Senior Youth Justice Officer

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About the role

The overall purpose of the Senior Youth Justice Officer role is to assess and manage a case load of children and young people who are subject to youth justice assessment and interventions. The postholder will assess, plan and deliver quality interventions with children and families, and will creatively engage and support them to move forwards positively. As a Senior the postholder will be expected to assist the management team in service development through quality assurance and the support and mentoring of YJS staff and students.

For further information contact Alan Ivatt, Team Manager (07825 674684). Interviews will be held on Thursday, 16.01.25

What will you be doing?

Main accountabilities

To work within a multi-disciplinary team and be responsible for all aspects of case management of a complex and challenging caseload of children, young people and their families with the Youth Justice Service.

To gather information, analyse and assess to manage risk, re-offending and safety/wellbeing accurately using appropriate screening and assessment tools; taking necessary measures to ensure welfare needs are dealt with effectively and public protection considerations are appropriately managed.

To establish and develop collaborative working arrangements with key partner agencies such as Targeted Support, Children's Social Care, Education, Health, Police, Probation, Youth Custody Services, Courts and voluntary sector organisations and to represent the Youth Justice Service in a professional manner at meetings and in all communication with partners.

To support children/young people to make positive changes in their lives and help them to engage positively with opportunities within their communities and encourage them to be as successful as possible whilst reducing concerns for harm to others and increasing their safety and wellbeing.

To collaborate with children, young people and families and create bespoke intervention plans to promote strength-based practice methods that address areas of need and to regularly review these plans to ensure their suitability and effectiveness.

When necessary to enforce Court Orders and Notices of Supervision in line with court and service expectations and prepare breach evidence for prosecution as required. To prosecute the Breach of Community Penalties and provide the required evidence to Court.

Demonstrate an up to date understanding of youth justice legislation, local guidance and procedures relevant to children/young people including safeguarding and child care law.

To ensure that relevant information, interactions with colleagues, face to face contacts, meetings and decision making is recorded accurately and to a high standard on the YJ database within agreed timescales.

To play a supporting role in improving practice and the quality of assessments and plans, assisting Team Managers including facilitating team meetings, taking responsibility for dissemination of new legislation and developments in practice.

To chair Safety Planning Meetings and ensure accurate and complete records of these discussions.

To ensure that children and young people's diversity is recognised and responded to and seek to identify and challenge structural barriers within systems, processes and practice.

As part of a Duty System to represent the Youth Justice Service in Youth and Crown Court as an advocate on behalf of young people and the service including representing the YJS at Saturday and Bank Holiday Emergency Youth Court as required (up to 7 times a year).

To sit on Referral Order Panels as an experienced designated Youth Justice Service Representative offering support and guidance to panel members as needed.

To take a supportive role in recruitment and a lead role in the induction of new staff. Undertake professional supervision and development of students and YJS colleagues and provide support and challenge to them through general advice and constructive and supportive gatekeeping and countersigning of reports and assessments.

To take a lead on supporting and developing specialist areas of practice and intervention suchas Harmful Sexual Behaviour, Out of Court Resolutions, Work in Courts.

To maintain own professional development through training and keeping up to date with current theory, legislation, guidance and youth justice practice. To assist in the identification, development and delivery of training to varying audiences and staff groups. To promote and encourage the professional development of YJS staff.

In absence of Manager to allocate work to staff that demonstrates a fair and equitable distribution of workload and considers staff experience and skill levels. including co-working complex cases.

Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Ability to contribute to our organisational commitment to becoming a Net Zero organisation by 2030.

Safeguarding commitment (Include for roles involving work with children/vulnerable adults)

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults. We require you to understand and demonstrate this co

About you

You will hold a level 6 professional qualification in social work or probation or a degree level qualification in a relevant subject (eg psychology, criminology) and have substantial youth justice experience.

You will be expected to engage, assess and work directly and creatively with children and young people who are at risk of offending or who have offended. You will visit young people at their home, in schools or other community venues.

This is a varied job, and you will also need to be able to effectively support parents/carers and work in partnership with other agencies to keep young people and others safe. You will also have statutory duties and be required to attend court and undertake comprehensive assessments and written reports.

You will possess a detailed knowledge of the legislation, guidance and standards relevant to youth justice practice. The role can be fast paced and is ideally suited to someone with excellent communication skills, who has experience in engaging children and young people positively and effectively and who has the necessary skills to case manage and meet competing demands within agreed timescales.

You will also take a lead in specific areas of specialist service development and delivery and support the management team with performance improvement and team morale. You will provide mentoring, support, guidance, supervision and appraisal to students and YJS staff.

You will cover the geographical area of East Cambs and Fenland and cover courts across the county and sometimes beyond.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage...

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Attached documents

• CCC Employment Benefits Brochure [November 2024].pdf
• Job Description and Person Specification