support them to increase their independent living skills. Whether that means teaching them one of your signature dishes (talk to Transition Worker Matt in Cambridgeshire for his Weetabix burger recipe), helping them to pay bills, applying for benefits or filling in a job application the role you will play in young people’s lives will be fundamental in supporting mental health, wellbeing and their future.

You will help them break down the barriers they might feel as a young person leaving care and be the best possible version of themselves as they enter independence.

You’ll work flexibly and have a can do attitude, be able to adapt your approach to suit the individuals or professionals you’re working with. You are calm under pressure and resilient enough to cope with challenging emotions and behaviours. Our houses are in Cambridge, Peterborough and Wisbech; you have access to a car for visiting our young people and are comfortable with lone working.

Click here for full job details

As a charity working across East Anglia supporting young people from care, we are passionate about giving care experienced young people the love, support and opportunities they deserve.  

The new government’s commitment to providing every child with a loving, secure home is commendable, but the 84,000 young people in England’s care system need concrete actions, not just promises. We believe the best people to advise you on how to do this are those who have been through the care system or the many struggling to navigate it right now.  

We want to bring you our young people’s voices. They have been there.

Click here to read about what they have to say. 

About you
Are you looking for a new challenge and would like to join a team where you can work with like minded people to really make a difference to the lives of children and young people who are in care and leaving care? Do you believe that by co-producing services, valuing and trusting your team and being aspirational helps get the best outcomes? Do you like the idea of working for a vibrant local voluntary organisation where you can really have an impact and help shape the vision for care and leaving care services? Would you like to be part of the leadership team for our forward thinking charity?  If so, we would love you to hear from you!

About the role
You will be taking on the line management of our community services, which currently includes our fostering service, our leaving care service and our internal staffing agency (Mobile Team) but this may be subject to change in the future. 

Click here for full details

About Break
Nobody chooses the family or circumstances they are born into. At Break we firmly believe that with the right care, there is no limit to what can be achieved.

We work across East Anglia with children and young people on the edge of care, in care and leaving care. Whether you’re interested in working in our residential homes and short breaks for children with disabilities, our pioneering Staying Close Staying Connected project or vital essentials like our family assessment centre and wraparound care offer, one thing is universal: you’ll be joining a team of passionate and dedicated individuals who want the very best for the young people they care for. 

Why Break?
At Break we invest in the future of our staff just as we do for the young people in our services. We strive to provide the highest quality of care, so whether you’re just starting your career in children’s social care or are already qualified, you’ll be supported, recognised and rewarded for your essential part in our vital work.

This role will work in our Staying Close Staying Connected project, Staying Close Staying Connected, one of eight pilot models for leaving care being funded by the Department of Education. For children in care, turning 18 can mean finding themselves on a cliff-edge of support. This service is truly leading the way nationally in terms of leaving care provision.

About the role
As a Break Transition Worker, you’ll be working closely with young people who have recently left their children’s residential care home and are taking their first steps into independence.

Success in this role will very much hinge on the strong, trusting relationship you’ll build with the group of young people you’re working with.

You’ll make regular visits to their home and support them to increase their independent living skills. Whether that means teaching them one of your signature dishes (talk to Transition Worker Matt in Cambridgeshire for his Weetabix burger recipe), helping them to pay bills, applying for benefits or filling in a job application the role you will play in young people’s lives will be fundamental in supporting mental health, wellbeing and their future.

You will help them break down the barriers they might feel as a young person leaving care and be the best possible version of themselves as they enter independence.

You’ll work flexibly and have a can do attitude, be able to adapt your approach to suit the individuals or professionals you’re working with. You are calm under pressure and resilient enough to cope with challenging emotions and behaviours. Our houses are in Cambridge, Peterborough and Wisbech; you have access to a car for visiting our young people and are comfortable with lone working.

Further details and application documents

Michael remembers coming home from school one day and being told to say goodbye to his mother. He was eight years old. Now 15 and living with a foster family, he says he can look to the future. The BBC spoke to him, his foster parent and the woman who helped bring them together.

"I didn't want anyone special," says Michael.

"I just wanted someone normal; I wanted some normality in my life.

"It's what most children want."

Michael is describing what it was like waiting to find the foster carers who would love him as their own.

"I was given this piece of paper and a picture of a little person, and you write in all you want to see in the ideal parent.

"I put 'no football', because I hate sports.

"It was the little things, and they matched us up."

'Dropping cups of tea'
With help from the charity Break, Michael found what he needed in Clive - a man who never dreamed he would have the chance to bring up a child - and his husband, at their home in Norfolk.

Looking back on their first days together six years ago, Michael recalls being anxious, but they soon found their rhythm.

"It didn't take long because they are really nice people," he adds.

What had been a difficult childhood has turned into something "really positive" with his foster carers.

"I'm happier," he reflects.

"When I moved in with Clive I was all hasty, I kept dropping my cups of tea because I was really nervous.

"With any foster child you are going to get all those kinks. If you give it time the things that have stopped them living normally will fade away.

