Join our team

Most of what this job asks for cannot be taught.

We would rather appoint somebody with the right temperament and teach them the rest, than appoint a good CV and hope.

Oasis House is a small children's home based in Derby, being set up for up to two children aged 5 to 17 — and every role below is open now.

If any of what follows puts you off, that is useful information for both of us.

The work

Most of it is breakfast, the walk to school, and the hour before bed

The everyday of this job is unglamorous, and that is the point of it. Mornings and mealtimes. Getting somebody out of the door who does not want to go. Homework, appointments, bedtime, and the long stretches in between where very little happens.

The hard part sits inside the ordinary: noticing that a child is not quite themselves, staying calm when they are dysregulated, and writing down what actually happened at the end of a shift when you would rather go home.

A child works out whether an adult is safe from small things, repeated. That is most of the job.

Priority vacancy

Deputy Manager – Children’s Residential Home

Derby, DE23 £40,000 – £43,500 per annum 40 hours per week

We’re not simply looking for someone to fill a management position.

We’re looking for the person who will help us build the culture of Oasis House.

A child living here would see more of this person than of anyone else leading the home. That is what makes it the appointment that shapes the other two: a house this small has no culture separate from the people in it — it has whatever the senior person on shift makes normal. We are looking for somebody who wants that responsibility, and who would rather hold it standing in the kitchen at seven in the morning than from behind a desk.

View the role

Current opportunities

Three roles, and the difference between them

When a shift gets difficult, you would be —

Support Worker: the adult who stays with the child.
Senior Support Worker: the adult who stays with the child, and the one the others are watching.
Deputy Manager – Children’s Residential Home: the adult who stays with the child, the one the others are watching — and the one who decides what this house is like on the days nobody is watching.

Open role

Support Worker

Employment: Full-time, part-time and sessional
Pay: £13.00 an hour — £27,040 a year, full time
Location: Derby

You would not need years of residential experience — you would need the right values, a willingness to learn, and the resilience to keep showing up calmly. Induction and training would start in your first week.

Day to day: warm, attentive, ordinary care, plus key working for an individual child — putting their plan into practice, noticing when something changes, and writing it down accurately.

What you would need

A genuine commitment to children and young people, with the warmth, patience and resilience to stay calm under pressure.
Willingness to work within a trauma-informed, attachment-aware, PACE-informed model of care.
The ability to follow a care plan, keep clear and respectful records, and communicate professionally with colleagues.
Willingness to work towards the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare, or to hold it already. It would be fully funded and supported.
Flexibility to work shifts, including evenings, weekends and some waking nights.

Welcome, but not required: previous experience with children or young people in residential care, education, youth work or a similar setting, and any understanding of autism, ADHD, learning disabilities or communication difficulties.

Open role

Senior Support Worker

Employment: Full time, 40 hours a week
Pay: £13.46 an hour — £28,000 a year
Location: Derby

Not a desk role: on shift and in the room, leading handovers, holding an enhanced safeguarding responsibility and coaching colleagues — while doing the same hands-on care as everybody else.

Real delegated authority to keep a shift safe, with support always close by — knowing when to escalate is part of the role, not a failure of it.

What you would need

Experience of working with children or young people, ideally in residential childcare or a closely related setting.
Experience of safeguarding, and of responding to distress and to behaviour that challenges.
A sound understanding of trauma-informed care, attachment-aware practice, PACE and Positive Behaviour Support.
The ability to make sound decisions in live situations, communicate clearly, and keep accurate, respectful records.
The Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare, achieved or close to completion, with substantial evidence of competence already demonstrated in practice.

Welcome, but not required: experience of leading shifts or working as a senior practitioner, of children’s homes regulated by Ofsted, or of developmental trauma, exploitation risk and missing-from-care procedures.

