Youth and Community Worker, Fixed Term in England

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job. We are currently recruiting for 3 Youth and Community Workers to join our dedicated Youth Justice team. These positions are for a fixed-term project running until the end of March 2027.

Reward and support

• Salary: between £33,143 - £36,363 per annum subject to experience
• Flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service (pro rata for part-time staff)
• Option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• Family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• Supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• An in-house Occupational Health service
• Employee discount scheme
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
• Career development and qualification opportunities
• Access to our Social Work Academy
• Cycle to Work scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)
• Green Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)

About the team

Help us keep children and young people safe and strengthen community resilience. As part of a targeted Youth and Communities Project, we are building a team of passionate, creative and committed Youth & Community Workers who want to make a real difference to children and young people across Gloucestershire. It is a chance to be part of a forward‐thinking, place‐based, relational approach to protecting children and young people from harm and supporting them to reach their potential.

Working with children and young people, individually, in groups, and within communities, the team will help create the conditions for children and young people to feel safe, seen, supported, and able to thrive. You will play a vital role in strengthening community resilience—connecting young people to safe spaces, trusted adults, positive opportunities, and the support networks that every child deserves around them.

The team will offer a responsive presence in high need areas and locally identified community hotspots, delivering youth work to children and young people to reduce harms, such as anti-social behaviour, criminal exploitation, youth violence, or other extra-familial harms. Taking a contextual safeguarding approach, the role will be part of a team that will work closely with the Harm Outside the Home Hub, Youth Justice Service and Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) arrangements.

About the role

Building trusted, strengths-based relationships that offer stability and belief when children and young people need it the most, you will:

• Deliver relational, trauma-informed interventions in homes, schools, and community spaces.
• Work creatively and assertively to engage children and young people experiencing complex challenges.
• Use up-to-date information about what’s happening to be in the right places at the right time to support young people and help keep everyone safe in community spaces and hotspots.
• Strengthen community resilience by building networks and ensuring safe and supportive structures are in place for children and young people.
• Look at risks happening outside of the home and work with professionals to contribute multi-agency assessments, plans and delivery of support that keep children and young people safe.

About you

We are looking for inspiring, resilient and skilled practitioners who believe that every young person has strengths, potential, and the ability to overcome adversity with the right support. You will have:

• Experience of working with vulnerable children, young people, and families from diverse backgrounds in group work and one to one settings.
• Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-agency environment.
• Strong communication and relationship building skills.
• Knowledge and skills in assessing risk and planning effective interventions.
• Knowledge and understanding of contextual safeguarding and harm outside the home.
• Knowledge and understanding of evidence-based practice and community services that offer an effective response to anti-social behaviour, exploitation and youth violence.
• Creativity, adaptability and persistence.

As well as your experience, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

• Minimum Level 3 qualification relevant to youth work, family support, social care or similar.
• Flexibility to meet the needs of children and young people which will include evenings and weekends.
• Ability to drive or travel across Gloucestershire.
• DBS Clearance (Enhanced Adults and Children’s).

If you want to be part of a team that is innovative, relational, and committed to making a real difference in empowering children and young people to reach their potential, we would love to hear from you.

How to apply

For an informal chat about this role, please contact or alternatively apply before the closing date. We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.