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West Sussex Youth Justice Service (YJS) is a high performing multi-agency statutory partnership as evidenced in a recent HMIP inspection where the service received an overall rating of “Good” and it’s staff judged as “Outstanding”. It provides services before and after Court to meet the requirements of the Youth Justice Board and statutory youth justice legislation and its primary aim is to prevent offending and reduce reoffending by children.

Salary: £28,371 to £31,099
Working Pattern: Full Time (ending 31.03.2025)
Contract Length: Fixed Term Contract
Location: Horsham, County Hall North

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved and lead on the development of a new mentoring project. Due to additional funding we are now running a new initiative, The Turnaround Programme, which is aimed at providing support and intervention at children who are on the cusp of entering the Youth Justice System. Part of this programme will be a new mentoring project, offering children on the programme to be matched with volunteer mentors. Your role as Volunteer Coordinator will be to work with the Team Manager to set up the mentoring project that will enable volunteer mentors to work with children and young people over a period of time to build on strengths, support transitions and sustain change. You will deal with operational issues involved in the delivery of the mentoring scheme, including dealing with referrals, recruitment or volunteers, delivery of training, allocating work to volunteers and keeping records. You will be involved in the supervision of volunteers on a regular basis.

You’ll need to be able to travel independently around the county, and you’ll need to be able to work flexibly to meet the needs of the service – for example meeting children, young people or volunteers, or attending custody suites out of hours or at weekends. There is a regular and intrinsic requirement to communicate in English with members of the public.

Key Skills:

• Ability to work creatively with young people and other professionals in a task orientated way.
• Analytical skills in order to interpret information whilst working with childrenand the ability to develop effective solutions to difficult and varied problems.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to demonstrate tact and diplomacy, and to build relationships with disaffected people and negotiate and encourage them to adopt courses of action.
• Ability to communicate in an appropriate manner with a good standard of verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to organise and manage time, coordinate a variety of tasks in a clear and logical way and meet agreed deadlines
• Ability to relate to a cross section of the community including parents and pupils of various ages, work colleagues and staff from other professions / organisations.

Qualifications and experience:

• Professional qualification e.g. social work, criminology, youth work, or Dip. SW or Diploma in Probation Studies, or equivalent experience or degree level qualification in a related field.
• Training Qualification in Facilitated Learning Level 3 - Desirable
• Organisational knowledge of the systems, policies and procedures in relation to the specific areas of work.
• Understanding of the importance of effective volunteering frameworks.
• Knowledge of the Youth Justice System and the importance of restorative practice and trauma-informed work in preventing offending.
• Commitment to relevant and required service training as agreed with manager.
• Recent demonstrable experience of working with children and young people experiencing difficulties in order to achieve positive results.
• Experience of multi-agency working.
• Experience of co-ordinating and supervising others.
• Experience of working with volunteers – Desirable
• Experience of delivering training - Desirable
• Sound and accurate I.T knowledge in order to record information.

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.

In addition to working within a great team and a brilliant opportunity you will receive:

• A competitive salary
• A generous pension scheme
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• Flexible working
• A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers with the opportunity to save over £1,000 (Including: Argos, Samsung, Asos, B&Q and many more)
• Free access to employee assistance programmes
• Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres
• A range of commuting and business travel discounts and initiatives

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

The reference number for this role is CAFHE04292 .

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Sally Pescott at [email protected]or Rachel Cleaves at [email protected] and for issues or queries regarding your application please contact [email protected].

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and cover letter. In your cover letter outline your motivations for applying and explain how you meet the key skills listed in full and the 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 SWE Registration, DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and take every possible step to ensure that no individual will be disadvantaged.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability or Veteran’s Guaranteed Interview Scheme, this can be found on our application help page.