National Youth Voice Worker

Permanent contract with funding until 31st March 2027

Location: Home based with the location being flexible within England and Wales. The role requires regular travel across England and Wales, including overnight stays.

Benefits include but not limited to:

• 36 days’ annual leave, inclusive of flexible bank holidays, increasing with length of service
• Enhanced maternity/paternity leave
• We match up to 8% pension
• Free counselling service
• Opportunities to develop and widen your skills
• 2 days of paid volunteering time per annum to support another part of the organisation

About us:

The Children’s Society has been helping children and young people in this country for over 140 years. We deliver essential local services that provide safe, trusted support to children and young people during times of significant need.

Our Youth Impact domain creates impact for children and young people. With highly skilled and experienced staff working across England and Wales, we provide direct support to children, young people, parents and carers, as well as conduct research and influence Government to make changes. We also provide training for professionals. Our value driven team change the lives of children in this country for the better — and with your help and expertise, tomorrow we can support even more.

About the role:

You’ll play a key part in our National Prevention Programme, delivering youth consultation sessions across England and Wales and then developing the findings from these into national reports, resources and training materials for professionals. Through this you will help ensure that young people's views are central to national and local efforts to prevent and disrupt child exploitation.

We’re looking for an experienced youth voice worker with the ability to develop and deliver highly engaging consultation sessions with children and young people, including those who have experienced exploitation and abuse in order to champion their voices to professionals and ultimately make a real impact in the lives of children and young people.

Key skills and experience:

The required skills and competencies for this role are:

• Strong experience of and skill in facilitating group work with young people and utilising their views to inform practice
• Experience of developing and delivering high quality training sessions and written resources for professionals
• Strong networking and relationship building skills with both young people and professionals
• Knowledge and skill in child safeguarding and responding to disclosures in group setting

It would also be an advantage if you have any of the following skills and competencies:

• Project planning skills and experience
• Analysis and evaluation skills
• Subject matter expertise around child exploitation and abuse
• Experience of developing and using effective feedback loops with young people

Closing date: Midnight on 16th August 2026.

Please note if we receive a high volume of applications we reserve the right to close the vacancy from the 7th August onwards.

Interviews: First stage interviews with a staff panel on 25th and 26th August 2026, second stage interviews with young people on 28th August 2026.

In this role you will:

• Join our award winning national Prevention Programme to influence and encourage new and innovative approaches to prevent child exploitation and abuse, working to ensure all child victims of exploitation are recognised and receive the right support.
• Lead and develop the Programme's Youth Voice work, ensuring young people's views and opinions are central to the Programme's work and wider professional practice to tackle child exploitation and abuse.

We view diversity and inclusion as fundamental to achieving social change and recognise that systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia and disability discrimination actively prevent children from being safeguarded and receiving appropriate support.

To tackle the complex issues facing young people, we need access to diverse talent, perspectives, experiences and working practices. The Prevention Programme is committed to inclusion, anti-racism and trans allyship. We actively support all LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and those who identify as neurodiverse and are currently engaged in work to address issues of systemic exclusion and discrimination as they relate to exploitation and abuse.

We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and communities and we have policies to support flexible, inclusive and accessible employment.

The Children’s Society is committed to safeguarding and protection of the children and young people we work with. As such, our safer recruitment process includes a Basic or Enhanced DBS check, 5 years of references, and additional vetting checks relevant to the role. We have a comprehensive range of policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices across all areas of our organisation.

In support of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, shortlisting is carried out on an anonymised basis. Personal details are hidden from the shortlisting panel, and candidates are referenced by a candidate number only. As part of this process, we ask that your CV is anonymised before submission - this means removing personal information such as your name, contact details, age, and any other identifying details.

AI tools can support your application but only when used appropriately. You’re welcome to use them to improve clarity, structure, and research. However, overuse or misuse (e.g. inventing experience or using AI during assessments) may lead to rejection at any stage. We want to hear the real you - authenticity matters.