Looked after Children and Leaving Care Advocacy Office WCC613941

Job Details:

Salary range: £40,005 - £43,824 per annum
Work location: 4 Frampton Street, London, NW8 8LF
Hours per week: 28.80 
Contract type: Temporary up to 12 months
Vetting requirements: Enhanced DBS Check
Closing date: 12 May 2024 
Interview dates: Week commencing 13 May 2024
Contact details for an informal discussion: Vivette Jenkins, IRO Service Manager, 07535 699656 or via email: vjenkins@westminster.gov.uk  

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SHOFA’S MARKET 

Children’s Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where courageous and inspiring professionals bring everything to their work. 

Sometimes this even includes heartbreak. Shofa is a shining example. Shofa’s brother suffered with his mental health and died tragically young. She uses his memory as motivation to give Westminster Youth Council members the opportunity to have a voice and get involved in decision making. This passion resulted in in her innovation: The Westminster Youth Market. Here local teenagers learn about entrepreneurship and develop their personal skills. This is an inclusive platform where everyone’s contribution and abilities are celebrated. Inspired by a promising life cut short, Shofa believes without vision there is no direction and every young person should be supported to realise their dreams. 

Please view the extraordinary story of Shofa’s Market here.
 

The Role:

As a ‘Looked After Children and Care Leaver Advocate’ you can make your own powerful contribution by ensuring that the most vulnerable children and young people receive the support they need to get everything they deserve from life. 

We are committed to developing a service that doesn’t just meet the basic needs of children and young people, but that delivers truly exceptional results. We know that this service doesn’t just evolve as a result of professional expertise – it needs to stem from conversations with children and young people. And that’s where you come in. 

As part of the Safeguarding Review and Quality Assurance service group, you will work with young people who are either in or leaving the care system, spending time developing innovative and creative consultation and participation exercises in which they can share their views in a safe and supported way. Using their opinions to formulate the processes and services that they actually want and need, you will build bridges between young people and these services, thereby ensuring they are directly involved in service design in different parts of the council. 

Whether listening to complaints or compliments about the services they have received so far, you will collate this insight to share with colleagues across the service and help us all work towards more effective results. With the full support of senior colleagues who are keen to make the relevant changes happen, you will have plenty of autonomy to explore potential avenues, and create conversations that will ultimately lead to tangible change for all Looked-After Children and Care-Leavers.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

This is a fantastic chance to help young people thrive once they leave the care system. To make the most of this role, you will therefore have professional experience of working with and engaging children and young people, both individually and in groups. With the capacity to understand challenging life stories and get young people to openly discuss the issues that have affected their lives, your understanding of social work with families will ensure you can completely empathise with the experiences of Looked-After Children. 

As you will be tasked with presenting your findings in a variety of formats, you will have fantastic verbal and written communication skills, and you will be able to coordinate the opinions of large groups of people. As a highly organised individual, we will expect you to simultaneously manage the needs of a range of projects, and you will be able to analyse information and present this in insightful reports. 

While a qualification in a relevant field (such as social work, advocacy, law or youth work) would be helpful, your passion for championing the rights of children and young people will be essential. 

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.