Youth Engagement Practitioner

About the role

We are looking to recruit passionate and committed Sessional Youth Engagement Practitioners to join our newly established ‘Keeping Families Together’ team within Bury Children's Social Care and Family Help service. Keeping Families Together is a new initiative which focusses on providing short term (between 6 and 12 weeks) intensive support to children, young people and families who are identified as experiencing multiple and complex issues. This is an exciting time to join our new service as we look for passionate individuals who will strive to deliver positive outcomes that make a real difference to our children, young people and families.

Our Youth Engagement Practitioners will play a pivotal role in supporting and engaging with children and young people who are experiencing difficulties at home. They will build meaningful relationships with young people to understand their challenges and aspirations and will be responsible for engaging young people in positive activities. They will provide guidance, mentorship and support to the young people you are working with helping them to develop skills and achieve their goals. The Youth Engagement Practitioners will be allocated a small number of children / young people to work with and will be guided by the lead family practitioner, regarding what issues or difficulties have been identified for the child or young person. At times they may be required to facilitate some small group activities with children or young people designed to engage and support them by addressing their needs and interests. They will work closely with the family practitioners in the team and support them at times to undertake joint home visits to see children and families.

The team will support families where there are children / young people who are identified as;

• likely to require accommodating / looking after by the local authority unless intensive support is provided.

• Or, living with connected carers, and the arrangement is fragile and would result in a child having to be cared for by the local authority without intensive support.

• Or, requiring intensive support during a plan of reunification

• Or, being in acute distress and there is a risk of family breakdown without immediate support.

The team will work with children and young people between the ages of 8 and 18, along with their families providing time limited periods of intervention. They will use a variety of approaches to assist in rebuilding relationships and supporting children and young people to remain safely in the care of their family and promoting long-term sustainable change. The practice model is trauma informed and building relationships with, and within families will be central to the delivery and success of the keeping families together team. The team will engage with the family’s wider support networks to build resilience and strength within the family unit and support them to develop their own plans detailing how problems and difficulties can be managed without the need for professional intervention.

As a Sessional Youth Engagement Practitioner, you will have the flexibility to work shifts when it suits you and when the service needs your help the most. The hours of work will be evenings between 4pm and 8pm or Saturday’s between 9am and 5pm on a rota basis / as per availability.

The service is borough wide but will be based at 3 Knowsley Place / Elizabethan Suite in Bury.

Normal hours of work are 18.5 hours per week based around the usual business working week. Dependent on service requirements, you may be required to work on a rota basis.

About Bury
The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare or children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory disclosure at the appropriate level under the Disclosure and Barring Service.
In line with safer recruitment, please ensure that your application/CV covers your full employment history and there is a reason noted for any gaps in employment. Successful candidates will be asked to provide relevant references for the past ten years and character references will not be accepted.

As a Corporate Parent, ensure that the work and services you deliver considers our care experienced young people, promotes their life chances empowers them to influence the policies, services, and decisions that affect them, champions their rights, and ensure they grow up in the best possible way

Benefits of working for Bury Council
To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit A good employer | greater jobs
We support employees to work with agility, where appropriate for the post and service requirements.
We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises values and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children/ care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria.

Next steps

If this sounds like an opportunity you would like to know more about, we would love to hear from you. To arrange for an informal discussion please email Andy Morris, Project Officer at a.morris@bury.gov.uk, indicating the role applied for and your contact telephone number, who will schedule a conversation with the responsible head of service Jen Rust.

Please note applicant shortlisting will take place w/c 18th November with interviews taking place w/c 2nd December, dates TBC.

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