Portsmouth Youth Offending Team

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. It is also committed to promoting quality childcare across the City that works to improve outcomes for children.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children''s Board safer recruitment procedures.

Why work in Portsmouth?

Portsmouth is a lively city that offers excellent opportunities to develop you and your career. The city is almost an island with that "inner city" feel, with the advantages of fantastic countryside on its doorstep. With excellent commuter links to London, Brighton and with the continent only being about 4 hours away, it is the perfect place to live and work.

The Service

The YOT is aligned to the Integrated Youth Support Service and sits within the Children, Families and Education Directorate. It is a multi-disciplinary organisation that works both within Children and Families Service and the Criminal Justice System. The YOT has one over-riding aim which is to prevent offending and re-offending behaviour by children and young people (10 - 17 years of age). Every local authority has to bring together practitioners from key agencies to help prevent offending and work with young people. The YOT''s work falls into 3 areas:

• Preventing crime and anti-social behaviour
• Community supervision of offenders
• Re-settlement of young people from custody

As a service we take pride in our work by valuing others, focusing on what''s important so that we make a real and positive difference.

What is the role?

This motivated team requires an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Youth Justice Practitioner, who would enjoy the challenge of working in this important service for Portsmouth''s children. You will be required to carry a caseload of complex cases of young people subject to statutory intervention within the Youth Justice System in Portsmouth.

You will be expected to liaise with colleagues both within and outside the YOT in order to gather the relevant information for high quality assessments and the relevant input for high quality interventions to reduce the risk of serious harm to the public, the young person''s vulnerability and their likelihood of re-offending. You will be responsible for the planning and delivery of interventions with those assessed as vulnerable, and/or presenting risk of serious harm to the public, and / or most likely to re-offend.

In addition you will be expected to carry out a range of duties in support of these roles. These will include report writing, attending court, delivering individual and group-based programmes of intervention in line with assessed risk and need, co-ordinating the input of other professionals as required and working with parents

In applying for this post you will be joining a lively, challenging and supportive team whose priority is in improving outcomes for Portsmouth''s children who offend. In return we are looking for a practitioner who is:

• Highly motivated and enthusiastic.
• Creative, flexible and innovative in helping young people find solutions.
• Keen to develop their practice skills within a multi-agency setting.

Who is the person?

You need to:

1. Have an extensive experience of working within Youth Justice or be able to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of this area of work. A professional qualification in a relevant discipline would be desirable
2. Have excellent knowledge and skills in the area of assessment and be competent in using a range of interventions with young people. You need to demonstrate confidence in working within timescales when undertaking this work.
3. Be able to work as part of a team to ensure a smooth delivery of the service and be flexible in being able to adapt to the changing needs of the team.
4. Maintain a professional child centred approach.
5. Have a sound understanding on the nature and management of young people displaying high levels of risk and/or vulnerability
6. Have good communication and interpersonal skills, as you will be liaising with people from many different agencies as well as with young people and their families
7. Be self-motivated and able to use your own initiative whilst recognising policies and procedures in place.
8. Have problem solving skills when dealing with the variety of challenges you will be facing daily.
9. Be calm and organised to enable you to meet the daily deadlines whilst working within this busy service.
10. Advocate, where appropriate, on behalf of the child when creating, reviewing or challenging plans.
11. Be able to support and promote Portsmouth City Council''s Equal Opportunities policy, which aims to ensure everyone has equal treatment and equal access to employment and services.
12. Have competent IT skills as you will be using the applications in the Microsoft Office Suite such as Outlook, Word and our own specialist database for client records and the maintaining of those records.
13. Use your professional knowledge and experience to challenge plans, situations and show highly creative ways of managing complex, difficult and often volatile situations
14. The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post

Closing 7th December 2017
Applications received after this may not be considered
Interview process 18th December 2017

For more information, plus details on how to apply, and our guiding principles please see the attachments.