Keyworker

Are you passionate about supporting children and young people to achieve positive outcomes?   

Do you want to be part of the Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) Keyworker support service for children and young people?

Can you support and achieve positive change for children, and young people with a learning disability autism or both, helping them to navigate services and support? 

Then this could be the opportunity for you.

This is a time limited post with the possibility of extension subject to ongoing funding being awarded.

Service Overview

The Keyworker function in Birmingham and Solihull has been developed as part of the National Health Service long term plan for all children and young people (CYP) with a learning disability, autism or both to have a designated Keyworker by 2024. Barnardo's Autism and Learning Disability keyworkers work in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull ICB to support children and young people 0-25 years who on the Dynamic Support Register, due to being at risk of mental health hospital admission or are already in an inpatient setting. The Keyworkers ensure that these children, young people and their families get the right help at the right time across complex systems.

Each young person referred to the service will have a named assigned Keyworker. The team will provide expert planning, support navigation and advocacy to the young person and their family at a level appropriate to the child or person's needs.

Keyworker Function/Model

Keyworkers work across the Birmingham and Solihull system with and for Children and Young People and families, capitalising on cross-system knowledge and experience to help them effectively navigate services. They will support lead professionals, ensuring that they have the knowledge of education, care and health services and processes and are mandated to work across sectors to facilitate timely and properly integrated assessment, care and support. Staff across the team will be recruited from a range of professional backgrounds within education, social care, health and the third sector to establish a multi-disciplinary team.

As a Keyworker you will

• co-ordinate, enable, organise and provide direct support for Children and Young people and family-centred planning;
• provide effective communication, challenge, problem-solve and influence; achieve change and unblock the system.
• work with the Children and young People's expressed views and feelings
• work flexibly and responsively to help Children and Young People and families understand and navigate the system.
• ensure co-production is maintained throughout Children and Young People and family journeys, including close working relationships with parent carer representatives who are supporting with the implementation, appraisal and monitoring of the Keyworking function.

The Keyworking function will work closely with the Parent Carer and Young people Forums and parent carer representatives, who have worked as family voice consultants to co-design and co-produce the vision, implementation plans, key opportunities and processes for continuation of co-production during mobilisation and roll-out.

The key principles are:

• Improving the experience of Children and Young People.
• Improving the experiences of parents/carers and families.
• Improving access.
• Improving quality of care.

About you

Keyworkers will require a holistic understanding of the education, health and social care systems, and the expertise and authority to navigate the system and be the single point of contact for CYP and their families.

Keyworkers will require experience, passion and vision to be effective in this pivotal role. We will recruit professionals from across a range of backgrounds within health, education, social care and the third sector, with a focus on skillsets and values as opposed to specific experiences or qualifications.

Keyworker Values

• Empathy/Understanding:believes in an approach that requires an understanding of needs from the perspective of the child, young person and family.
• Respect:respects the opinions and beliefs of the child, young person and family and works to ensure they are represented, with a commitment to the principles of child-centred, personalised care.
• Positive and Solution-Focused:has a positive, solution-focused approach to ensuring the best outcomes for the child, young person and family.
• Commitment:commitment to ensuring the rights of children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism are protected and enforced and that their views and preferences, and those of their families, are listened and responded to.
• Tenacious:in the pursuit of appropriate support and outcomes.
• Always Learning:commitment to personal learning and helping the system learn and improve.
• Compassionate:to listen and respond to the needs of the child, young person and family with understanding and compassion.
• Collaborative:committed to joined-up, collaborative working.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service describe.

Flexibility

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date.  We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's   values.

We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Reference number:23674
• Job Title:Keyworker
• Location:Birmingham and Solihull
• Locality:Birmingham and Solihull
• Contract type:Fixed term
• End date:31/3/27
• Hours:37
• Salary:£32,786 - £35,831
• Closing Date:20 September 2026
• Interview Date:To be confirmed