Specialist Practitioner WCC621062

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £45,399 per annum 
Work location: 4 Frampton Street, London, NW8 8LF
Hours per week: 36 
Contract type: Fixed term until 31 March 2027
Vetting requirements: Enhanced DBS Check  
Closing date: 18 May 2025
Interview date: Week commencing 26 May 2025

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 Specialist Practitioner with our Changing Futures Specialist Team you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. The Changing Futures Programme is a central government funded initiative that aims to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness, offending behaviour, substance misuse, mental health needs, domestic abuse and other challenging disadvantages. It also provides local services including tenancy sustainment support and projects that work with chronically dependent drinkers.

Your role will be within Changing Futures Specialist Team, a multidisciplinary team which focuses on effecting change at an individual, service, and system-wide level. The highly skilled Specialist Team work directly with young adults experiencing multiple disadvantage and adopts a compassion focused approach. In this important introductory role, you will work alongside your practitioner colleagues to deliver responsive, relational and trauma-informed support to young adults. You will use a combination of practical support, advocacy, and therapeutic interventions to support service user’s emotional responses, help them feel empowered to manage difficult emotions and improve their social inclusion and access to resources.

We will expect you to be skilled at learning and adapting to new approaches and practice models, preferably within a psychological framework, and be ready to ensure your clients’ views and wishes are at the heart of decision making, service design and delivery. An active participant in meetings that deliver effective partnership and joint working arrangements, and skilled at sharing your ideas, concepts or findings with a diverse range of stakeholders. You will have proven experience of creating and facilitating groups and workshops for service users which promote social inclusion and improve wellbeing.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

With proven experience of working in a support setting with young people (preferably between the ages of 18-25) facing multiple disadvantages, you should have some practical understanding of homelessness, offending, substance misuse, domestic abuse, mental health issues, youth work or education. You’ll have acted as case manager for individuals presenting with complex needs and challenges, and in addition to being capable of identifying, responding to and managing risk and crisis situations, you’ll have experience of working in a strong, dependable relational way with service users.

You should be skilled at learning and adapting to new approaches or practice models, preferably within a psychological framework, and be ready to ensure your clients’ views and wishes are at the heart of decision making, service design and delivery. An active participant in meetings that deliver effective partnership and joint working arrangements, and skilled at sharing your ideas, concepts or findings with a diverse range of stakeholders, you’ll have proven experience of creating and facilitating groups and workshops for service users which promote social inclusion and improve wellbeing.

Confident working on your own in the community and with families and young people who require support to make sense of their emotions, you’ll adopt an open, non-judgemental and curious approach towards challenging behaviour. It’s also vital that you have an appreciation of the effects of complex trauma and attachment difficulties, an understanding of the safeguarding issues associated with multiple disadvantage, and the ability to solve problems creatively with limited resources.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

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.