Active Ark

If you are considering a career at Active Ark you do not necessarily need qualifications or experience in the field of child care. We currently have talented experienced managers and staff who joined with experience of the care industry and others who came with none and have achieved qualifications to HNC and Scottish Vocational Qualification level 3 in Health and Social Care and beyond.
Of greater importance is your aptitude for this challenging and rewarding work. An extract from our Person Specification is listed below;

Personal Attributes:

• Be able to work on own initiative as well as part of a small staff team.
• Open, honest and fair.
• Be able to demonstrate an open and approachable attitude.
• Possess a calm demeanour.
• Possess a non-judgemental and caring attitude.
• Possess a person centred personality.

Personal Skills

• Good listening skills.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Good communication skills.
• Ability to assist everyday living and community skills.
• Assist and teach with personal budgeting and manage household budget.
• Ability to deal with young people with challenging behaviour and needs.
• To be able to listen, observe and asses a young persons demeanour.
• Good organisational and administrative skills.
• Paternalistic person based approach to child care.
• Methodical approach to house and personal organisation.
• Able to learn and retain knowledge of chid care legislation in practice.
• Literate and numerate to fair degree.
• Full clean driving licence.

If you think your personality matches our specification and you want to work in a caring environment with a team of like minded people and caring supportive managers read on.

A Job Description / Person Specification and Application Form are available as downloads at the end of this section. If your application is suitable you will be invited to an interview where the details of employment and remuneration can be discussed in greater detail. However be advised that this work is challenging and involves being away from home for up to three days in succession. This industry is by necessity is highly regulated; you will need to produce a satisfactory police disclosure check, satisfactory employer and personal references. You will also so obliged to join the register of Residential Child Carers which is regulated by the Scottish Social Services Council which requires that the qualifications of SVQ3 and HNC in Health and Social Care or equivalent are attained in the three year period following registration. There will also be an induction period; usually three to six months were you will be required to undertake compulsory training in Child Protection, First Aid, Basic Food Hygiene, Fire Safety and the Team Teach system of restraint and de-escalation techniques.

Active Ark has a supportive management culture and successful applicants will be assisted throughout the whole process and beyond. Police checks and first SSSC registration fees will be paid for by the company. The management support continues throughout employment at Active Ark, for example, staff have regular planned supervision sessions with a line manager to discuss concerns or assess progress with training or career development. They are also provided on demand or after an incident if required.

At Active Ark we try to be a responsible employer as set out in the Five Part Employment Ethos given at the beginning of this section and which prospective employees should read with care. We have a dedicated Training and Career Development manager who is responsible for maintaining training records and ensuring that qualification attainments are kept up to date. We also have a principle embodied in our ethos that promotion shall always first be considered from within the existing staff pool and that we will sponsor appropriate training and provide career advancement opportunities commensurate with an individual’s skills and acumen.

Also enshrined in our Five Part Employment Ethos are the principles of communication and inclusivity meaning that we will attempt to keep staff informed and wish staff to feel able to advise and provide feedback in return. This may be done by many means, not least the aforesaid supervision sessions, but we do have an “open door” policy and welcome staff feedback at all times. This website also has two means of providing feedback to the management; one is open and will be read by a duty manager in the first instance. The second is intended for matters of a confidential nature and as such will be read by the service manager and director and you can be assured will be treated with the utmost confidence.

This website has been designed with three sections each of which is primarily intended to provide information for the intended recipient however both prospective job applicants and existing staff are encouraged to view the “Young People and Carers” and “Social Workers and Placing Officers” sections to obtain valuable alternative perspectives on the service which Active Ark provides. Along with the downloads at the end of this section there is also a link direct to our providers page of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care’s website which also gives the regulatory authority’s perspective on our service including inspection grade scores and detailed reports of every inspection since 2006. We are proud of the scores the service, and its staff and management achieve. We also welcome the confirmation that those reports provide concerning our commitment to continual improvement.

A Person/Job Specification and Job Application form can be downloaded from our downloads area here.

Our Care Commission reports can be found here.