UK Voice & Influence Adviser - Inclusion & Anti-Racism

Children & Young People Now Jobs; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A national charity seeks an experienced professional to lead initiatives that enhance the voices of young people, particularly those from Black or Minoritised Ethnic backgrounds. The role involves recruiting young people for a network, coordinating ambassador activities, and collaborating to deliver inclusive services. Candidates should have significant experience in youth-oriented settings and a demonstrated commitment to anti-racist principles. This role offers flexible working arrangements and generous benefits, making it ideal for someone looking to make a real impact.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Annual leave increasing with service

Group Personal Pension

Cycle2work scheme

Employee assistance program

Qualifications

• Minimum five years' experience in health, social care, or youth work.
• Experience in designing and evaluating strategic activities with young people.
• Ability to plan, deliver, and evaluate projects effectively.

Responsibilities

• Lead recruitment for the B-Amplified Youth Network.
• Coordinate engagement of Young Ambassadors.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in voice and influence practice.

Skills

Experience in working with children and young people

Knowledge of anti-racist principles

Strong collaboration skills

Education

Youth and community work qualification

Job description

What this role will do

This role will have an important role in helping the charity deliver its strategic commitment to listening and responding to the voices and experiences of young people across the UK – and in particular the voices and experiences of Black or Minoritised Ethnic young people, who are often less-heard.

The role will promote a culture of inclusion and belonging by playing a leading role on delivering our ambition to build and support an engaged, diverse network of young people from across the UK who represent a broad range of identities and lived experiences, and who can speak out and work alongside Barnardo's.

Key tasks for this role

The role will:

• Lead on the recruitment, coordination and support of young people signed up to our B-Amplified Youth Network.
• Support our SEEN Young Ambassadors, and coordinate their engagement in the wider B-Amplified Network offer.
• Act as a subject matter expert in voice and influence practice and anti-racism, working alongside our Children's Services as a critical friend to support the delivery of excellent and inclusive services.

Who we're looking for

We're looking for someone who has:

• At least five years' experience in a role working directly with children and/or young people in a health, social care, education or youth work setting – a youth and community work (or similar) qualification is desirable but not essential.
• Demonstrable knowledge experience of designing, delivering and evaluating strategic voice and influence activities with young people – particularly in online or virtual contexts.
• Knowledge and understanding of the practical application of anti-racist principles and practice.
• Experience of working across complex structures, hierarchies and partnerships, with experience of working with a range of stakeholders at different levels.
• Ability to plan, deliver and evaluate projects, collaboratively and effectively.
• Excellent collaboration, networking and partnership-working skills.

The successful candidate must also:

• Be of African, Asian, Caribbean heritage – this is a genuine occupational requirement, and an essential requirement, as noted above.
• Be able to travel across the UK on a regular basis, including overnight stays – living close to a national rail station and/or airport will be a significant benefit.
• Be able to work flexibly to accommodate direct work with young people outside of ‘normal’ hour (i.e. evenings and weekends) – for which TOIL can be claimed, or overtime hours in extraordinary circumstances.

Important to note

We recognise the inherent power dynamics at play, and that the occupational requirement does not imply that the responsibility to ‘solve’ the issue of diversity rests solely with a minoritised individual (or team). Instead, this role forms part of a wider, intentional commitment across the organisation to embed anti-racist and inclusive practice at every level and is why we have proposed a matrix management approach – to ensure the role is not siloed, but meaningfully supported and connected across teams.

A key focus will be to understand and address the structural and cultural barriers that children's services and internal teams may face when engaging with Black or Minoritised Ethnic young people.

Benefits

Benefits

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full‑time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata.
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme.
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options.
• Service related sick pay from day 1.
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution.
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension.
• Cycle2work scheme.
• Interest free season ticket loans.
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal.
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores.
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc.
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support.
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer.

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti‑racist organisation with Anti‑Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently under‑represented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values

Our basis and values