"When you foster a child, it's going to be difficult at first but when you get to know each other you will be like a normal family."

'I always wanted a family'
Just as Michael needed the security of normality, so Clive longed for a life that seemed out of reach.

"I always wanted to be part of a family and nurture children and I never thought I could do that, as a gay man," he says.

"But things change and society changed.

"My husband and I considered it - we have a a room and love to give, so we thought 'yeah, why not?'."

The process included nine months of weekly meetings with Break, during which "they deduced who we are, and what we like", he says.

"It's people lives. It shouldn't be rushed; it's really important to get that right."

And then - a match.

"I do remember feeling nervous and all butterflies and 'oh gosh this is it'," he recalls.

"You don't just get a child presented at the door.

"We met Michael a few times, we went out for a day trip together, he gets to know us and we get to know him, so it's not such a shock."

As with Michael, Clive had the jitters when they started living together.

"I particularly remember the first night, I was really anxious," he says.

"We were going 'is he sleeping, does he want food, does he want this, does he want that,' but not trying to overwhelm him because he was anxious himself.

"It was really important to keep really calm and very supportive towards him.

"It all settled in really nicely and he clicked."

'Huge learning curve'
Did they worry about taking on a stranger's troubled background and reconcile that with the hope of all the rewards that come with the child flourishing in their care?

"For us it isn't about the rewards - it's about providing that opportunity for someone, regardless of what they bring to the door," says Clive.

"We hope we have helped provide that support so Michael feels he can explore the world.

"You have to be patient, children in foster care will have been through a difficult time.

"That can be tricky and can be emotionally difficult but it's about being there and standing by their side.

"It was a huge learning curve but I think we learned quite fast - we had to."

Clive say it is "lovely" to now reminisce about Michael's growing up.

"I probably wouldn't have imagined that he would sit his GCSEs and go to school as much as he has but he has really pushed himself forward and dedicated himself to learning," he says.

"I'm really proud of him.

"Michael wants to go to college, he has ambitions and dreams, which is great to see and we are really supportive of that, but if that doesn't happen it doesn't matter, there will always be something else.

"We are here for the long term for him."

What would he say to anyone considering becoming a foster carer?

"Just do it.

"If you take pleasure in seeing people grow, become adults and learn, then just do it."

Finding the right fit
One of those who helped create this bond was Natasha Freeman, who manages Break's independent fostering agency across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

It has a team of social workers that supports fostering families and a therapeutic practitioner to help with any issues that may arise.

It prides itself on taking matching "really seriously" so children who have had multiple foster placements will stay with one family with the charity's support.

"Children we look after have had a really difficult start in life and some of their behaviour may be challenging.

"But what we know is that when we place a child in to a family with Break they stay there until 18 and into adulthood in some cases and they become a part of that family.

"That's because we are here to listen when times are hard and respond to their needs when they arise.

"We look at the whole family, the biological children and fostered children, and the carers' skills set, and we look at the children as they come through.

"Finding the right child to fit into the family is critical to us knowing when they move there they stay there for ever."

The "huge benefits" to fostering are many, including for the foster parents' biological children, she says.

"You are nurturing a child who needs it more than ever - to know that they can love, and can be loved and can trust an adult again.

"It means they can grow into their dreams, whatever they may be."

Back at home, Michael is passionate about art and is keen to see where it may take him.

"It is how I see the world and I can portray it, get it out there and put my thoughts on canvas," he says.

"It's how I express myself."

And as he approaches adulthood and independence, he knows his foster carers have his back, wherever life takes him.

"I am hopeful," he says.

"I see the future is bright because I am able to express myself easily because they [his foster carers] have let me, which I may not have been able to feel before.

"I see myself, in the futurbreak-charity.org/charity/e, living happily."​

Debbie Tubby
BBC News, Norfolk

Laura Devlin
BBC News, Norfolk
​
Source:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Location - Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire – HQ in Norwich

This is an exciting and rare opportunity to play the key role in leading the care division of a forward thinking, successful charitable organisation on the frontline of systemic change in children’s social care.

As part of the executive team, you will influence the direction of the charity, driving the improvement and expansion of our services through inspirational strategic vision and leadership. 

This is a great time to join our team as  

• 100% of our services are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted
• Our staff turnover is low
• We have excellent outcomes for the young people
• We have a high performing care leadership team
• We have plans to grow
• We are influencing policy and decision makers

If you are an outstanding candidate who can evidence impact and are ready to progress your career and take our care services to the next level, then please apply, we want to hear from you!

About Break
Break is a forward-thinking non-profit organisation that’s delivered unique support for young people across East Anglia for over fifty years. Co-production with staff, young people and families is at the very heart of everything we do.

We have a range of residential services, a fostering agency, leaving care service - Staying Close Staying Connected and services for disabled children and their families.

As a trauma-informed organisation, all our young people and employees are supported by our highly skilled therapeutic team - and our lifelong offer means that even when young people leave our care, we will always be there for them.

At Break, we believe that if it is not good enough for our own children – it is not good enough for anyone in the Break family – and we strive to ensure they get the best.

Further details and application documents here