Children's Participation Officer

Working within the Children’s Participation Team, you will help to ensure that young people’s voices are heard within the Council, feeding back to senior leaders to improve the services the Council provides. This role will be specifically working with children in care and care leavers.

The feedback provided by young people enacts real change within the Council and the local community. Most recently, a participation group was provided an award by the Police and Crime Commissioner for their work within the local community.

What will you be doing?

• It will be your responsibility to organise children and young people’s participation groups facilitating discussions specifically in relation to children in care and care leavers.
• From these discussions, you will collate responses and feedback to senior leaders within the council in a variety of forms such as written reports, presentations, or direct feedback from the young people themselves.
• Regularly, you will conduct research and analysis of national policy and charities, informing how we can improve our services for children and young people.
• You will develop strong working relationships with young people and social care teams to ensure the effective running of the participation groups, as well as partner organisations to secure their involvement in achieving objectives.
• Alongside this work, you will also assist with the development of policy and processes such as the Remuneration policy for young people.
• You will also build upon the Council’s social media presence to further encourage young people’s involvement with council services and participation groups.

• We require you to have relevant knowledge and experience of working in a public sector organisation undertaking community engagement, service user engagement / participation in youth, social care or similar services.
• You must have previous experience working with children in care or within a social care setting.
• It is essential that you have experience of planning and facilitating youth engagement and participation approaches.
• You must have a proven ability to conduct surveys including the associated analysis, report writing and presentation.
• Due to the nature of this role, you must have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to develop strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.  

• We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of
• We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life
• We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential. 

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.  

We’re making a difference, be part of it!  

Interviews currently scheduled to take place week commencing 9th October