Youth Worker (full time) in Somerset

Are you ready for a new challenge? Do you have a passion for working with young people, helping them grow in confidence, discover their strengths, and explore new opportunities? If so, we would love to hear from you!

Location: This is a hybrid role, combining work from home with work in the community. You will also have access to our Barnardo’s office in Taunton if you would like to use this space.

Working Hours: Negotiable, up to 37 hours per week, including some evening work (fixed term until 31st March 2027).

About the Role: The Barnardo’s Co-op Partnership is an exciting and innovative programme aiming to support more than one million young people to build positive futures. Our Sedgemoor for our Future service is co-designed with young people and centred around a welcoming, inclusive youth space where young people can feel safe, connected, and empowered to take part in meaningful experiences.

Using a youth work approach, we support young people to:

• Build positive relationships and develop a strong sense of belonging
• Grow in confidence, resilience, and self-esteem
• Take part in a wide range of activities, including creative, practical, and food-based sessions
• Explore issues that matter to them and have their voices heard
• Develop teamwork, communication, and essential life skills for the future

Session Details: You must be available to lead the following weekly sessions:

• Tuesdays – Highbridge, 4:30pm–6:00pm
• Wednesdays – Bridgwater, 4:30pm–6:00pm

As part of your role, you will plan and deliver engaging, youth-led sessions in a variety of settings, including community venues and schools. You will build trusted relationships with young people, create inclusive spaces that meet diverse needs, and support them to achieve positive outcomes. You will also contribute to community engagement, develop creative approaches to reaching young people across Sedgemoor, and support ongoing evaluation through reflective practice and outcome recording.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience working with children, young people, and families
• Strong understanding of safeguarding and child protection procedures, with experience applying this in practice
• Excellent listening and communication skills with a diverse range of children, young people, and families
• Creativity and confidence in designing inclusive workshops and group sessions
• Good written and IT skills to accurately record case notes
• Flexibility to adapt to the needs and interests of young people

When applying, please refer specifically to the Person Specification and Job Description, explaining how your skills and experience meet the requirements. Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay Reward Framework: We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo’s values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work, and creativity of our people. For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive, and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive, and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo’s and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo’s pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits Workplace Offer: Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility, and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo’s require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo’s services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland). Barnardo’s believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.

Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo’s service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo’s service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo’s service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata.

The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme.

A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options.

Service related sick pay from day 1.

Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo’s. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution.

Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension.

Cycle2work scheme.

Interest free season ticket loans.

Discounts and cashback from high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays, and much more via our Benefit Portal.

20% discount at Barnardo’s stores.

Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc.

Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support.

Access to Barnardo’s Learning and Development offer.

About Barnardo’s: We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity, and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.