Job Description

The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society are excited to be recruiting for the brand-new role of National Youth Voice Worker to drive forward the inclusion of young people\xe2\x80\x99s views in efforts to improve the prevention and disruption of child exploitation and abuse.

This will include consulting with young people across England and Wales to empower them to influence the organisations, systems and decision makers that have the power to make real change for young people\'s lives in order to better protect and support all young people from exploitation and abuse.This is a permanent position with a provisional funding end date of 31st March 2025.

The role is an ideal opportunity for someone with experience of youth consultation and participation who is now looking to build on this to drive change at a national and strategic level.

The ideal candidate for this role would have strong youth participation and facilitation skills, the ability to produce written reports and presentations to a high standard, is a strong networker with the ability to build relationships with a range of organisations and who has a commitment to championing diversity, inclusion and anti-discriminatory practice.

30 hours per week.

DL - \xc2\xa329,673 FTE - \xc2\xa324,059 pro rata (with London weighting)

DN - \xc2\xa326,506 FTE - \xc2\xa321,491 pro rata (outside London)

The location for the role is flexible across England and Wales.

The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society

The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society runs over 100 local services that help thousands of young people who desperately need our support, and we campaign to get laws and policies changed to make children\xe2\x80\x99s lives happier and safer.

Every day we\xe2\x80\x99re changing the lives of children in this country for the better \xe2\x80\x93 and with your help, tomorrow we can be there for even more.

The Prevention Programme

The Prevention Programme is now in its fifth year as a key part of The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society\xe2\x80\x99s national programme team. We work in close partnership with organisations across the public, private and charity sectors to achieve our goal of preventing Child Exploitation and Abuse, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking across England and Wales.

The Prevention Programme is an exciting, fast-paced programme which drives forward radical change in the prevention of Child Exploitation at a local, regional and national level.

In 2020 the Programme won the Children and Young People Now partnership award and we were finalists for the safeguarding award in 2022. These awards are the gold standard for everyone working with children, young people and families, and provides recognition of the achievement of services across the third sector.

We\xe2\x80\x99re looking for an experienced and skilled individual to join our dynamic Prevention Programme Team to lead direct work with young people to inform the programme and the work we conduct across sectors.

With experience of facilitating participation and consultation sessions with young people, an understanding of child exploitation and abuse and a commitment to equity and inclusion, you will be key to driving the development of youth voice work within the Programme and in creating spaces and discussions where young people feel supported and empowered to affect change across all levels of professional practice.

You will play a vital role in identifying and analysing key themes raised by young people and sharing these with internal and external stakeholders in order to drive innovative approaches to preventing child exploitation and abuse across England and Wales.

Through ensuring our youth voice work is strategically focused and that it draws upon and coordinates input from across The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society and relevant partner agencies, you will act as a key member of the Prevention Programme working towards a society where every child exploitation victim is identified and receives appropriate support.

Police officers are asking different questions, victims are getting extra support and being identified at different points. They said that was directly as a result of the work with The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society.\xe2\x80\x99 Local Authority Stakeholder, East Midlands

We view diversity and inclusion as fundamental to achieving social change and recognise that systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia and disability discrimination actively prevent children from being safeguarded and receiving appropriate support.

To tackle the complex issues facing young people, we need access to diverse talent, perspectives, experiences and working practices. The Prevention Programme is committed to inclusion, anti-racism and trans allyship. We actively support all LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and those who identify as neurodiverse and are currently engaged in work to address issues of systemic exclusion and discrimination as they relate to exploitation and abuse.

We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and communities and we have policies to support flexible, inclusive and accessible employment.

In this role you will:

• Join the award-winning Prevention programme to influence and encourage new and innovative approaches to prevent child exploitation and abuse, working to ensure all child victims of exploitation are recognised and receive the right support.
• Deliver a programme of both virtual and in person participation and consultation activity with young people who are \xe2\x80\x98experts by experience\xe2\x80\x99, in close collaboration with existing youth groups and participation projects across England and Wales.

• Contribute to the development of a high quality participatory approach that seeks to inspire and innovate and which offers a developmental, supportive and empowering experience to those involved.

• Ensure those taking part in participation and consultation activity are representative of the diversity of young people who are \xe2\x80\x98experts by experience\xe2\x80\x99 and that they are drawn from communities across all 10 regions of England and Wales.

• Identify individuals, services and organisations who are conducting like-minded work focussed on children and young people\xe2\x80\x99s voices in the context of exploitation, abuse, serious youth violence and systems change, to ensure join up and collaboration where possible.

• Work closely with the Prevention management team to analyse the ideas and views of those engaged in participation and consultation activity and draw out relevant patterns, trends and themes. To then collate these insights into written reports to guide the work of the programme and influence relevant internal and external partners at a local and national level, including government departments and other strategic leaders.

• Take part in the design and delivery of feedback loops and other participatory mechanisms to ensure that young people who are consulted with understand how their views are being taken forward and where possible, what has changed as a result.

• Share the programme\xe2\x80\x99s youth participation and consultation work and learning drawn from it with external audiences and partners and encourage a culture of collaborative learning with these audiences as part of modelling generous leadership in the sector.

• Work in accordance with The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society policy and procedure, with particular reference to safeguarding vulnerable children and adults, as well as in accordance with joint working protocols agreed by the delivery partnership.

• Actively contribute to ensuring that Prevention is an equal, inclusive and anti-racist team that actively supports all LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and those who identify as neurodiverse, where all staff feel valued, welcomed and included. To also contribute to this across The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society. To further ensure these principles are embedded in all external work including participation and consultation activity.

• Work alongside TCS participation and consultation projects and exploitation and missing services to gather and share learning and good practice information.

Do you want to be part of our Team?

To find out more or have a chat about the role and explore if it\xe2\x80\x99s the right fit for you please contact James at or call 07775812347.

The closing date for applications is 11:59 on the 1st of October 2023.

We intend to hold interviews during the week of the 9th of October 2023, but this is subject to change.

The Children\xe2\x80\x99s Society is committed to safeguarding and protecting the children and young people that we work with. As such, all posts are subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks. We ensure that we have a range of policies and procedures in place which promote safeguarding and safer working practices across our services.

Therefore, candidates applying for this role will be required to complete an \xe2\x80\x9cEmployment history template\xe2\x80\x9d document prior to interview. The fully completed document should be loaded by the candidate at the point of uploading your CV

The Children\'s Society