Youth Justice Officer

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to join Cambridgeshire Youth Justice Service as a Youth Justice Officer (YJO). This is a key role in our multi-disciplinary service and primarily you will be expected to engage, assess and work directly and creatively with children and young people who are at risk of offending or who have offended.

This is a varied job, and you will also need to be able to effectively support parents/carers and work in partnership with other agencies to keep young people and others safe. You will also have statutory duties and be required to attend court and undertake comprehensive assessments and written reports.

We are seeking a dynamic individual who is Child First in their approach and who is keen to work collaboratively with young people, helping to support changes and solutions in difficult and often complex situations. The role can be fast paced and is ideally suited to someone with excellent communication skills, who has experience in engaging young people positively and effectively and who has the necessary skills to case manage and meet competing demands within agreed timescales.  

This is a temporary role for up to 12m covering maternity leave with an office base in Huntingdon. You will visit young people at their home, in schools or other community venues and there is also the opportunity to work from home regularly. The post holder will cover the geographical area of Huntingdonshire and cover courts across the county and sometimes beyond.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Darren Minns (Acting Team Manager) on 07789652430.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. 

What will you be doing?

This position is in a very challenging but rewarding area, working with young people who have offended ranging from those who haven't yet reached the court system through to those in prisons. The successful candidate will manage a caseload of community and custodial sentences ensuring effective assessment, intervention planning, review and risk management. To effectively divert young people from offending, the post-holder will be working with a range of other team members whose roles include substance misuse, psychology, accommodation, restorative justice, education, training and employment.

You will be expected to represent the service at court including supporting young people and their families through the criminal justice system.

About you

You will be:

• qualified to at least Level 5 in a relevant subject (eg. Youth Justice, Psychology, Criminology) or similar 
• experienced at engaging with adolescents in a work setting
• experienced in managing a caseload, casework and inter-agency working
• able to communicate effectively at all levels
• committed to achieving the best outcomes for young people
• able to maintain compliance with policy and procedures
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Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:

• Flexible working
• Flexible Bank Holidays
• A comprehensive wellbeing package
• Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
• A comprehensive pension scheme
• IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
• An employee recognition scheme

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Attached documents

• Youth Justice Officer Job Description 2024.docx