Interim Youth Justice Officer - Youth Offending Team

Reference no: Norfolk 1004443414218864

Pay rate: £24.00 per hour PAYE

Role length:  This opening assignment is for 3 months

Enhanced DBS required for this role

Car driver with valid license and insurance and ability to travel throughout the county

A Youth Justice Officer is required, with high risk youth justice case management experience, to make a significant contribution to the development of Norfolk Youth Justice Service (YJS) services to children, their families, victims and the local community.

The Youth Justice Officer (YJO) is responsible for carrying out the case management role, in accordance with the Youth Justice Board Case Management Guidance (2010), with a primary focus on engagement, assessment, planning, delivering interventions, public protection and management of safeguarding concerns.  Knowledge of youth justice case management system and AssetPlus is essential for this role.

Will be expected to work flexibly, with a clear expectation of evening, weekend and bank holiday working.  This includes work on a rota basis to cover weekend and bank holiday court and statutory contacts cover.

The postholder will be required to travel to other work locations in Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and Norwich and also out of the county, which are not always on public transport routes, including home visits and visits to secure establishments.

Key responsibilities:

• Undertake assessments of children, young people and their families (using YJB-approved assessment tools and other relevant assessment frameworks) to identify risks, needs and strengths, in order to inform statutory and voluntary interventions.
• Assess the risks young people pose to themselves and the public and implement plans to manage these.
• Promote the welfare needs of children and young people and take appropriate action to safeguard them, in line with local and national guidance.
• Maintain an up to date working knowledge of relevant legislation, research and theory (including effective practice principles), and work in accordance with local and national procedures, guidance and standards in order to deliver a high quality service to children, young people, families, victims and local communities.
• Manage a caseload (from low to high risk) and develop, contribute to, and participate in interventions to prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people and to restore the damage caused to victims, working in accordance with the principles of restorative approaches and restorative justice.
• Produce written and verbal reports based on assessments to inform a wide range of audiences, including courts, referral order panels and child protection conferences.
• Provide court duty services to the youth and crown courts as required, including Saturdays and Bank Holidays on a rota basis.
• Act as the Youth Justice Service Panel Adviser in Referral Order panels on a rota basis.
• Maintain accurate and timely records in both electronic and written format to enable performance to be monitored, evaluated and reported on.
• Work within a multi-agency framework and actively promote and co-ordinate access to universal and specialist services for young people and their families.
• Attend training events, supervision meetings and other team, formal (including Effective Practice Groups) and informal meetings as required in order to contribute to professional, service and self-development.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

• Professional qualification in an allied service (e.g. social work. teaching, health) OR Professional Certificate in Effective Practice / Youth Justice Certificate with significant relevant experience.
• Demonstrable achievement of self development through training courses.

Experience:

• Experience of managing a caseload of young people with emotional, behavioural or offending concerns.
• Experience of undertaking comprehensive assessments of children and young people, including assessments of risk and safeguarding needs.
• Experience of working within a multi-agency context.
• Experience of designing and implementing interventions intended to change behaviours and achieve positive outcomes.
• Experience of working within the youth justice system desirable.
• Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.

Skills & Knowledge:

• Knowledge of youth justice case management system and AssetPlus is essential for this role.
• Ability to undertake informed and analytical assessments of young people and to translate these into the delivery of appropriate interventions.
• Ability to identify public protection, safeguarding and offending risks and implement plans to manage these.
• Effective and creative engagement skills with children, young people and parents.
• Ability to translate assessments and the analysis of complex information into written reports and plans.
• Ability to liaise effectively and work collaboratively with colleagues and professionals in other agencies.
• Understanding of child and adolescent development, and the impact of transitions on young people.
• Understanding of professional responsibilities in respect of safeguarding children, in line with Working Together 2013.
• Knowledge and understanding of relevant criminal justice and childcare legislation and theories, including effective practice and restorative justice principles.
• Planning and organisation skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of service users, colleagues and other professionals.
• Knowledge of equality and diversity legislation, including Equality Act 2010.
• Knowledge of Data Protection Principles and information security practice, and ability to maintain accurate and up to date records.
• Strong IT skills using Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).
• Full Driving licence, access to a vehicle or access to means of mobility support.

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF.

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.