Deputy Service Manager

Job Description

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SHOFA’S MARKET

Children’s Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where courageous and inspiring professionals bring everything to their work.

Sometimes this even includes heartbreak. Shofa is a shining example. Shofa’s brother suffered with his mental health and died tragically young. She uses his memory as motivation to give Westminster Youth Council members the opportunity to have a voice and get involved in decision-making. This passion resulted in her innovation: The Westminster Youth Market. Here local teenagers learn about entrepreneurship and develop their personal skills. This is an inclusive platform where everyone’s contribution and abilities are celebrated. Inspired by a promising life cut short, Shofa believes without vision there is no direction and every young person should be supported to realise their dreams.

Please view the extraordinary story of Shofa’s Market here.

The Role:

As Deputy Service Manager for our Youth Offending Service, you can make your own powerful contribution to the lives of children and young people and the communities they live in. You will work closely with the management team to ensure that the team continue to support children and young people on the periphery and involved in offending with the goal of reducing the number entering the Youth Justice System and improving life prospects We are one of just three local authorities chosen by the Government to trial systemic assessment, so this is an opportunity to pioneer some innovative approaches.

Leading a team of professionals working closely with children, young people and families, you will organise workload and set priorities. You’ll champion an ethos that puts children first and believes that everyone has the capacity to change. Building from an understanding of the root causes of offending such as poor educational experiences, lack of employment prospects and the impact of trauma, you will empower your team to overcome barriers, improve future life prospects and embed lasting change for our more challenging young people. A key challenge will be engaging with partner agencies to address disproportionality in the youth justice system.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

A qualified and registered social worker, you’ll bring substantial experience of managing staff within a youth justice setting. This will include a track-record of ensuring that a high standard of effective practice is delivered and maintained in line with current legislation, and local and national standards. You will be ready to provide quality assurance and oversight to assessment, planning and review, including difficult, complex and high-risk casework.

Committed to driving practice improvement amongst case workers, you’ll have the skills to embed systemic, relational, skills-based and strengths-based approaches. This will involve promoting a culture of learning and innovation. An understanding of restorative practice and working through a trauma-informed lens is important and additional qualifications in CBT, counselling or systemic methods would be helpful.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background, you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to over 250,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.