Bury Children\'s Rights Advocate in Bury St Edmunds

Are you passionate about championing the voices of children and young people? Do you believe that children in care and care leavers should be listened to, respected, and empowered to influence decisions about their lives? Bury Council is excited to offer a fantastic opportunity to join our Children’s Rights Service as a Children’s Rights Advocate.

Overview

As a Children’s Rights Advocate, you will work directly with children and young people who are subject to Child in need, Child protection, are in the care of the local authority or a care leaver, ensuring their wishes and feelings are heard and represented in decisions that affect them. You will provide high-quality, child-centred advocacy, support young people to engage confidently in reviews, meetings, and complaints processes, and work alongside professionals to ensure children’s rights are upheld. In addition to direct advocacy, you will play a key role in participation and co-production, supporting groups and forums that enable young people to influence service development, policy, and the corporate parenting agenda. You will also help raise awareness of advocacy and deliver training to professionals across the council and partner agencies.

Responsibilities

• Advocating on behalf of children and young people who are looked after and care leavers
• Representing young people’s wishes and feelings and negotiating with professionals on their behalf
• Supporting participation, co-production, and youth voice activity
• Working collaboratively with social care, education, health, and partner agencies
• Designing and delivering training on children’s rights, advocacy, and participation
• Promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice
• Maintaining accurate case records in line with safeguarding and confidentiality requirements

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who:

• Is committed to children’s rights and participation
• Has experience working with children and young people
• Can build trusting relationships and communicate effectively with young people
• Shares our values of inclusion, respect, and empowerment

A relevant Level 3 qualification (or equivalent experience) is essential. A recognised advocacy qualification is desirable, or a willingness to work towards one. Normal hours of work are 37 hours per week based around the usual business working week. Dependent on service requirements, you may be required to work evenings and occasional weekends.

About Bury

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory disclosure at the appropriate level under the Disclosure and Barring Service. In line with safer recruitment, please ensure that your application/CV covers your full employment history and there is a reason noted for any gaps in employment. Successful candidates will be asked to provide relevant references for the past ten years and character references will not be accepted. Please note we are unable to support with sponsorship at this time. As a Corporate Parent, ensure that the work and services you deliver considers our care experienced young people, promotes their life chances, empowers them to influence the policies, services, and decisions that affect them, champions their rights, and ensures they grow up in the best possible way.

Benefits

To hear about the benefits for working with Bury Council, please visit Bury - Home | greater.jobs. We support employees to work with agility, where appropriate for the post and service requirements. We are committed to Bury being an equal society that recognises, values, and embraces all people, regardless of any difference, for the skills, abilities and experiences they bring into the workforce and the wider community. Therefore we guarantee an interview for disabled people, looked after children/care leavers, armed forces personnel (including reservists and veterans) and carers of adults or disabled children if they meet the essential criteria. If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme, please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application.

Next steps

For an informal chat regarding the role please contact Mike Nichols on 0161 253 6339 or 07799582779 m,nichols@bury.gov.uk. Interviews will be held on W/C 23rd February.