Leadership & Development Lead in City of London

We are looking for a Practice Development Lead to drive exceptional outcomes for children that break cycles of crime and ignite system change. This is an exciting opportunity to join the SHiFT movement as Practice Development Lead for the North, supporting SHiFT's existing Practices in Manchester and Middlesbrough and the new Tees Remand Reduction Programme and Greater Manchester Remand Programme.

The PDL North works under the direction of the Head of Place-Based Change (North) and is the primary QA/QI resource for both programmes, holding close knowledge of every child's case, driving the learning-practice loop, and supporting Guides and Lead Guides to embed SHiFT's practice model in the remand context. This is a practitioner-facing, practice-quality role: you will spend the majority of your time alongside Guides, in Child and Family Practice Discussions, and in direct engagement with partner agencies. We especially welcome applicants with experience or knowledge of systemic practice, youth justice, remand, and/or fostering.

• Hold detailed, current knowledge of each child's case and the Guide's work with them across both the Tees and GM programmes.
• Provide balanced, specific, and evidence-based challenge to Guide practice in accordance with SHiFT's practice principles and framework.
• Identify and address practice that does not uphold SHiFT's principles, escalating concerns to the Head of Place-Based Change promptly.
• Embed insider-outsider processes in accordance with SHiFT Ways and host organisation processes.
• Ensure safeguarding concerns are escalated promptly and in line with local arrangements across all four Tees LAs and GM.
• Use SHiFT's QA/QI framework to identify themes and patterns in practice — bringing these to the Head of Place-Based Change, Monthly Partnership Meetings, and SHiFT's Practice Committee.

• Facilitate or co-facilitate weekly Child and Family Practice Discussions across the Tees and GM programmes using systemic approaches.
• Ensure CFPD discussions generate multiple hypotheses and keep the child's experience, not professional process, at the centre.
• Ensure SHiFT's Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Practice approach is consistently applied in CFPDs, including naming racial disproportionality in remand decision-making.
• Support the Head of Place-Based Change in developing the ISS+ model for the Tees remand context, adapting SHiFT's practice framework for court-facing, time-pressured work.
• Support Guide induction into the remand context including court processes, bail law, custody suite practice, and bail support plan writing.
• Coordinate programme data collection and case recording, ensuring Guides are recording accurately and consistently in Salesforce.
• Contribute to MoJ quarterly data packs and national evaluation returns, working with SHiFT's Learning and Impact team.
• Produce Impact Snapshots and contribute to Annual Partnership Reviews for governance bodies, under the direction of the Head of Place-Based Change.
• Capture practice learning and case studies and share through SHiFT's knowledge management systems.
• Support the delivery of System Learning Workshops, multi-agency practice development events, and other programme learning activities.
• Work with SHiFT's Head of Impact to produce analysis and learning from practice.
• Build and sustain trusted working relationships with YJS Managers, courts, police, placement providers, education, health, and community partners across Tees and GM.
• Represent SHiFT at the Programme Steering Group and relevant YJ Management Boards where directed by the Head of Place-Based Change.
• Support judicial engagement activities alongside the Head of Place-Based Change and the SHiFT Tees Team Manager.

• Degree level or significant relevant experience in social work, youth work, health, psychology, criminal justice, or equivalent.
• Systemic practice training or qualification (e.g. Evidence of continuing professional development).
• Knowledge of SHiFT's practice model, Breaking Cycles, and systemic/relational approaches.
• Knowledge of youth justice legislation, remand processes, and court practice.
• Knowledge of adolescent development, trauma, and anti-oppressive practice.
• YJS landscape, local systems, regional partnerships.
• Knowledge of Salesforce or equivalent case management and data systems.
• Experience of supervising, coaching, or developing practitioners in complex casework.
• Experience of delivering or supporting intensive, relational work with children in the youth justice system.
• Ability to produce high-quality written reports, case summaries, and learning outputs.
• Experience of data management, case recording, and contributing to programme reporting.
• Experience of working across multiple local authority areas or in a geographically dispersed role.
• Belief that every child can change and that a skilled, consistent relationship is the driver of that change.
• Commitment to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice as a non-negotiable foundation of the work.

SHiFT is an anti-racist and anti-oppressive systems change organisation. We will use this data to take measurable anti-racist and anti-oppressive action, remove structural barriers for racially marginalised and other oppressed groups, and build a workforce culture rooted in equity, belonging, accountability and shared power. We need your help and co-operation to enable it to do this, but filling in this form is voluntary. There will be two rounds of interviews: a virtual staff panel, followed by a face-to-face interview with SHiFT and Tees partners.