Youth Justice Support Officer

Job Description

About the Job

Salary: £30,515 to £ 33,119 per annum
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week
Office Location: Based in Horsham with hybrid working and countywide travel

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Youth Justice Service (YJS) as a Youth Justice Support Officer. The service work with children involved with the Youth Justice System who are subject to Out of Court Disposals and statutory Court Orders. They aim to address young people’s needs, support their aspirations and goals and help them repair the harm caused by their offending behaviour.

As a Youth Justice Support Officer, you will be responsible for supervising vulnerable children and young people presenting on a low to medium risk of re-offending and serious harm. You will use creative and effective supervisory techniques to engage children and young people to enable them to make long term sustainable change and promote best outcomes. You will work with their families, educational settings and more, with the support from the wider team, to help achieve their potential and contribute positively to their community.

We are looking for people who have experience working with vulnerable children and young people, who can listen and bring a holistic approach to those they support. You will have good assessment skills with strong organisational and literacy skills to complete written reports. Motivation and resilience are key to plan and provide effective interventions, while reflecting and adapting your own practice.

The role is based within in a supportive team environment with access to specialists and colleagues from the wider service. You will receive regular support and supervision from your team manager, with access to relevant and specialist training to build and develop your skills and support your future aspirations.

About You

Just some of the skills and experience you will need include:

• Good interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to explain information to others and use advisory, negotiation and persuasion skills to influence the actions of others.
• Good literacy, numeracy and sound IT skills, to write reports to a high standard and present information clearly and accurately.
• Able to research, assess, analyse and interpret information and data from varying sources in order to interpret and plan over the medium term to make judgements based on the needs of the client.
• Good organisational skills and the ability to prioritise your workload to effectively respond to unanticipated problems.
• Able to act in an appropriate manner, with discretion, whilst hearing confidential, sensitive or disturbing information.
• GCSE’s with A-C passes including English and Maths, or equivalent qualification or experience demonstrating that level of numeracy and literacy.
• At least one year’s previous experience of working with challenging children and young people (e.g. CYPS, police, probation, schools, criminal justice, youth work).
• Experience of carrying out assessments and writing reports.
• Experience of outside project / practical skills, e.g. gardening, painting, woodwork, low level building (Desirable for Restorative Justice and Communities Team YJSO)
• You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars available.

For full list of keys skills and qualifications please refer to the job description attached by clicking here and reference these in your cover letter.

About Us

West Sussex Youth Justice Service (YJS) is a high performing multi-agency statutory partnership which provides services before and after court to meet the statutory requirements of the youth justice system. Its primary aim is to prevent offending and reduce reoffending by children. The service works in partnership with a variety of agencies to ensure children are offered appropriate intervention to address their risks, meet their needs and build on their strengths. Further, the service seeks to repair the harm caused to victims and communities by addressing the root causes of offending and reoffending by children.

For more information about West Sussex County Council, please visit our WSCC About Us page.

Rewards and Benefits

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, you can find this at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is 395.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact John Ashmore on john.ashmore@westsussex.gov.uk

Any queries or issues with your application please reach out to hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.