Head of Service, Harms Outside the Home (HOTH) and Youth Justice Employer: North Somerset Council - Childrens Services Reference: SCHA1042

About Us

North Somerset Council is committed to providing high-quality services to our community. We are committed to creating a fair, green, and more inclusive environment for all our residents. Join us and contribute to making a positive impact on our community. At North Somerset Council, we are proud of the support we provide to children and families—and we are ambitious to go even further. We have invested significantly in our children’s services to strengthen support systems that enable children to remain safely within their communities and their homes. We are committed to providing help early on and making a real difference before significant issues arise.

The Role

Lead the Change. Shape the Future. Make a Real Impact. As part of this journey, we are expanding our senior leadership capacity and are now seeking an exceptional Head of Youth Justice and Harms Outside the Home (Contextual Safeguarding) to help drive this vision forward. This is a pivotal leadership role within our senior leadership team working closely with our communities, colleagues, partners, and elected members. You will play a central role in shaping how we respond to risks beyond the family home—leading our approach to contextual safeguarding and youth justice while ensuring children and young people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place. You will take a lead on changes identified in the White Paper “Cutting Youth Crime, Changing Young Lives”.

The Opportunity

This is your chance to lead with purpose, influence system-wide change, and make a lasting difference to the lives of children and young people. You will:

• Provide strategic leadership across Youth Justice and Harms Outside the Home (contextual safeguarding) services
• Lead and develop innovative responses to extra-familial harm, working across partnerships and communities
• Drive excellence in practice, embedding trauma-informed, strengths-based and reflective approaches
• Work collaboratively with partners to disrupt harm, reduce risk, and improve outcomes for vulnerable young people
• Contribute to shaping future services in line with national reforms and emerging best practice
• Ensure strong operational oversight and delivery across your service areas, with a clear focus on impact

This role combines strategic leadership with operational influence—your decisions will directly improve outcomes for children, young people, and families across North Somerset.

About You

We are looking for a bold, values-driven leader who can inspire others and deliver meaningful change. You will bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience within Youth Justice or associated professions and a good knowledge of children’s services.
• A strong understanding of contextual safeguarding and responses to harm outside the home
• The ability to translate vision into clear, deliverable strategies
• A collaborative and inclusive leadership style, with a track record of building strong partnerships
• A deep commitment to working alongside children, families, and communities to create sustainable change

In this role, your key responsibilities will be as follows:

Key Responsibilities:

• Developing and implementing strategies and policies in own service area that support the overall achievement of the Children’s Services vision, strategy, and improvement plan as well as ensuring all statutory responsibilities are fully discharged
• Leading and managing own service area ensuring colleagues and multi-agency practitioners meet their service area objectives and statutory responsibilities
• Delivering high quality, value for money services whilst ensuring effective budgetary and performance management & contributing to the achievement of the council’s overall aims, practices and policy objectives, including modelling the council’s values and expected behaviours
• Leading and delivering recruitment, induction, colleague development and training plans, ensuring that the service has an effective workforce capable of meeting its strategy, objectives and statutory requirements
• Developing partnership working with a range of organisations, and internal stakeholders, which ensures the most cost effective and good quality delivery models

This position is exempt under the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions) Order 1975 and is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. Valid driving licence and own transport, or be able to provide alternative, suitable method of travel is an essential condition for this role.

Work Style

At North Somerset Council, we offer a hybrid working environment based on four distinct work styles. Depending on the role and personal circumstances, you will fall into one of these categories. However, please note that during the induction period, it may be necessary to spend more time in the office to support your learning and development. We are flexible and open to discussions about your preferred working style, and if you wish to be in the office more frequently, this can be negotiated. This role falls into the category of Flexible Worker which means you can expect to work in the following way:

• 2-3 days in the office
• Works both from home and the office, depending on the task at hand. Training is provided to help balance work-life and manage time effectively, with an emphasis on communication for team touchpoints and planning in-office days for collaboration.

About You

We are looking for an individual who possesses the following skills and experience:

Qualifications & Knowledge

• To be educated to a degree level and hold a professional qualification in Social Work, Policing, Criminal Justice and/or management and a minimum of 3 years post qualification management experience in YOT/Youth Justice or related field or at least 5 years post qualified management experience in children’s social work, health, education, policing.
• Management and supervisory experience in YOT / Youth Justice or Management and supervisory experience in relevant role with statutory partner (Children’ Social Work; Education; Health; Police; Probation) and 5 years relevant experience in Youth Justice.
• Expert knowledge of the service area with in-depth knowledge of working within a local authority, partnership agencies and the political agendas impacting on them
• Significant post qualification work experience at Head of Service level including professional development of others
• Highly developed specialist knowledge and extensive experience of direct work in contextual safeguarding involving risk management, decision making and internal investigations
• Experience and understanding of delivering services to those at risk of Child Exploitation, Gang affiliation and Criminal influences.
• Up-to-date knowledge of external issues (legislative, regulatory, best practice standards etc.) that affect Youth Justice practice.
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of current social policy, good practice and all relevant Children’s Service legislation.

Experience

• Experience in leading complex investigations, including strategy discussions, where multi agency information sharing, detailed analysis and robust planning has been required.
• Able to demonstrate successful track record in developing effective multi-agency partnerships
• Knowledge and experience of the framework of learning and development for qualifying and post qualifying social workers
• Proven record of accomplishment in initiating new and improved ways of working
• Experience of successful working in Partnership with children, young people and families
• Satisfactory enhanced DBS disclosure certificate, relevant applications and checks will be carried out before and job offer is confirmed

The post holder will need the personal resources to deal with these demands within a supportive management environment and to have the capacity to support others.

What We Offer

At North Somerset Council, we value our employees and provide a supportive and inclusive work environment. We offer:

• Competitive salary and benefits
• Flexible working arrangements
• Local Government Pension
• Opportunities for professional development
• Inclusive Staff groups including Carers, Disabled, LGBTQ+, REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), and Young Staff Forums
• Opportunity to purchase up to an additional 10 days annual leave each year
• Dedicated in house Wellbeing Team
• Salary sacrifice Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle schemes

Further details of our excellent rewards package can be found in our Benefits booklet.

How to Apply

If you share our vision and values and are ready to make an impact to North Somerset, please select the apply online button below. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, please submit your application by 11.59pm on the application closing date. When completing our online application form, please detail how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

Contact Information

For further information about the role, please contact Ben Short, Assistant Director at ben.short@n-somerset.gov.uk.

Important Information

As a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job role. Interview Date: To be advised. Please note: We are currently only able to accept applications from candidates who have full permission to work in the UK and are unable to provide Sponsorship for this role.

Equal Opportunities

At North Somerset Council we want all our employees to feel valued and appreciated. We aim to ensure equality of opportunity and prevent discrimination irrespective of your sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or belief, race, age, disability, including neurodiversity, if you are married or in a civil partnership or are pregnant or currently on maternity leave. We strive to create a workplace that reflects the communities we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We reserve the right to close this advertisement early or extend the closing date depending on the number of applications received.