Youth Justice Officer

Knowsley Council is an award-winning Local Authority, named Local Authority of the Year in the Municipal Journal Awards 2024. Come join us and be part of our success!

The Team: Knowsley Youth Justice Service [YJS] is a skilled and  exciting multi-agency team who wish to appoint a Youth Justice Officer.

Knowsley YJS offers you the chance to make real changes to children and families lives in a dynamic and creative way. This role offers an opportunity to work in a specialist field whilst being part of a committed and experienced team.  We are a high quality service that strives to support the complex needs of children, to achieve sustainable outcomes for those children within the criminal justice system.

Within the team there are a wide range of professionals  from specialist fields such as social work case managers, education, health and well being, substance misuse, Police, Probation,  Victim Intervention and Family Intervention. This combined multi-disciplinary team allows Knowsley YOS to function at the highest level. 

The role: Youth Justice Officer supports the work of the Youth Justice Service, in particular case managers and specialist practitioners in the development and delivery of strength-based interventions with children, their families and the wider community. This will involve planning and undertaking direct delivery of 1 to 1 and group work with children aimed at preventing offending and re-offending. There is a strong focus on reducing risk factors associated with children who offend, contributing to the YJS assessment & intervention process to support children and families, as well as supporting them to participate in Restorative Justice processes, including community reparation.

You will need experience of working with children and their families in criminal justice, children’s services or other related field of work.

A key aspect to the job is your ability to engage children and families who may be challenging. You will need to be creative in the way that you work with complex families, engaging them to build on the positives whilst having a strong understanding of the impact of exploitation, trauma and adverse childhood experiences.

This role will require you to be creative and innovative in developing and delivering interventions and community reparation projects to support positive outcomes for children, families and communities in Knowsley. 

Staff will have regular supervision with their line manager and will be expected to contribute to practice development via our Continuous Professional Development framework.

You will contribute to the protection and safeguarding of the public and children, demonstrating a clear understanding of criminal justice and safeguarding legislation and how this may be applied in your work.

What the team say:

“I enjoy working for YJS because children are at the heart of all the work we do. It is rewarding and I feel like I make a positive difference to the future of children by helping them to understand their previous behaviours.” Rachel – Youth Justice Officer

“Knowsley YJS is a highly skilled, welcoming and supportive service to work within. It provides an opportunity for social workers to widen their skillset, and gain experience in completing specialised assessments and interventions using trauma informed approaches”.  Jordan – Social Work Case Manager

“Knowsley YJS have created an great multi-agency environment to work in. As a seconded police officer and someone from an ‘outside’ agency I have felt part of the YJS team from day one.” Tony – Police Officer

“Knowsley YJS have been a wonderful team to work with, as the staff are so friendly, motivated, and dedicated to improving the lives of our local children and community!” Bryony – Educational Psychologist

May 23 HMIP inspection of Knowsley YJS says:

Knowsley are a ‘Good’ YJS with outstanding features.

“Staff and volunteers feel valued by managers and their peers, and we saw that the service promotes a culture of care and compassion both for its staff and for the children and families that it works with.”

At Knowsley Council we will consider requests for flexible working.  For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, working from home, compressed hours, part-time.

We promote applications from all sections of the community, regardless of background, belief, or identity, recognising the value that diversity brings to our organisation. We particularly welcome applications from individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and candidates with disabilities as we acknowledge their underrepresentation in our workforce.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applicants.

At Knowsley we value our applicants and want them to feel well-informed and welcomed. If you have any questions about this specific job role or what it is like to work at Knowsley, please contact: (below)

Gemma Rhodes (07500765030) Operational Manager, Youth Justice Service

For further information about our Children’s Social Services, please visit https://www.knowsleysocialworkacademy.co.uk/

Closing Date:   30^th March 2025 midnight

If you are interested in this vacancy, please upload your CV along with a supporting statement as one document in PDF or Word format. Your CV and supporting statement should be tailored to reflect the competencies within the person specification.

Please note if a CV and supporting statement does not reflect the person specification it is unlikely to be shortlisted.