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Kirklees Council

Head of Youth Justice & Contextual Safeguarding

The closing date is 29 October 2025

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Job summary

This is an opportunity to join a creative, forward-thinking leadership team. We are ambitious for children, young people and their families, and our last Ofsted inspection recognised the significant improvement that has been made to the quality of practice and to the culture of appreciation for our skilled practitioners.

As Head of Youth Justice & Contextual Safeguarding, you will build on well-established partnerships. We are seeking a highly motivated, innovative and hard-working experienced leader who will work collaboratively with the senior leadership team to deliver impactful services for young people at risk.

Main duties of the job

What Youll Be Doing:

  • Lead the Youth Engagement Service and interface with the Youth Justice Service.
  • Champion contextual safeguarding approaches across multi-agency partnerships.
  • Represent the service in strategic forums, meetings, and events.
  • Develop and deliver services that reduce risk of exploitation and criminal influences.
  • Ensure effective intervention pre- and post-offending for young people.
  • Collaborate with partners to embed a whole-system approach to youth safety.
  • Support strategic planning and continuous improvement across the service.

About us

Kirklees is a place of ambition and opportunity. As Head of Youth Service and Contextual Safeguarding, youll be part of a leadership team that values innovation, collaboration, and making a real difference in the lives of children and young people.

Ready to lead the future of youth safeguarding in Kirklees?

Apply now to become our next Head of Youth Justice & Contextual Safeguarding and help shape a safer, more inclusive borough.

Details

Date posted

10 October 2025

Pay scheme

Very senior manager (VSM)

Salary

£60,537 to £70,791 a year plus a Market Rate Supplement of £6000 which is reviewed annually

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

F0014-25-0002

Job locations

Across Kirklees

Huddersfield

HD1 2TG


Job description

Job responsibilities

These roles will be responsible for the delivery of an External/Customer/Front door service area(s) year-on-year.

Manage a large single service area or a group of smaller, related services delivering quality, managing resourcing, and resolving complex operational issues.

Develop medium term business plans and contribute to longer term planning to support the achievement of corporate policies/ objectives.

Lead the delivery of a related group of services to deliver against objectives and ensure that agreed service outcomes are met.

Deliver upon specific commercial objectives to demonstrate commercial growth and deliver service improvement to meet agreed outcomes, working with relevant internal/external agencies to identify opportunities to utilise resilience offers to pre-empt demand for high intensity services.

Manage and prioritise allocated resources (people, financial etc) to demonstrate value for money and ensure services are delivered within agreed financial parameters.

Contribute to the design and manage the implementation of specific customer experience improvement objectives to ensure that that service is anticipating, and meeting customer needs where appropriate.

Act as a figurehead for relevant service areas and identify and manage stakeholder relationships (e.g., Senior Officers, Members, commissioning bodies and external agencies) in order to deliver effective collaborative working.

Motivate, manage, and develop staff to support a culture of high-quality performance and continuous improvement to achieve excellent service outcomes that meet the needs of citizens within a fixed level of resources. Resolve performance issues to support a culture of performance and productivity.

Advise stakeholders on regulations and standards and investigate any areas of concern, implementing policies to support the delivery of Council objectives and plans and that comply with all relevant legislation and statutory requirements. Identify and manage risks within service operations, taking responsibility for overseeing the control framework and ensuring appropriate mitigations are put in place to reduce the risk to within agreed tolerance levels.

Be involved in collaboration across the council as well as the public sector and wider city region to design and deliver solutions that are focussed on delivering a system-wide impact for residents.

Job description

Job responsibilities

These roles will be responsible for the delivery of an External/Customer/Front door service area(s) year-on-year.

Manage a large single service area or a group of smaller, related services delivering quality, managing resourcing, and resolving complex operational issues.

Develop medium term business plans and contribute to longer term planning to support the achievement of corporate policies/ objectives.

Lead the delivery of a related group of services to deliver against objectives and ensure that agreed service outcomes are met.

