School Programmes Practitioner Manchester 2024

We are looking for a passionate individual who wants to learn to deliver our long term, intensive wrap-around intervention in schools. The FBB model puts young people’s passions and strengths at the heart of their development to help them thrive in secondary school. We need someone who is deeply committed to changing the life chances of young people and has the energy, empathy and adaptability to deliver the support young people deserve to thrive in school and beyond.

You will be highly motivated, with high standards for yourself and others. We’re seeking someone caring, ambitious and keen to learn who loves working with young people. You will have a strong moral compass and a proven commitment to really make a difference to young people’s lives.

Before you skim the job description, please remember you don’t have to tick all the boxes for the role to apply. We all experience a bit of imposter syndrome, including the staff here at Football Beyond Borders. If this role pulls you and you believe you could make a difference then apply anyway or reach out to us to discuss more!

Who are we

FBB is one of the leading educational charities and youth brands in the UK. Established in 2014, we have undergone impressive growth in the past couple of years and are now at an exciting stage of our journey. We currently work with 2000 students across 130 Secondary School programmes in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Kent and Essex. Alongside this, we have built strong partnerships with a host of brands such as Nike. In the next stage of our journey FBB aims to become the leading specialist charity for disengaged young people and the best place to work with young people in the UK.

Young people are at the heart of everything we do. From decisions made at Senior Leadership and our Board, to how we design activations with partners to ensure young people get the most out of them. We’re working in a system that has been designed to limit the potential of many young people, and we know that to make real change, we need to work hard and differently. FBB can be fast-paced and intensive at times, but our focus on working culture and support is prioritised to ensure staff are in a position to ‘Go Beyond’ for young people.

We place relationships at the heart of what we do. That’s not only about our work with young people, but equally important with our colleagues. We strive to do things differently at FBB. We don’t believe that work should be the thing you dread on a Sunday evening. If you’re keen to throw yourself into new environments and develop meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life, then FBB is the workplace for you.

We’re also BIG on learning. This means that we dedicate a full day of everyone’s week to learning and development, during this day practitioners take part in our innovative training programme which includes chances to receive training from external experts, connect with colleagues and reflect. As a young and ambitious team, we are constantly finding the next opportunities to develop. We like to throw our hat in the ring for things we’ve never tried before. FBB is a place where you can be introduced to multiple different aspects of work: our focus on cross-team collaboration means you'll have the opportunity to work on projects in Brand, Comms, Operations, Culture and Programmes. We also don’t mind the conventional stuff: there’s an FBB reading list, opportunities for reflection and external training budgets too!

FBB is recognised in the sector as innovative and thought-leading. We are always on the hunt for talented and ambitious people to join the team and contribute to our vision of becoming a leader in supporting young people to thrive and become the best versions of themselves.

The role

The School Programme Practitioner will deliver the FBB Schools Programme in partner Secondary Schools. This will involve delivering programmes in up to 4 schools. This person will be based in schools facilitating FBB sessions and supporting FBB participants outside of sessions with additional pastoral support including 1:1s and parental engagement.

Main duties

1. Deliver on up to 5 FBB Schools programmes at our partner schools managing a caseload of up to 80 students. This will involve delivery of FBB sessions as well as additional pastoral support outside of sessions including 1:1s, parental engagement and working with staff within the school.
   2. Ongoing evaluation and monitoring of individual sessions, participant performance and programme outcomes.
   3. Track, draft and submit progress reports on the students contained in your FBB Schools programmes.
   4. Contribute to the team of staff members on each of your FBB Schools programmes including reflection, feeding back and supporting others development.
   5. Manage relationships with partner teachers and SLT at our partner schools and with participants’ parents.
   6. Working closely with our specialist therapeutic team to design and develop specific interventions for at risk students on your programme.

Your team

The beauty of this role is that you will be working closely with young people on a day to day basis as well as staff across various FBB partner schools.

Your key relationships within FBB will be with:

• School Programmes Practitioners. On each of your programmes you will have an another practitioner to work with you throughout the day.
• School Programme Managers. These people are the leaders of the team with a wealth of experience within schools who will support your development.

Your development

In 2022/23 academic year we launched a unique frontline development programme which aims to give the best possible training for our practitioners. Every Wednesday practitioners will not be in schools, instead this day is reserved for training. Depending on a practitioner's experience and previous qualifications they will receive formal training in couselling, supporting young people with SEN, Mental Health, group facilitation, football coaching and much more. There will be the opportunity for our practitioners to identify a specialist area that they wish to train in so they can lead the organisation in this area. This is a brilliant opportunity to build your skills and expertise in supporting young people. FBB is an ambitious charity with plans for continued growth over the coming years and with that comes opportunities to grow with the organisation and take on more responsibility.

Different levels of practitioner and related training

Junior Lead

Salary: £24,000 (approx)

Role: Many of our practitioners start their journey at this level. They are responsible for managing a caseload of young people, supporting the delivery of sessions and engaging with parents.

Training: Base-level training in counselling SEN, Mental Health, Group facilitation, football coaching and more.

Lead

Salary: £27,000

Role: At this point, the practitioner becomes a ‘Lead’ which means they hold responsibility for the programme. They will have responsibility for the relationship with the school, running therapeutic mentoring for those students with higher needs and managing the more junior practitioners they have working with them.

Training: Either the Base-level training in counselling SEN, Mental Health, Group facilitation, football coaching and more OR specialising in a teaching/learning or counselling pathway.

Advanced Lead

Salary: £29,000

Role: Advanced Lead practitioners have responsibility for supporting the development of a trainee and managing school relationships will be part of the responsibilities. They will also begin to contribute to FBB in their area of specialism (impact team, policy, delivery training).

Training: Staff will get the opportunity to choose a specialism to pursue at this point.

Your experience

• You will be committed to supporting the most at risk young people in our schools and willing to go beyond for them
• You have experience of working with young people and building meaningful relationships
• You will be someone who loves working in a team
• You will have excellent interpersonal skills, empathy and emotional intelligence
• You enjoy working in fast paced environments and have a hunger to learn
• You have an understanding of the challenges and different learning needs of adolescents
• You will be able to build strong relationships with young people built on their assets and passions
• You can develop strong working relationships with colleagues and teachers within schools
• You will be able to problem solve independently and adapt to new situations
• You are keen to learn and develop and relish taking on feedback and learning from mistakes

And also consider applying if any of the following apply to you: 

• You have worked in schools supporting young people
• You have been a teacher with QTS
• Have qualifications in counselling/mental health support for young people
• You have experience of delivering interventions to young people with SEN or SEMH
• You have experience in youth work