Adolescent Practitioner

Job Title: Adolescent Practitioner
Starting Salary: £34,434 progressing to £37,280 per annum
Hours: 37.0
Location: Hertfordshire
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Childrens Services

About the team

If you are passionate about working with children, young people and their families, working as a team to make a real difference, we would love to hear from you!

Family is at the heart of our work in Hertfordshire. Our goal is to support children and young people in care to reunite with their families where it’s safe and in their best interests.

The Family Safeguarding Children in Care (FSCIC) Phase 2 Team, part of the Family Safeguarding Service, was launched in 2022 to extend our successful Family Safeguarding model into the Children Looked After Service. Following its success, it is now a core part of our work.

Our multi-disciplinary team uses Motivational Interviewing to help parents make positive changes. We bring together specialists in mental health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, neurodiversity, and trauma, alongside social workers, adolescent practitioners, and life coaches.

We provide intensive, trauma-informed support for young people aged 10–18 who are at risk of entering care, returning home after family breakdown, or facing exploitation and complex mental health challenges.

Learn more about Hertfordshire’s Family Safeguarding model: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/familysafeguarding 

About the role

You will work directly with parents/carers and children who are in care/at the edge of care, to achieve agreed goals through coaching, parenting intervention and applying relationship-based practice.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work directly with children and young people aged 10 years old and above and their families.
• Be skilled and experienced in supporting them to manage intrafamilial and extra familial risks, including criminal and sexual child exploitation.
• Engage effectively with vulnerable and challenging young people who are in care/at the edge of care.
• Use skills including coaching, parenting intervention and applying relationship-based practice to support them to live at home with their families.
• Work alongside multi-disciplinary experts and be trained in Motivational Interviewing, a counselling approach that creates confidence in parents to change their behaviours that cause harm.
• Through working intensively with children, young people and their carers and people who are of significance to them, you will need to manage high levels of challenge and work with resistance. Build positive relationships with children, young people and their families based on their individual needs; responding to their heritage, neuro diversity, learning style and how they self-identify.
• Make referrals to other professionals in the team such as recovery workers, healthy relationship workers and psychological therapists.
• Record all of your work in our case management system, ensuring that case records are accurate and up to date.
• Develop positive relationships with professionals and partner agencies to ensure that children and families receive the best possible service at the right time.
• Work flexibly to respond to the needs of the children, young people and families, being guided by the times they need support, including the need to work in the evenings and weekends.

Work pattern:

We offer flexibility to ensure families get the support they need. This role includes some evening and weekend work within extended service hours (weekdays 9am–10pm, weekends 2pm–10pm), which will involve working approximately 1 evening a week and 1 weekend day a month.

About you

No formal qualifications are required for the role, you will receive Motivational Interviewing training, NVR training and ARC training.

Previous experience of working with children and families is desirable.

Essential:

• Experience and understanding of case management including assessment, action planning and reviews
• Experience of planning, delivering and evaluating support activities for and with young people and their carers
• Knowledge of the issues affecting young people at risk of Child Exploitation
• Knowledge and understanding of Equality and Diversity Issues
• Knowledge of child development and adolescents, social, emotional and mental health needs.
• Ability to engage effectively with vulnerable and challenging young people in a variety of settings and to achieve positive outcomes with them
• Full driving Licence and regular access to a vehicle.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of relevant legislation and policies relating to this service user group.
• Relevant professional qualification in Youth/Community work, Social Care, Health or Education.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an innovative and passionate team who are achieving real change and positive outcomes for children in care and families of Hertfordshire.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care Services, level HSC9 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Health and social care

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Joanne.Marsh@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: 13th & 14th January 2026

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.