Deliver upon specific commercial objectives to demonstrate commercial growth and deliver service improvement to meet agreed outcomes, working with relevant internal/external agencies to identify opportunities to utilise resilience offers to pre-empt demand for high intensity services.

Manage and prioritise allocated resources (people, financial etc) to demonstrate value for money and ensure services are delivered within agreed financial parameters.

Contribute to the design and manage the implementation of specific customer experience improvement objectives to ensure that that service is anticipating, and meeting customer needs where appropriate.

Act as a figurehead for relevant service areas and identify and manage stakeholder relationships (e.g., Senior Officers, Members, commissioning bodies and external agencies) in order to deliver effective collaborative working.

Motivate, manage, and develop staff to support a culture of high-quality performance and continuous improvement to achieve excellent service outcomes that meet the needs of citizens within a fixed level of resources. Resolve performance issues to support a culture of performance and productivity.

Advise stakeholders on regulations and standards and investigate any areas of concern, implementing policies to support the delivery of Council objectives and plans and that comply with all relevant legislation and statutory requirements. Identify and manage risks within service operations, taking responsibility for overseeing the control framework and ensuring appropriate mitigations are put in place to reduce the risk to within agreed tolerance levels.

Be involved in collaboration across the council as well as the public sector and wider city region to design and deliver solutions that are focussed on delivering a system-wide impact for residents.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Professional Social Work qualification with current SWE registration and substantial experience in a background in front line child protection social work practice providing depth and breadth of knowledge in areas of responsibility.

Desirable

  • Professional Social Work qualification with current SWE registration

Experience

Essential

  • Experience and knowledge of management within Contextual Safeguarding.
  • Experience and understanding of delivering services to those at risk of Child Exploitation, Gang affiliation and Criminal influences.
  • Substantial experience in children social care providing a depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise.
  • Significant level of senior level leadership experience in children social care, providing depth and breadth of knowledge to act with credibility at this level.

Desirable

  • Ability to lead, manage and develop a team or provide technical leadership through a matrix structure.
  • Up-to-date knowledge of external issues (legislative, regulatory, best practice standards etc.) that affect Youth Justice practice.
  • Excellent people leadership skills and strong sense of doing what is right for residents.
  • Demonstrable commitment to performance management and productivity to meet the councils priorities.
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Professional Social Work qualification with current SWE registration and substantial experience in a background in front line child protection social work practice providing depth and breadth of knowledge in areas of responsibility.

Desirable

  • Professional Social Work qualification with current SWE registration

Experience

Essential

  • Experience and knowledge of management within Contextual Safeguarding.
  • Experience and understanding of delivering services to those at risk of Child Exploitation, Gang affiliation and Criminal influences.
  • Substantial experience in children social care providing a depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise.
  • Significant level of senior level leadership experience in children social care, providing depth and breadth of knowledge to act with credibility at this level.

Desirable

  • Ability to lead, manage and develop a team or provide technical leadership through a matrix structure.
  • Up-to-date knowledge of external issues (legislative, regulatory, best practice standards etc.) that affect Youth Justice practice.
  • Excellent people leadership skills and strong sense of doing what is right for residents.
  • Demonstrable commitment to performance management and productivity to meet the councils priorities.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Kirklees Council

Address

Across Kirklees

Huddersfield

HD1 2TG


Employer's website

https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/default.aspx (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Kirklees Council

Address

Across Kirklees

Huddersfield

HD1 2TG


Employer's website

https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/default.aspx (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Service Director - Children & Families

Vicky Metheringham

vicky.metheringham@kirklees.gov.uk

01484221000

Details

Date posted

10 October 2025

Pay scheme

Very senior manager (VSM)

Salary

£60,537 to £70,791 a year plus a Market Rate Supplement of £6000 which is reviewed annually

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

F0014-25-0002

Job locations

Across Kirklees

Huddersfield

HD1 2TG


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

Kirklees Council's privacy notice (opens in a new tab)