Youth Participation Worker (Care Experience)

Youth Participation Worker (Care Experience)
Payscale - JNC 19 - 22 ( 36,035 - £38,757) + Inner London Weighting 

Our Vision is for children and young people to have agency and make Newham a place where they are inspired to realise their potential, feel safe, are valued members of their community and have influence in the decisions made about their lives. 

This is an exciting opportunity to join a team of participation workers operating, as part of the broader Youth Empowerment Service, within a diverse borough with the highest demographic of young people aged under 25 years old in London. The Participation Team has the following intentions - 

• Young people are at the heart of decisions
• Young people should be able to see their whole self, the breadth of their identities, reflected in our services’ holistic approach to youth work practice.
• We will work with diverse young people to develop accessible, inclusive spaces and opportunities ensuring their experiences shape the decisions made in the borough which affect their lives. 

The Participation Team pay particular attention to the experiences of young people who are often marginalized in mainstream settings – specifically LGBTQIA+, Care Experienced, and SEND young people - whilst also ensuring that our approach is holistic and intersectional. Through placing difference at the centre of the development of any of our participation work and celebrating this, our intention is that this will ultimately promote inclusive ways of working and thinking, for youth workers and young people alike. 

• You will be passionate about social action, able to effectively support our participation offer, have extensive experience of working with children and young people and be able to evidence how you have worked to improve successful outcomes with them. 
• You will enjoy working collaboratively, both within the Participation team, across the Youth Empowerment Service, with other Council services as well as with external organisations.
• You will have an understanding of the contemporary challenges young people face and be able to develop high impact services which will promote the inclusive engagement and influencing work that the Participation Team lead on.

Your principle role will:

• Lead on the facilitation and development of the CiCC (Children in Care Council), engaging with services from across the council and borough to help promote the CiCC. This includes weekly sessions, producing content for Instagram and co-producing a quarterly newsletter.
• Support the Care Leavers Forum, working in partnership with the Care Leaving Service. 
• Supporting Care Experienced young people to have influence across a range of different aspects of the council, both services specific to Care Experienced young people, as well as services more broadly. 
• Working in partnership with colleagues in Children and Young People’s Services, as well as the Chair of the CPB (Corporate Parenting Board), to support the CPB’s Young Co-Chairs, along with making sure the experiences of diverse Children in Care are represented and help shape the Board. 
• Support the broader work of the Participation Team to ensure that the experiences of diverse young people from across Newham shape the decisions made in the borough, which affect their lives.

If you believe you have the passion, skills and knowledge to contribute to our innovative programme, we would be interested in receiving your application.

Please view JD here

Closing Date: 20th July 2025 at 23:59

Additional Information

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.

The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.