Youth Justice Support Officer

About the Role

Salary: £29,540 to £32,061 per annum
Contract Type: Fixed term or secondment due to specific time allocated funding
Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week
Office Base Location: Arun Civic Centre, Littlehampton. The use of Arun Civic Centre is currently initially expected to be in place for three years to April 2029. The substantive hub for your service is Worthing and therefore, there is the potential for services to relocate to Worthing in the future.

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Youth Justice Support Officer in the Restorative Justice Team. The Restorative Justice Team give victims of youth crime a voice and create opportunities for children involved to repair the harm caused by their offending behaviour.

As a Youth Justice Support Officer, you will be responsible for delivering reparation projects as well as planning and delivering Unpaid Work programmes for young people in the community. You will also be responsible for supervising children assessed as presenting a low to medium risk of re-offending and serious harm, who are subject to Out of Court Disposals and statutory Court Orders.

You will have a passion for and resilience in working with complex children. There may be times that you are required to support the young person to deliver direct reparation to the person harmed by their behaviour and so an understanding of restorative processes is desirable. Skills or a passion for practical tasks such as gardening, building, painting would also be beneficial for this role. You will need good assessment skills, using creative and effective supervisory techniques to engage children and their families in developing long term sustainable change. The ability to form positive and constructive relationships with vulnerable children will be crucial to achieve their potential and contribute positively to their community.

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, as well as access to relevant and specialist training to build and develop your skills.

Experience and Skills

Some of the key skills required for the role:

• At least one year's previous experience of working with challenging children and young people (e.g. CYPS, police, probation, secondary schools, criminal justice, youth work).
• 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.
• Able to research, assess, analyse and interpret information 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.
• Good literacy, numeracy and sound IT skills, to write reports to a high standard and present information clearly, concisely and accurately in ways that promote understanding.
• Able to act in an appropriate manner, with discretion, whilst hearing confidential, sensitive or disturbing information.
• Experience of outside project / practical skills, e.g. gardening, painting, woodwork, low level building - Desirable for Restorative Justice and Communities Team YJSO
• Previous experience of working in a criminal justice setting (e.g., Youth Offending Team, Probation, Police) - Desirable
• Full valid UK driving licence- Desirable

For the full list of key skills, experience and qualifications required for the role please review the job description attached below.

Rewards and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

Just some of the benefits we are offer are:

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.

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.

For more information, please visit our Education, Children and Families page, and our WSCC About Us page on our West Sussex County Council (WSCC) website.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06269.

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and complete our application form. In your application form 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.