Pastoral Care Manager

Those Huge Small Victories

For children with complex, challenging needs, the level of care and education must go above and beyond. That’s what drives us, here at Witherslack Group. With our high staff-to-child ratio and in-house clinical teams, we’re proud to have won a reputation for excellence and market leading OFSTED ratings.

Get out what you put in

As a Pastoral Manager you’ll take the lead in enabling your team to meet our young peoples’ emotional needs. Our young people have challenging complex emotional and behavioural needs [Autistic Spectrum Disorder/Social, Emotional and Mental Health] and need more support than most. You’ll make sure they get it by applying high standards of care. It means working with families and developing programs for each individual young person. With careful assessment and planning, you’ll create a positive learning environment where every young person can thrive.

With experience working with young people with BESD or ASD in a school or care setting you will understand our young people’s developmental needs and what pastoral care entails. A good listener who can motivate your team, you inspire young people to achieve. Flexibility, good organizational skills and the ability to successfully manage a team means you’ll be an asset to the Witherslack Group.

One of the best environments in SEND

You’ll be joining Abbeywood School, which opened in 2019, located in a newly refurbished building with every aspect designed to consider the needs of our pupils. Complemented with a highly experienced and dedicated staff team, Abbeywood has grown, both in terms of pupil numbers and reputation, and was recently rated as Good by Ofsted. We provide a range of educational options for young people with ADHD, ASD, Asperger’s and SEMH, including an extensive provision of vocational courses

What we do for you

We know you’re going to do great things. For your hard work and commitment, we reward you with the best salary and benefits package in the education sector. With us, you’ll get to bring learning to life and make a genuine difference to the lives of our young people – plus you’ll get:

• Training: A full induction and on the job training
• Holiday: You’ll work hard at WG, so you’ll be rewarded with full school holidays/35 days holiday including bank holiday
• Progression: If career development is your thing, most of our head teachers and leaders have been promoted from within our group
• Flexible benefits: meaning you can increase/decrease benefits such as life insurance – check out our benefits here
• Wellbeing: a host of wellbeing tools and advice including employee assistance
• Medical cover so you can claim back the cost of things like an opticians or dentist appointment and a host of high-street discounts
• Beautiful working environments with the very best facilities – check out our schools here
• A recommend a friend scheme that offers a £2,000 bonus every time
• Contributory pension scheme – matched up to 5%

Bring your whole-self to work

Our young people come from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds and with different needs – and our workforce reflects that diversity, so that our teams can engage, encourage and inspire our young people to be themselves. You’ll be more than a Pastoral Manager, you’ll be able to connect with our pupils because of:

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience with ASC, ADHD or SEMH pupils and with working with families in challenging circumstances and expertise to support and resolve difficulties
• Experience of multi-agency work with an understanding of legislation, policies and guidance around safeguarding and child protection
• NVQ 3 in Care/Level 2 Teaching Assistant Qualification
• Ideally - Leadership related Qualification
• Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)
• Experience of staff appraisal/performance management and supervision

Interested in joining us?

Our young people deserve the best possible future and we feel the same about our teams. You deserve to have the career you want, with a purpose-led employer, in an environment that allows you to be yourself.

The Witherslack Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of its young people. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check (we will cover the cost) and an online search. We are an equal opportunities employer welcoming applications from all sections of the community.

For a full job description and person specification, please see the attached document.

Special Education / Careers in Care / Careers in Special Education / Working with Children / SEMH / SEN / ASD