Youth and Community Worker

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

Job Title:                            Youth and Community Worker
Job Location:                      The Vibe
Salary:                               £33,143 - £36,363 per annum
Hours per Week:                 37 
Contract Type:                    Fixed Term
Duration:                           One Year
Closing Date:                     26/04/2026
Job Requisition Number:    13914
This post is open to job share

We are currently recruiting for 3 Youth and Community Workers to join our dedicated Youth Justice team.

These positions are for a fixed-term project running until the end of March 2027.

Reward and Support

For all your hard work, you will receive the following:

between £33,143 - £36,363 per annum subject to experience
flexible and agile working opportunities
25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service (pro rata for part-time staff)
option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
an in-house Occupational Health service
employee discount scheme
links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
career development and qualification opportunities
access to our Social Work Academy
Cycle to Work scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)
Green Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)

Right child, right support, right time, every time 

In our recent inspection in June 2025, our Children’s Services have been officially judged as ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements. Ofsted also said ‘Leaders have set out a clear vision for delivering success for children, by modelling values and creating a culture where the workforce, children and families feel valued and heard; risk is managed confidently with bottom lines clearly set out.’

This marks an important step in our journey to improve outcomes for our children and young people, and we remain focused on our mission: to continue building on this success and ensure that every child and young person in our county has the opportunity to thrive.

Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

About the team

Help us keep children and young people safe and strengthen community resilience.

As part of a targeted Youth and Communities Project, we are building a team of passionate, creative and committed Youth & Community Workers who want to make a real difference to children and young people across Gloucestershire.  It is a chance to be part of a forward‑thinking, place‑based, relational approach to protecting children and young people from harm and supporting them to reach their potential. Working with children and young people, individually, in groups, and within communities, the team will help create the conditions for children and young people to feel safe, seen, supported, and able to thrive. You will play a vital role in strengthening community resilience—connecting young people to safe spaces, trusted adults, positive opportunities, and the support networks that every child deserves around them.

The team will offer a responsive presence in high need areas and locally identified community hotspots, delivering youth work to children and young people to reduce harms, such as anti-social behaviour, criminal exploitation, youth violence, or other extra-familial harms. Taking a contextual safeguarding approach, the role will be part of team that will work closely with the Harm Outside the Home Hub, Youth Justice Service and Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) arrangements.  It will align with the Early Help Community Response Network Meetings and the locality Family and Youth Hubs. The role will also support the development and delivery of The Aston Award, preserving the ethos of The Aston Project.

About the role

Building trusted, strengths-based relationships that offer stability and belief when children and young people need it the most, you will:

deliver relational, trauma-informed interventions in homes, schools, and community spaces, including through The Aston Award.
work creatively and assertively to engage children and young people experiencing complex challenges. 
use up-to-date information about what’s happening to be in the right places at the right time to support young people and help keep everyone safe in community spaces and hotspots e.g. parks, high streets, local neighbourhoods,
strengthen community resilience by building networks and ensuring safe and supportive structures are in place for children and young people.
look at risks happening outside of the home and work with professionals to contribute multi-agency assessments, plans and delivery of support that keep children and young people safe.

About you

We are looking for inspiring, resilient and skilled practitioners who believe that every young person has strengths, potential, and the ability to overcome adversity with the right support.  You will have:

experience of working with vulnerable children, young people, and families from diverse backgrounds in group work and one to one settings.
experience of working collaboratively in a multi-agency environment.
strong communication and relationship building skills.
knowledge and skills in assessing risk and planning effective interventions.
knowledge and understanding of contextual safeguarding and harm outside the home.
knowledge and understanding of evidence-based practice and community services that offer an effective response to anti-social behaviour, exploitation and youth violence
creativity, adaptability and persistence.

As well as your experience, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

minimum Level 3 qualification relevant to youth work, family support, social care or similar.
flexibility to meet the needs of children and young people which will include evenings and weekends.
ability to drive or travel across Gloucestershire
DBS Clearance (Enhanced Adults and Children’s)
If you want to be part of a team that is innovative, relational, and committed to making a real difference in empowering children and young people to reach their potential, we would love to hear from you.

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees. We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior). To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

This position is subject to a DBS check.

For more information about the job, view links, download attachments and apply please click on the Apply Now button.