Open role

Deputy Manager – Children’s Residential Home

Location: Derby, DE23
Salary: £40,000 – £43,500 per annum
Hours: 40 hours per week

A leadership role held from the floor. You would be on shift and in the room — leading handovers, steadying a difficult evening, and coaching colleagues in the moment rather than reviewing it with them a fortnight later.

The formal side is real: leading shifts, holding safeguarding standards, observing practice and feeding back on it while it is still live, and keeping records to a standard that would bear inspection. But the part that matters most is quieter. You would be the person who decides, by example, what is normal here — how an adult speaks to a child who has just lost their temper, what happens after a hard shift, and whether a colleague feels able to say they got something wrong.

The charter this role is held to

Lead from the floor, not from a distance.
Model calmness before asking it of others.
Respond to behaviour with curiosity before correction.
Support colleagues without lowering standards.
Protect culture on every shift.

What you would need

Substantial experience in children’s residential care, and of leading a shift — with the credibility that only comes from having done the work on the floor.
A working knowledge of the Children’s Homes Regulations and the Quality Standards — enough to lead practice against them on an ordinary Tuesday, not only to quote them at an inspection.
The Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare, and the Level 5 for management either held or something you are ready to work towards — it would be funded and supported.
A confident safeguarding practitioner: quick to notice, careful to record, willing to escalate without delay, and able to challenge a colleague or a professional when a child’s welfare needs it.
The ability to turn trauma-informed, attachment-aware, PACE-informed and relationship-based practice into what actually happens at seven in the morning — not as theory, but as the way the house runs.
Sound judgement in live situations: deciding quickly and proportionately when a shift is under pressure, saying clearly what you have decided, and leading behaviour support that stays relational rather than becoming a sanction.
Emotional intelligence, and steadiness when a shift is going badly. The team will take its temperature from you.
Professional curiosity: asking what a behaviour is communicating, and asking again when the first answer is convenient.
A genuine appetite for developing other people — coaching in the moment, noticing where practice is drifting, and building the professional confidence of colleagues who may be newer to this than you.

Welcome, but not required: experience of deputising or leading in a children’s home regulated by Ofsted, of registration or inspection preparation, and of working with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, developmental trauma or exploitation risk.

What we look for

Four balances, and they are harder than they sound

Warmth, without losing boundaries.

Both halves have to be there, or neither is believed.

Authority, without becoming punitive.

Holding a difficult moment steady without it turning into a sanction is most of the skill.

Curiosity, in place of a settled view.

Asking what a behaviour is communicating, rather than arriving already knowing.

Consistency, on the days it is hardest.

The job is being the same person on a bad shift as on a good one — and then coming back the next day.

What you would get

What we would owe you in return

A full induction, from the first week

Safeguarding, trauma-informed care, Positive Behaviour Support, autism and ADHD awareness, PACE, first aid — and nobody takes responsibilities on independently before being assessed as competent to.

Supervision that actually happens

Formal supervision at least monthly, plus group clinical sessions facilitated by an external supervisor.

The Level 3 Diploma, funded

Full support and funding for the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare — and the Level 5 for those moving towards management responsibility.

A shift you are not carrying alone

The staffing model provides for a minimum of two staff on duty during the day and evening, with additional staffing where a child’s assessed needs require it.

Wellbeing treated as part of the work

An employee assistance programme and wellbeing support — children who have experienced instability need adults who are not running on empty.

How to apply

A CV, a short letter, or just a conversation

Send a CV and a short covering letter, or call and talk it through first — an informal conversation is genuinely welcome.

enquiries@oasis-house.net

07546 054868

Applications are read as they arrive. There is no closing date on any of these roles.

Please don’t send certificates, identity documents or DBS information with a first application. A CV and a few paragraphs about yourself is all we need to start. Anything sensitive comes later, through a proper route, and only if we take things forward.

Safer recruitment. Oasis House is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and expects everyone who works here to share that commitment. Any appointment would be subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and full safer recruitment checks, in line with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015.

Equal opportunities. Oasis House is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

The team you would be joining The practice you would be working to