Senior Youth Justice Officer

Job Description

About the Role

Salary: £41,177 to £44,253 per annum

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week

Office Base Location: County Hall North, Horsham with countywide travel

We are looking for dedicated and experienced Senior Youth Justice Officer to join our Youth Justice Service (YJS).

This is a rewarding opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children and young people who are at risk of prosecution, on bail or remand, or subject to Court Orders. You will play a key role in ensuring children involved in the youth justice system receive the right intervention at the right time, helping them achieve positive outcomes and reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

You will be a confident and skilled practitioner, able to independently manage complex caseloads and build effective relationships with children, families, and partner agencies. Using your strong assessment, decision-making, and engagement skills, you will deliver impactful interventions tailored to individual needs. You will also be recognised as a trusted source of professional knowledge and advice, championing equality, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of your work.

As a Senior Youth Justice Officer, you will be an integral member of the YJS leadership team, supporting the development and delivery of high-quality youth justice services across West Sussex. You will supervise a small number of Youth Justice staff, deputise for the Team Manager when required, and contribute to service improvement initiatives and strategic discussions that shape future provision.

If you are passionate about supporting children to achieve better futures and are looking to further develop your leadership skills within a supportive and collaborative team, we would love to hear from you.

Experience and Skills

Some of the key skill, qualifications and/or experience required for the role are as follows:

• Relevant Professional qualification recognised by one of the YJS statutory partner agencies (CSC, Probation, Health and Police), e.g. DipSW / BA in Social Work, Diploma in Probation Studies, a Qualified Youth Worker, Diploma in Counselling/Careers Guidance, PGCE, Registered Nurse qualification, Police Sergeant Level (Social Work qualified staff to have up-to-date membership of the Health & Care Professions Council).

Or

• YJB Professional Certificate in Effective Practice and the Foundation Degree in Youth Justice plus relevant training as above and to have practised at Youth Justice Officer Level 3, or equivalent if coming from another YJS, for at least one year.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills.
• Able to research, assess, analyse and interpret information and data from varying sources, prioritise needs and identify strengths, to effectively formulate collaborative plans for intervention and service provision, including the voice of children, families and victims.
• Excellent literacy, numeracy and sound IT skills to write complex reports to a high standard.
• Able to gain trust and respect, and work in partnership with parents, carers, colleagues and external agencies to deliver an effective service.
• Skilled in working with staff to support and develop practice.
• Post-qualifying experience within a criminal / youth justice field (e.g. Youth Offending Team, Probation).
• Previous experience of working with complex and challenging children and young people (e.g. CSC, police, probation, schools, criminal justice, youth work).

For the full list of key skills, qualifications and experience required, please review our job description by clicking here and referencing 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. The service also seeks to repair the harm caused to victims and communities by addressing the root causes of offending and reoffending by children.

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 393.

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

For 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 a 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 to upload your cover letter in the same attachment box as your CV when applying.

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.