Youth Justice Officer

Cambridgeshire County Council; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional annual leave (4 weeks)

Flexible bank holidays

AVC pension benefits

Development opportunities

Paid volunteering hours

Peer support groups (IDEAL)

Employee recognition awards

Cambs Rewards discounts

Car lease

Cycle to Work

Discounts

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is recruiting a Youth Justice Officer for Huntingdonshire. You will engage directly with children aged 10–17 who have offended, assess needs, and plan interventions in collaboration with partners across Children’s Social Care, Probation, Police, Health and Education.

The role requires a child-first approach, strong organisational skills, and the ability to meet deadlines. Travel across the county with court hearings is involved; enhanced disclosure checks apply.

Qualifications

• Qualified to at least Level 5 in a relevant subject (e.g. Youth Justice, Psychology, Criminology or similar).
• Experience engaging with children and adolescents in a work setting is essential.
• Experience in managing a caseload and multi-agency working is required.
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels and in writing (reports).
• Commitment to achieving the best outcomes for children in challenging situations.
• Ability to maintain compliance with policy and procedures.

Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of children aged 10-17 who have offenses and are referred by Police or prisoners.
• Engage positively with children, families, and other agencies to plan and implement interventions.
• Represent the service at court on a Duty system and support families through the criminal justice process.
• Visit children at home, schools or community venues; may work from home some days.
• Attend court and multi-agency meetings and keep high-quality records.

Skills

Child engagement

Caseload management

Multi-agency collaboration

Effective communication

Policy compliance

Child-first approach

Education

Level 5 qualification in Youth Justice/Criminology/Psychology

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Scott House, George Street, Huntingdon

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.

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to join Cambridgeshire Youth Justice Service as a Youth Justice Officer (YJO). This is a key role in our multi-disciplinary service and primarily you will be expected to engage, assess and work directly and creatively with children aged 10-17 who are at risk of offending or who have offended.

The role is best suited to individuals who are Child First in their approach. You will be keen to work collaboratively with children and their parents/carers motivating them and helping to support changes and find solutions in difficult and often complex situations. The Youth Justice Service is multi agency and you will assess and plan interventions alongside colleagues from Children's Social Care, Probation, Police, Health and Education to achieve the best possible outcomes for children.

The role can be fast paced;you will need to be highly organised and able to meet competing deadlines. You will also have statutory duties and be required to attend court and multi-agency meetings. You will be required to carry out assessments of children and produce written reports and keep high quality records.

We have one full time permanent post available at our office base in Huntingdon. The post holder will cover the geographical area of Huntingdonshire and cover courts across the county and sometimes beyond.

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.

In-person interviews are planned for Thursday 10 December 2026.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Darren Minns (Team Manager) on 07789652430.

What will you be doing?

Youth Justice is a very challenging but rewarding area of work. You will be working directly with children aged 10-17 who have committed offences ranging from those who haven't yet reached the court system through to those in Youth Detention Accommodation. The successful candidate will manage a caseload of children aged 10-17 who have been referred by the Police and are on early interventions or they will subject of court or custodial sentences. You will engage positively with children, families and other agencies to assess, plan and put interventions in place that will promote the safety of the child and protect others who could be harmed by their behaviour.

Once trained you will be expected to represent the service at court on a Duty system and will support young people and their families through the criminal justice system.

Your working day will likely include visiting children at home, in schools or other community venues. You will have access to desk space within an office and there is also the opportunity to work from home regularly. Some evening and some occasional weekend working is required.

About you

You will be:

• Qualified to at least Level 5 in a relevant subject (eg. Youth Justice, Psychology, Criminology or similar)
• Experienced at creatively engaging with children and adolescents in a work setting
• Experienced in managing a caseload, casework and multi-agency working
• Able to communicate effectively at all levels and through all mediums (including written reports)
• Committed to achieving the best outcomes for children in challenging situations
• Able to maintain compliance with policy and procedures

About us

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 don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t 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.

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We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. 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. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process 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.