Participation and Engagement manager

Salary range: £50,700 - £53,793 (pro rata) p.a. inc. 

Contract: Permanent  

Hours of work: 21.6 hours per week

Location: Civic centre and other locations from time to time

 

 

Brent is a tremendously vibrant London borough where the iconic arch of Wembley Stadium dominates the skyline. Spanning both inner and outer London, it is a borough of huge contrasts in terms of its economic, environmental, ethnic and social make up. Brent’s diversity is evident to all who visit our borough and our long history of ethnic and cultural diversity has created a place that is truly unique and valued by those who live and work here.

 

The council is pursuing a far-reaching transformation agenda that better meets the needs of our community so it is an exciting time to join us.

 

The Post

Brent has a very active Youth Parliament, a developing Care in Action programme and was host authority for London Borough of Culture 2020 which was focussed on expanding opportunities for young people in the Borough, which remains a key priority.

The participation team has undergone a reorganisation with the primary objective to increase staffing resource and management capacity.  The Participation and Engagement Manager is a newly established post which will provide an exciting opportunity for the successful candidate to shape the continuing development of the Participation and Engagement Team.

You will manage a team of part time and sessional workers who, with your guidance, will lead different work streams that will develop the active and meaningful participation of young people. You will be leading a team working with young people to influence and improve services for young people in Brent.

You will have primary responsibility for developing a co-production model which will engage and promote children and young people with a particular focus on young people whose voices are hard for professionals to hear and those who experience barriers to engagement. You will be responsible for evaluating the implementation and impact of co-produced training and resources.

You will manage the planning, promotion and facilitation of participation activity, ensuring that your team offers activities and opportunities that provide a rich and meaningful experience for young people and have a direct influence on service evaluation and development. There will be some evening and weekend work to support events for young people which is enabled by a highly flexible work environment.

The Person

Young people have been very clear about the qualities they are looking for in the people they work with:

Respectful, empathetic, going out of your way, punctual, active, hardworking, positive, problem solver, hopeful, tolerant, vigilant. Does this sound like you?

You will be an experienced manager who is experienced in youth participation and adept at bringing a vision to life. You will be a confident and accessible communicator able to engage both children and young people, staff that you manage and senior leaders.

You will be a confident report writer able to succinctly disseminate the vision of children and young people to range of audiences and to analyse  the impact of the work that has been completed.

We are looking for someone who has a proven ability to reach out, engage and support young people to influence the world around them in creative and relevant ways – though social media, youth spaces, local and national forums, fun and life enhancing projects. You will have experience working with children from a wide range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, care and youth justice experience, special educational needs and disabilities and supporting them to take part in Local Authority governance and influence decision making.

You will be confident supporting young people to work together in a group setting, enabling small successes as they work towards identified goals.

Closing date: 2 October 2022 (23:00)

Interview and Assessment: w/c 10 October 2022

 

Additional Information 

 

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community. We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.

 

We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances.

 

Brent has a positive approach to flexible working.

 

As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on  recruitment@brent.gov.uk