Role: Embedded Children & Young Persons Caseworker - Exploitation
Based: Somerset
Hours: Full Time – 35 hours per week
Rate: £25,500 - £28,000
Start Date: ASAP
Duration: Maternity Cover – May 2025
Our client, a well-respected charity is looking for a dedicated and highly organised Children & Young Persons Specialist Exploitation Caseworker to join their experienced and compassionate team across Somerset. In this pivotal role, you will leverage your personal and professional experiences to provide essential guidance, support, and mentorship to children and young people at risk of exploitation.
Why This Role Matters:
Your work will be transformative. Through one-on-one mentoring, you will help children and young people develop critical thinking skills, assess risks, and make positive life choices. Your support will empower them to overcome personal challenges, build resilience, and achieve their goals.
If you have overcome similar barriers in your life, your lived experience makes you an ‘expert by experience' – and we want to hear from you. Whether you have been involved in the criminal justice system, experienced gang involvement, or faced criminal exploitation, your unique perspective is invaluable.
Synopsis of duties:
- You will be embedded within the local authority providing direct 1-1 mentoring sessions on a weekly basis to a caseload of young people (aged 11-25) at risk or on the periphery of gang activity, exploitation, and serious youth violence living within the local community.
- Responsible for delivering preventative and early intervention sessions to children and young people and their families on the risks associated with all aspects of gang involvement, exploitation, and violence
- Establish and maintain positive relationships to offer emotional support, guidance, and mentorship.
- Utilise your personal experiences and professional skills to address individual needs and challenges.
- Assist young people in setting and achieving personal life goals.
- Collaborate with professionals to develop strategies to minimize risks to young people.
- Maintain a trauma-informed approach and promote pro-social attitudes and behaviour.
- Safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.
- Offer guidance on resolving interpersonal issues.
- Maintain accurate records of interactions, progress, and outcomes.
- Use data to assess and adjust interventions for effectiveness.
- Promote inclusivity and equity in all interactions.
- Participate in relevant training and workshops to enhance skills and knowledge.
Requirements:
- A deep understanding of the complex issues facing at-risk children and young people
- A proven track record of providing face to face support and of working positively with socially excluded children and young people able to engage successfully despite challenging behaviour
- Experience of delivering sessions to groups and/ or mentoring young people effectively
- Relevant direct or indirect experience of the criminal justice system, or lived experience of the issues facing this client group (substance misuse, drug supply, county lines, gangs or knife crime, social exclusion and isolation, child criminal exploitation, adverse childhood experiences and trauma)
- Experience of working as part of a multiagency team, working together to achieve positive outcomes for young people and establishing links to further the aims of the project
- Ability to use monitoring systems to record all aspects of the work, including action plans, outcomes and session data on a day-to-day basis
- Demonstrated professional standards, empathy, and understanding
- Total commitment to safeguarding and professional boundaries
- A proactively emotionally resilient Caseworker that can engage positively and successfully with challenging individuals, including those with complex needs, reluctance to discuss their needs and emotional turmoil
- Full UK Driving Licence and access to your own vehicle
- Enhanced DBS registered on the Update Service would be advantageous
For more information, please call the team and ask to speak to Lisa Yates
Supporting Futures Consulting acts as both an employer and an agency.