We're hiring · Wales
Support worker.
The real version.
Proactive support. Proven outcomes.
We were built around one idea: that a young person should leave us measurably more capable than when they arrived. Not just housed. Not just safe. Actually able to run a home, manage money, hold down college or work, and handle what adult life throws at them. Your job is to make that happen for a small group of them.
Some days that means helping someone open their first bank account. Some days it means sitting with someone at 2am after the worst phone call of their life. Both are the job.
Open roles
What's open now
Every role lists its location, pay and shifts plainly — the area you'd be working in, never an address. If nothing fits, send a CV anyway and say where you are; roles come up as houses open.
The role
You hold a small caseload
and make the plan happen
Not a form-filler. Not a shift-filler. You'd be the person a handful of young people actually rely on, and the person accountable for whether their plan moves.
- Key work sessions that build real independence skills — budgeting, cooking, tenancy skills, healthcare, travel, self-advocacy.
- Getting young people into education, employment or training, and keeping them there.
- Writing support plans and risk assessments that are honest, current and useful.
- Recording your work properly, because the evidence of a young person's progress is what keeps their placement funded.
- Sleep-in and waking night shifts as part of a rota.
- Safeguarding — spotting it, acting on it, escalating it without hesitation.
Be clear on this
You'll be lone working
for much of your shift
There's always a manager on call and you'll never be unsupported — but there won't be a colleague in the next room. If that's not for you, this isn't the job, and we'd rather you knew now than in week three.
The rest of the honest version: you will be lied to sometimes, and sworn at occasionally, by people who have good reasons not to trust adults yet. Progress is slow and rarely thanks you. If you need quick wins, this will wear you down.
Who we're looking for
We can teach almost all of the technical side
What we can't teach is whether you give a damn. The person who does well here:
- Takes the lead on their young people rather than waiting to be told.
- Brings solutions to managers, not just problems.
- Is unfazed by a young person having a bad day, or a bad month.
- Holds boundaries warmly rather than rigidly.
- Writes things down, on time, without being chased.
Essential
- Aged 21 or over — a genuine occupational requirement, given the lone-working, overnight nature of the role and the age range of the young people we support
- Right to work in the UK
- Enhanced DBS check with children's and adults' barred list checks — we arrange this
- Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle with business-use insurance
- Willing to work sleep-ins and waking nights
Desirable
- Experience with care leavers, homelessness, youth work, residential care or unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people
- Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care, or working towards one
- Social Care Wales registration
- Welsh language skills
We're genuinely open to people from outside social care who have the right instincts and want to learn. Tell us why. If you join without a Level 3, we fund it in your first year.
What you get
Why people stay
Pay above market rate for the area
Deliberately, because we want people who stay. The rate is listed on every role above rather than hidden behind "competitive", and guaranteed minimum hours start once your first placement does.
£13.75 an hour, plus holiday pay of 12.07% rolled up on top — £15.41 an hour including holiday. We quote the base rate first because that is the honest comparison with a job advertising £13.75 and paying holiday separately. The 12.07% is the statutory rate for irregular-hours work, it is paid with each pay run rather than accrued, and it is itemised on your payslip so you can see it.
Supervision that develops you
Regular and structured, and about developing you rather than checking up on you. Paid shadow shifts before your first solo shift, and a manager who has done the job.
Real influence on how a new service is built
You'd be one of the first through the door. The way this service runs isn't settled yet, and the people doing the work get a say in settling it — which is a genuine offer at our size and stops being one later.
To apply
Send a CV and a short note telling us about a time you took the initiative with someone you were supporting, to jobs@the-emberproject.co.uk. That note matters more to us than the CV. Name the role and location, or just tell us where you are.
We reply to every applicant.
The Ember Project is committed to safer recruitment. All appointments are subject to an enhanced DBS check, full employment history, and two satisfactory references.