Engagement and Co-Production Practitioner in City of London

About the role

As an Engagement and Co-Production Practitioner, you will support the development of a strong and consistent approach to engagement, participation and co-production across Children’s Services.

You will coordinate and facilitate service user voice groups, working directly with children, young people, parents and carers to ensure they have meaningful opportunities to influence the services and support they receive.

You will develop accessible and inclusive ways for people to participate, recognising that different children and families will want to engage in different ways. You will have a particular focus on ensuring we hear from people whose voices may otherwise be less well represented.

Working closely with practitioners, managers and partners, you will help services to involve children and families in the design, development and improvement of services, ensuring engagement is meaningful and that people can see how their views have influenced decisions.

You will gather and analyse feedback from engagement activity, identifying key themes and insights and presenting these in ways that help colleagues understand the experiences of children and families. You will support effective “you said, we did” approaches, closing the feedback loop so that participants understand what has happened as a result of their involvement.

You will also support engagement and co-production activity associated with service improvement and transformation, helping teams to consider lived experience from the outset rather than consulting children and families only after decisions have been made.

Central to the role will be creating environments in which children and families feel safe, respected, listened to and able to participate, and ensuring that engagement is undertaken sensitively and appropriately.

About you

We are looking for an approachable and compassionate practitioner who is passionate about ensuring that children and families have a genuine voice in the services that affect their lives.

You will have:

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with children, young people, parents and carers.
• Experience of facilitating groups, engagement activities, workshops or other forms of participation.
• An understanding of co-production and meaningful service user participation, and the difference between informing, consulting, engaging and genuinely working alongside people.
• The ability to create inclusive and accessible opportunities for participation, adapting your approach to meet different communication needs, ages and circumstances.
• The ability to listen carefully to people's experiences and translate qualitative feedback into clear themes, insights and opportunities for improvement.
• Confidence working with practitioners, managers and partners and constructively challenging services to consider the experiences and perspectives of children and families.
• Good organisational skills and the ability to coordinate a programme of engagement and participation activity.
• Sensitivity and sound judgement when engaging with children and families who may have experienced difficult or challenging circumstances.
• A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and to ensuring that the voices of people who may be less likely to participate are actively sought and heard.
• A strong commitment to improving outcomes and experiences for children, young people and families.

You will be comfortable working across different services and with people with a wide range of experiences. You will bring energy, creativity, empathy and curiosity, alongside the ability to develop positive relationships and encourage people to participate.

Most importantly, you will understand that meaningful engagement is about more than gathering feedback. You will be passionate about ensuring that children and families are partners in shaping the services that affect their lives.

Why join us?

This is much more than an engagement role.

It is an opportunity to strengthen how Children’s Services works alongside children and families and to help embed a culture in which lived experience is an important part of service design, delivery and improvement.

You will have the opportunity to develop creative approaches to participation, build and strengthen our service user voice groups and directly engage with children, young people, parents and carers.

You will work alongside colleagues across Children’s Services, helping them to understand what children and families are telling us and ensuring this insight informs improvement.

Most importantly, your work will help ensure that children and families can see that their voices matter and that sharing their experiences can make a tangible difference to the services they and others receive.

If you are passionate about engagement and co-production, enjoy working directly with children and families and want to help make sure their voices are at the heart of Children’s Services, we would love to hear from you.

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