Youth Justice Worker – Advance into JusticeMinistry of Justice

All

staff have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The post holder must undertake the appropriate level of training and is

responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding

policies of the organisation.

Job description

Youth Justice Worker – Advance into Justice Youth Justice Worker

HMYOI/ HMP and YOI/ Secure Training Centre/ Secure Children’s home

HMP Wetherby

HMP Werrington

HMP Feltham

Vacancy type:   Merit

Duration: 2 Year Fixed Term

Skilled Worker visa sponsorship may be available for this role, subject to eligibility and in line with the UK Immigration Rules in force at the time of application. However, due to current immigration requirements and recruitment timescales, candidates who require Skilled Worker visa sponsorship are unlikely to be sponsored if applying to this campaign.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider their right to work in the UK carefully before applying. You can read more about Skilled Worker visas and eligibility criteria at gov.uk.

The Department will continue to comply with UK Immigration Rules applied in the UK and Civil Service.

Advance into Justice is a recruitment scheme targeted at supporting those who have served in the Armed Forces and their families into employment within operational roles within HMPPS.

Advance into Justice is open to Service Leavers, Armed Forces Veterans, their Spouses and Legal Partners.

Eligible applicants who pass our assessment processes will be offered a 2 year fixed-term appointment with the option after 12 months, to convert to permanency, subject to approval, under Exception 10 of the Civil Service recruitment principles.

All provisional offers will be held for a period of 12 months from the point of offer, to allow service leavers to plan for their exit from the Armed Forces and transition directly into a career with HMPPS.

Candidates are requested to select 3 establishment preferences

Someone like you

The Youth Custody Service is transforming its workforce, and we invite you to be part of this journey. The youth justice worker role is similar to that of a prison officer, but specifically focused on supporting children and young people in custody. This role is vital in reshaping how children and young people are cared for in custody.

In this role you will be responsible for ensuring the security and safety of children and young people while providing day-to-day support in a custodial setting. Comprehensive training and development will equip you with the knowledge to understand the diverse backgrounds and individual circumstances of those in youth custody, and how your responses in complex or dynamic situations can help these individuals build better futures. We are seeking individuals with a special ability to support and guide vulnerable children and young people.

You will need a DBS check.

An extraordinary job

This role will be dealing with the practical side of life for children in custody. This  includes, but is not limited to, interventions when required, overseeing and facilitating safe movement around the site, and providing supervision to ensure safety.

You will be working with children and young people who may have committed serious offenses, come from challenging backgrounds, and/or have mental health needs. These young individuals may test boundaries, but they also have significant potential for positive change. You will play a significant part in providing them with opportunities to better their future.

Job details

Essential Skills

No formal qualifications are required to become a youth justice worker; personal qualities are what matter most. You should demonstrate:

Strong communication and influencing skills

Commitment to high standards of care and service

Effective decision-making abilities

Empathy and understanding

As a practitioner, you will work with children, young people, and their families or carers to help achieve meaningful and lasting changes in their lives. You will:

Show a passion for supporting children, young people, and families

be skilled in identifying and assessing the complex needs of the children and young people you work with

collaborate with young people, their families, or carers to agree on interventions or referrals that support their needs

handle interventions when necessary, including de-escalating situations, managing behavioural issues, and applying conflict resolution techniques

approach your work with respectful curiosity, balancing challenge and support to help young people reach their potential and stay safe

work closely with other professionals and organisations to collectively improve outcomes

Each child’s journey is unique, and you will need to exercise sound judgment, using evidence-based approaches to inform your practice. You will continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your actions and methods. Regular supervision with an experienced practitioner will help you reflect on and improve your practice. Following successful completion of your 12-month probationary period you will also be offered the opportunity to undertake a Level 4 Qualification focussed on working with children and young people in custody, the high standard of your work will be making a genuine difference to the lives of those you support.

Find out more about being a youth justice worker.

Eligibility

To be a youth justice worker you must:

be at least 18 years old at the point you commence employment

meet the Civil Service Nationality requirements (see nationality requirements section below)

pass a medical and fitness assessment as part of the application process as this is a physically active job

meet the required eyesight standard in both eyes (both with and without corrective lenses)

For safety reasons, everyone training to be a youth justice worker needs a suitable standard of hearing (without the use of hearing aids)

Whilst tattoos are permitted, including those that are visible, they must not be deemed as offensive, discriminatory, violent, or intimidating in any way. Facial tattoos are generally not acceptable, except where this is for cultural, religious, or medical reasons.

