Participation Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

This role offers an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and motivated individual to join our Participation Team. As a key player in our organisation, you will be responsible for working with the children and young people we serve to ensure that they have opportunities to have their voice heard and responded to. You will co-develop and co-deliver projects that are important to them.

You will also work with the wider Children, Education and Families directorate to support them in ensuring that participation opportunities are available for all.

The team office base is Scott House in Huntingdon, however the role is a mix of working in the community, as well as from a variety of bases throughout Cambridgeshire and home working. The role will involve some evening work and occasional weekends, with flexible working arrangements ensuring you have a positive work / life balance.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Helen Love on 07484 915977 or at helen.love@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Closing date 19th August. Interviews will be held in person on 27th August and will include a Young People's panel.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

You will identify, recruit and train children and young people to become our Young Inspectors, Young Trainers and Young Recruiters (some of whom will interview you, if you are shortlisted) and co-deliver pieces of work with them.

You will take a role in the various elements of our Children In Care Council offer, including our Young Peoples Corporate Parenting Meeting ensuring our Children and Young People have direct access to decision makers.

You will develop and deliver a range of opportunities for our children and young people to tell us what is important to them and what they would like to change. You will ensure these messages are heard by our services and feedback to children and young people what action is being taken as a result.

You will create and run a range of engagement activities.

This role will suit an energetic and positive person who is passionate about childrens rights.

Youll love working directly with children and young people and have excellent skills in establishing and maintaining positive working relationships with them.

You will need to have the skills to engage and influence a range of stakeholders to advocate with and for our children and young people, to ensure they and their voices are at the heart of everything we do.

For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.If you dont meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please dont be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Person Specification

General Requirements

Essential

• Please refer to job description above

Desirable

• Please refer to job description above

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Cambridgeshire County Council

Address

Scott House Huntingdon

PE29 3AD

Employer's website

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)