Targeted Prevention Caseworker

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO3 £45,750 - £49,056

Contract Type: Full time Fixed term 24 Months (secondments will be considered)

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 22/04/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 2069

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

Two Targeted Prevention Caseworkers posts are available within the Community Safety Team’s developing Integrated Gangs Team. The Targeted Prevention Caseworkers will support individuals at risk of, or affected by, serious violence, exploitation, or harmful group dynamics, with a particular focus on young people approaching adulthood, especially those aged 17.5 and over who were previously identified as exploited or high‑risk and often lose support when transitioning to adult services. The postholders will provide continuity, advocacy, and targeted intervention to reduce vulnerability during this critical period. Working closely with the Youth Offending Service, Probation, Police, and voluntary and community partners, they will help deliver a coordinated, trauma‑informed, multi‑agency response that ensures consistent support into adulthood.

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Key Responsibilities:

• Hold a caseload of young people and adults and provide them with support and assistance in engaging with a variety of interventions
• Ability to maintain clear accurate records and to utilise Management Information Systems such as Delius and social care case management systems
• To support partners in the early identification of children, young adults and other family members at risk of gang exploitation
• To develop partnership working with a range of stakeholders to enable early identification of gang tensions involving Waltham Forest children/young adults
• To plan and deliver structured programmes and projects to address risk factors that relate to the target cohort (at risk or involved in gangs and violent and group offending) in line with local and national strategies

Qualifications and Requirements:

• A relevant professional qualification (or at least to NVQ level 3 and experience in a fieldwork setting).
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
• Experience of direct work with local communities to address issues related to serious violence, exploitation, and vulnerability.
• Experience of delivering preventative and diversionary interventions aimed at young people and vulnerable adults who are at risk of, or on the periphery of, involvement in violence, exploitation, or harmful group dynamics.
• Experience of working with children and adults involved in the criminal justice system and their families, with the ability to demonstrate evidence‑based, effective practice.
• Ability to develop and coordinate initiatives that support and safeguard victims, including effective liaison with case‑holding professionals.
• Ability to assess risk, vulnerability, and protective factors within families and communities affected by serious violence or exploitation, and to use sensitive and confidential information appropriately.
• Understanding of transitional safeguarding, including the specific vulnerabilities faced by young people aged 18 to 25, particularly those who have experienced exploitation or significant risk during childhood.
• Ability to work collaboratively with a range of professionals, demonstrating a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of partner agencies to promote integrated, multi‑disciplinary working.
• Ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of service users, including in response to critical incidents.
• Experience of mediation or conflict resolution between individuals or groups where there is risk of violence or escalation.

Terms and conditions:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;
• Satisfactory DBS check;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Ana Figueira, Assistant Director Community Safety & Programmes at ana.figueira@walthamforest.gov.uk or 07970769073

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.