Information

Crèche

The Bluebell Crèche at Tom Allan Centre, is located in the basement and currently operates Mondays & Tuesdays, providing two sessions 10-11 and 11 - 12noon with an interval after for cleaning and reflections as a team.

Our warm and nurturing crèche service supports families within the perinatal service with childcare while receiving counselling or group therapy. We have a small group of volunteers led by a staff member who help to support the service daily.

When a client is placed on the waiting list Business support will also send details of our crèche service. Counsellors will be able to offer their clients a crèche space based on availability.

We use an Infant observation tool which allows us to evaluate the impact of our therapeutic crèche provision alongside the counselling on both the infant and the infant/parent relationship

By observing how the infant responds at the first and the last sessions we can measure how the service has impacted the following outcomes;

·        Child’s Emotional Health

·        Attachment and family bond

·        Child’s Physical health

We offer an Infant Massage group throughout the year. This group is led by our fully qualified Infant Massage Therapist and offers clients’ opportunities for peer support and bonding with their baby. 

We are currently looking for a number of volunteer creche workers to join our team at the Tom Allan centre who can help us in continuing to provide our services. Please see our role description below.

Main Function

MAIN FUNCTION

Volunteer Crèche Workers will support staff to provide a welcoming, safe, secure and stimulating environment for children aged 0-5 whose parents are attending our Counselling Services. To support and nurture each child as an individual. Where appropriate and requested to do so, to implement and follow the guidelines as set out by the Care Inspectorate and our workplace policies and procedures. To help Creche staff to create an overall sense of fun and learning with all children.

 

Main Duties

1. To support Crèche staff to provide a safe, warm and stimulating environment for the babies and young children of parents attending Counselling Services.

 

2. Seek to support parents in a spirit of grace, humility and compassion being sensitive and aware of their feelings.  

 

3. To be understanding around last minute Volunteer shift changes.

 

4. To ensure they are adhering to CrossReach’s policies, processes and procedures including Safeguarding, Health and Safety, Fire Regulations, GDPR and Care Inspectorate Guidelines.  

 

5. Support with Creche’s high standards of cleaning and hygiene practices.

 

6. To support and contribute with the whole crèche team in developing the potential of the Crèche.

 

7. To be able to volunteer alongside staff effectively to support the babies and parents. Effective communication skills are key.

 

8. Complete any in-house Volunteer training and development as requested by the Creche manager.

 

Personal

This post requires you to be a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme and undertake the necessary vetting checks.

Skills and Abilities

EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

Desirable:

• Applicants who are interested in developing a career in Child care or who,
• have previous (paid or unpaid) experience of working with pre-school aged children
• Have a warm, mature and sensitive approach.
• Experience of working with parents and children