Youth Justice Team Leader - Children and Families Service

Posted 10th Nov, 2025
Location
Hackney
Salary/rate
£63,816 – £64,938
Working pattern
Full-time – 36 hours per week
Working arrangements
Office based
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
30th Nov, 2025
About the role

Join Hackney's Youth Justice Service as a Team Leader and help prevent offending by children and young people, guided by the principle of 'child first'. This role offers the opportunity to lead a multi-agency team delivering trauma informed, anti-racist and evidenced-based practice in one of the most dynamic and progressive local authorities in the UK.

As part of the service leadership structure, you'll work in partnership with practitioners across Children and Families Services, Education, Police, Probation, Youth Courts, Speech and Language and mental health services. We are ambitious for all our young people and expect staff to deliver thoughtful, focused interventions that promote desistance from offending and support young people to thrive. Key responsibilities include:

  • Leading a multi-agency team to deliver trauma informed, anti-racist and evidenced-based practice
  • Modelling confident, professional practice and utilising supervision and audit activity to provide service quality assurance
  • Ensuring needs assessments and effective outcome focussed plans are developed in accordance with National Standards for Youth Justice
  • Taking the lead on key themes and service issues such as Resettlement, MAPPA, Trauma Informed Practice, and Victims work
  • Managing practice and partnership relationships within and outside the Local Authority

For any questions about the role, please contact Naomi Salawu, Service Manager, Youth Justice at Naomi.Salawu@hackney.gov.uk. To apply, create an account and complete the competency based questions as part of the application process. We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process and do not accept supporting statements or CVs.

About you

Dynamic, innovative, committed and passionate, you'll bring comprehensive knowledge and skills to working with vulnerable children and families. We seek someone who shares our values of being proud, ambitious, pioneering, open, proactive and inclusive. The ideal candidate will:

  • Have experience in youth justice or related child protection services
  • Demonstrate knowledge of trauma informed approaches and anti-racist practice
  • Show ability to lead and manage multi-agency teams effectively
  • Have understanding of National Standards for Youth Justice
  • Possess strong supervision and quality assurance skills
  • Be committed to partnership working and service development

As part of our journey to be anti-racist, we want our workforce to represent the community we serve and strongly encourage applications from Black and Global Majority Ethnic backgrounds. An Enhanced DBS check is required for this role. Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination and welcomes applications from disabled people, who are currently under-represented in our workforce.

About Hackney

Our vision is to make Hackney a place for everyone. Where all our residents, whatever their background, have a chance to lead healthy and successful lives; a place of which everyone can be proud, with excellent services and public spaces, thriving businesses, and strong communities; a place that celebrates diversity, and where everyone can feel valued, included, and involved.

It is an exciting time to be working in Hackney as we are embedding our practice model of Systemic, Trauma informed and Anti-Racist practice. We are an innovative borough where we collaborate to support change for the children and families we work for and for each other. You will change and develop while working in Hackney and we will be behind you every step of the way. So, why don't you find yourself in Hackney?

Our Offer To You

  • Retention bonus for social workers in Children in Need and Access and Assessment Services- £1500 every 6 months. 

  • Ad hoc parking permits available for social workers when required to use a vehicle for their role. 

  • We prioritise the development and growth of staff and have reviewed and updated our ASYE programme of support, to ensure a structured learning programme that understands the journey of the child and utilises protected time.

  • Celebration and appreciation opportunities including a World Social Work Week thank you event and our Coffee Connection networking events.

  • A dedicated Race Equality and Inclusion team working to embed active anti-racist practice and support staff’s anti-racism journey.

  • Monthly group supervision for collaboration and support when things feel stuck 

As well as our Council-wide benefits:

  • Generous holiday allowance – 27 days a year, rising to 32 after five years

  • Unrivalled pension scheme

  • Flexible working options

  • Family friendly policies

  • A range of discounts, including subsidised gym membership and local eating

  • Access to financial and season ticket loans

  • Health and wellbeing benefits, such as lunchtime fitness classes

  • A comprehensive training and development offer

  • We are a member of Cycle Scheme and offer free pool bikes

Email our recruitment team for more information on this role at cfs.recruitment@hackney.gov.uk