Area Team Manager - Youth Justice

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 the role

We are looking for an experienced and motivated leader to join our Youth Justice Service as an Area Team Manager at our Cambridge office, leading a dedicated, multi-disciplinary team committed to improving outcomes for children, families and communities across Cambridgeshire.

In this role, you will provide strong, supportive leadership to practitioners working with children who have offended or are at risk of offending and also victims. You will create a positive, inclusive culture where high-quality practice can thrive, ensuring children receive timely, effective interventions that reduce reoffending and promote their safety and wellbeing.

You will have oversight of complex and high-risk casework, supporting confident decision-making and ensuring that safeguarding and public protection remain central to all practice. You will also take a lead in driving performance and continuous improvement, using data, quality assurance and learning from inspection to strengthen service delivery.

Working in close partnership with colleagues across children’s services, health, police, probation, education and the voluntary sector, you will play a key role in delivering a coordinated, multi-agency response. You will contribute to the ongoing development of the service, helping to shape approaches that reflect both local priorities and national expectations.

As a member of the management team, you will balance day-to-day operational leadership with a focus on longer-term improvement—ensuring resources are used effectively, standards are maintained, and the voices of children and families inform the way services are delivered.

You will lead on Restorative Justice across the Youth Justice Service, strengthening our offer to victims and ensuring it is consistently high-quality and meets expected standards.

This is an opportunity to take on a visible leadership role within a service that makes a real difference. If you are committed to high standards, collaborative working, and achieving better outcomes for children, we would welcome your application.

Interviews will be held on 13 July 2026.

For more information about the role or an informal discussion please contact Stephanie Burrage on 07901009648.

What will you be doing?

• Leading and supporting a multi-disciplinary team to deliver high-quality Youth Justice services, creating a positive culture where staff feel valued, supported and challenged to achieve the best outcomes

• Overseeing practice and casework, ensuring assessments, plans and interventions are timely, evidence-based, and focused on reducing reoffending while keeping children and the public safe

• Providing oversight and direction on complex and high-risk cases, supporting confident decision-making and ensuring safeguarding and risk management procedures are consistently applied

• Driving performance and quality, using data, audit and learning from inspection to continuously improve outcomes for children, victims and communities

• Working in partnership with key agencies, including children’s services, police, probation, health and education, to deliver coordinated, joined-up support

• Contributing to service development and improvement, helping to shape and implement changes that respond to local priorities and national expectations

• Managing resources effectively, including staff and budgets, to ensure services are delivered efficiently and provide value for money

• Ensuring effective day-to-day operational delivery, including oversight of court work, duty arrangements and participation in the out-of-hours/on-call rota

• Promoting participation and accountability, ensuring the voices of children, young people and families inform service delivery, and that governance and professional standards are maintained

About you

You will be an experienced and confident leader with a strong commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people. You will bring sound professional judgement, a collaborative approach, and a clear focus on high-quality practice.

We are looking for someone who can:

• Lead and inspire others, creating a positive, inclusive team culture where staff feel supported, motivated and accountable

• Demonstrate strong knowledge of youth justice, safeguarding and risk management, with the ability to apply this effectively in complex situations

• Make clear, defensible decisions, particularly in relation to high-risk and sensitive casework

• Provide reflective and constructive supervision, supporting the development and performance of others

• Work effectively in partnership, building strong relationships across agencies to deliver joined-up services

• Use data and insight to drive improvement, maintaining a focus on quality, performance and outcomes

• Manage competing priorities and pressures, ensuring services remain responsive, consistent and effective

• Communicate with clarity and confidence, influencing others and representing the service professionally

• Champion participation and inclusion, ensuring the voices of children, young people and families shape the way services are delivered

Above all, you will share our commitment to safeguarding, equality, and delivering services that make a meaningful difference to the lives of children and families.

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 Leader. 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. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process 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