Travel to Work

Some establishments are situated in rural locations with limited public transport options; therefore, a driving licence and own transport is beneficial but is not an essential requirement of the role (unless specified).  Please note that shift start, and finish times are fixed, and it is your responsibility to get to and from your place of work on time for the start of your shift. Please carefully consider the location of this vacancy and your transport options before applying.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

·       UK nationals

·       nationals of the Republic of Ireland

·       nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

·       nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

·       nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

·       individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

·       Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules.

Successful applicants must ensure they have and maintain the legal right to live and work in the Civil Service and in the United Kingdom.

Pay

The initial training is 37 hours a week. After training, you can choose to work 37, 39 or 41 hours a week. Your annual salary will reflect your weekly hours.

Salaries quoted are for National - 37 hours a week & include an unsocial hours allowance - £34,928

HMP Wetherby

HMP Werrington

Salaries quoted are for Outer London – 37 hours a week & include an unsocial hour’s allowance – £40,840 (includes £2000 market supplement)

HMP Feltham

All salary figures quoted include any additional allowances that are applicable to the role/location.

Young Offender Institutions operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means you will have to cover various shift patterns that will include evenings, some nights, weekends and public holidays (these days are added to your holiday allowance).  The standard working week of a youth justice worker is based on a 39 hours per week shift pattern.

You may also have opportunities to work additional paid hours.

Benefits

25 days’ annual holiday (rising to 30 days after 10 years’ service)

paid time off for public holidays and 1 extra privilege day

Civil Service pension with employer contributions of 28.97%

cycle to work scheme, travel loans and other benefits

Read more about youth justice worker benefits.

Assessment Process

During the recruitment process you will be assessed on the behaviours, strengths and abilities you need to become an effective youth justice worker. These include:

communicating and influencing

managing a quality service

making effective decisions

caring

Your natural strengths are assessed to find out what motivates and energises you. We will also assess your numerical, written English and spoken English abilities.

Online Tests

Once you have completed your initial application form, you will be invited to complete stage 1 of the online test, to see if you have the basic judgement and numerical skills expected of a prison officer.

If you are successful, we will invite you to the stage 2 online test (values-based assessment). We use this assessment to understand how well you demonstrate the values needed to be an effective prison officer.

If you successfully pass the Values Based Assessment (VBA), you'll be eligible to progress to the Online Assessment Centre (OAC), where we'll assess the behaviours, strengths and abilities needed to become a Prison Officer.

As demand for assessment places can vary, candidates who achieve a higher pre-determined VBA score may be invited to the OAC sooner. This approach is applied consistently and fairly to all applicants within the campaign.

If you meet the required VBA pass mark but are not selected for an initial invitation, you will remain under consideration and may be invited to attend an OAC as additional assessment capacity becomes available

If you were unsuccessful at the stage 2 online test in the last 6 months, you can now re‑apply.

The online assessment centre (OAC)

On successful completion of the online test, we will invite you to an online assessment centre where we test to see if you have the abilities, behaviours and strengths to be a youth justice worker.

Read more about the application process.

Merit campaign:

This is a merit job vacancy. If you are successful at the online assessment centre, you will be added to a merit list based on your score.

When all applicants have completed the online assessment centre, job offers will be made to individuals with the highest scores first when positions become available.

You can stay on the merit list for 12 months. After this, you’ll need to apply again.

Your successful pass from assessment centre will be valid for 12 months if you want to apply for vacancies at other prisons.

If your application is unsuccessful at the sift/assessment stage, a six-month waiting period will be applied during which time you will not be allowed to submit any further applications for youth justice worker positions.

Operational Support Grade Role

Our Online Assessment Centre (OAC), will not only assess you against the key criteria to become a youth justice worker but will also determine your suitability for appointment as an operational support grade  OSG   If following attendance at your OAC, you are unsuccessful in your application to become a youth justice worker, we may instead offer you an alternative role as an OSG.

Medical and Fitness

Once we identify a vacancy for you, we will invite you to complete a medical and fitness test. This will cover an eyesight test, hearing test and basic health screening, including a blood pressure check.

Please note we are not able to facilitate medical and fitness assessments outside of the UK. Applicants will be required to attend a UK based medical and fitness assessment centre to progress their application.Find out more about the medical assessment and fitness test on the application information centre

Training and career progression

Working within youth custody, you’ll have a clear progression pathway. Following successful completion of your 12-month probationary period, you will be offered the opportunity to undertake a Level 4 Qualification focussed on working with children and young people in custody.  Full details regarding this course will be made available prior to the time of enrolment.

Once you have successfully completed your qualification you have the opportunity to progress to a band 4 Youth Justice Worker Specialist role.

Ongoing training and development for specialist skills such as child protection and safeguarding will be provided.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of Civil Servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. If you feel the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles, you can raise a formal complaint in the following order:

<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-s