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Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company that has a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate enabling us to do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), we offer the freedoms of a social enterprise with the employment benefits of local government. To find out more about us click here.
Restorative Youth Work Practitioner
We're proud to announce that AfC's Children's Services in Richmond have been awarded an Outstanding rating by Ofsted. This places Richmond alongside Kingston, which also holds an Outstanding rating, as a top-performing service. Our separately inspected Fostering Service has achieved a strong ‘Good’ rating, recognising our skilled and dedicated fostering workforce.
Come work with a skilled, stable workforce and be part of an organisation that's truly making a difference.
ASPIRE stands for Adolescent Support in Prevention, Inclusion and Restorative Engagement. The team sits within the Specialist Adolescent Service as part of the Family and Adolescents Directorate. The Service acts as the statutory Youth Justice Service and has a key role to play in diverting children away from the youth justice system; helping prevent offending and re-offending; reducing the use of custody; contributing to multi-agency public protection and safeguarding, and adopting Signs of Safety, trauma-informed, identity development and whole family approaches to youth justice. Within the service we have the following vision: ‘We take a child first, offender second approach and always seek to work in partnership with children and families to build resilience and sustain positive change’.
This role will lead on delivering 1:1 work with young people that have been a victim of peer on peer violence or bullying to reduce the likelihood of entering the cycle of crime.
You will manage and facilitate restorative work with victims and those children who offend in accordance with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime ensuring the work with victims is high quality, individualised and responsive driving positive outcomes and safety for victims.
About the role
Key areas will include:
- This role will lead on delivering 1: 1 work with young people that have been a victim of peer on peer violence or bullying to reduce the likelihood of entering the cycle of crime.
- You will manage and facilitate restorative work with victims and those children who offend in accordance with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime ensuring the work with victims is high quality, individualised and responsive driving positive outcomes and safety for victims.
- You will be responsible to provide a range of restorative justice interventions to those who have been harmed by youth crime and to those children that have committed the harm.
If you want to know more about the role please email Shakira Ashmeil, ASPIRE Team Leader on shakira.ashmeil@achievingforchildren.org.uk.
About you
The successful candidate will be:
- Educated at level 4 or above professional qualification in a relevant discipline (e.g. Probation, Youth work Children and Youth, Social Care)
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Experience of developing and coordinating work with victims in line with Victims Code of Practice ensuring and enabling effective engagement and satisfaction of victims and engagement of children who offend
- Experience of undertaking risk assessments on the victims readiness to engage in a restorative process
- Experience of effective partnership working and working within a multidisciplinary team.
- Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them
- Good knowledge and understanding of the Youth Justice landscape, including best practice in regard to Good Lives Model, Desistance Theory, Child first and Trauma Informed Practice and Transitions
- Knowledge and understanding of the principles of Restorative Justice particularly in relation to young people and victims
About our benefits
We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:
- 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
- Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
- Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
- Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
- A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
- A range of staff benefits and discounts
- An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway
To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children click here. For our social work offer click here. For our Recruitment Journey, click here.
Important Information
Start dates: Achieving for Children have set start dates meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.
Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.
Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.
Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
