The role is only open to women, in accordance with the sex-based exemptions of the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1.
Applications will only be considered if you provide both a CV and a detailed Cover Letter outlining how you meet the role requirements.
Early Intervention and Diversion Key Worker
Salary: £28,266
Location: Bradford
Hours: 37 hours, full-time
Closing Date: Monday 29th September 2025, 12pm
Interview Date: Monday 13th October 2025
Together Women is looking for an outstanding Key Worker to be part of our Early Intervention and Diversion service in Bradford.
About Us
Together Women is a regional, award-winning charity which provides independent, holistic, gender-specialist support to women facing multiple disadvantages, including women involved in (or at risk of being involved in) the criminal justice system. We work in prisons, the community and 'through the gate', supporting women leaving prison and in the community to address the root causes of offending. We run Women's Centres and 'hubs' for services across Yorkshire and Humberside.
Join Our Team
* Are you passionate about helping women overcome disadvantages that lead them into involvement with the Criminal Justice System?
* Can you use your skills to engage with women affected by multiple disadvantages and complex trauma?
* Do you want to engage with the police and the courts to help women into support services and divert them from a path of custody and cycles of re-offending?
If so, we would love to hear from you
What we can offer you
Employee Benefits:
* 25 days holiday increasing by one day per year to a max of 30 days, plus public holidays
* Pension scheme with 5% employer contribution
* Annual cost of living increase up to 4%
* Enhanced Training and Induction programme covering all areas of Together Women's work
* Access to our Employee Assistance Programme with discount offers and free telephone counselling service
* Access meditation and other online wellbeing support on our wellbeing platform
* Employee eye-care scheme and free eye tests
* Organisation-wide away days
* Career development pathways
Role Summary
Based in our Women's Centre in Bradford, this role will focus on early intervention, diverting women away from the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and into support services.
This post, funded by the Ministry of Justice, will work within our Women's Centres providing early intervention as women enter the CJS. The Key Worker will work in courts, and with the police to divert women away from CJS and into relevant support services. Advocacy, one-to-one support and group work will all be key features of the role in supporting women to help them build upon their strengths and dismantle barriers that are preventing them from progressing and achieving their potential.
This role will include partnership working with key agencies in the CJS and support services within the voluntary sector.
The Keyworker will:
1) Provide support to women in custody suites: identifying immediate and crisis needs and undertaking actions to address these; liaising with arresting officers to promote the use of conditional cautions, which can be delivered in our Centres (where suitable); accompanying women to any immediate appointments after their discharge from police custody; providing family liaison and support, and referrals to relevant support services (e.g. substance misuse, local authority housing, peer mentoring).
2) Provide interventions/activities for women who have been served conditional cautions (frequency and attendance will be determined in partnership with the police during service implementation): engaging and enrolling women with broader services available in our Centres, including potentially external courses or signposting to relevant organisations; liaising and sharing information with police on progress and outcomes.
3) Support women at court appearances: providing advocacy on behalf of women (including to enable progress and engagement with services), providing information to criminal justice professionals to feed into pre-sentence reports (including advising on alternative solutions to custodial sentences), providing family support and contact, and liaising with children's/adult services and legal representatives.
4) Sentencer engagement: in agreement and partnership with Probation Services, we will contribute to Magistrates' liaison events, demonstrating the benefits of Women's Centres, providing case studies and success stories and progress reports where women have been sentenced to a community alternative to custody.
5) Support women to avoid further custodial sentences: where women are sentenced to custody, we will be available to provide family support and information, and notify our Centre in HMP New Hall to ensure a member of the team visits the woman during her induction and supports her engagement with our services and pre-release support.
Key Accountabilities
Working within the Women's Criminal Justice Team in the Women's Centre, you will be proactive, organised, personable and empathic. You will need to be able to work effectively both independently and as part of in person and virtual teams, sometimes under pressure to meet challenging deadlines.
You will be responsible for a caseload of clients to whom you will provide high quality, trauma-informed and person-centred support by:
* Promoting our work to criminal justice professionals, encouraging referrals into our services.
* Receiving and processing referrals in line with current practices.
* Identifying and assessing individuals' support needs, risk factors and protective factors.
* Building effective relationships with women; encouraging them to identify and prioritise their needs, interests and areas for personal development; and to provide guidance and support to enable them to deal with a wide range of issues affecting their lives.
* Using strengths-based principles to develop a personalised plan which is tailored to her wishes, and which reflects appropriate interventions based on her lived experience and pathway into offending.
* Developing a tailored risk management strategy which builds on her protective factors and provides interventions to help her develop skills to manage new/future risks.
* Working with women on a one to one and/or group basis to introduce them to support services so that they can participate in, and benefit from, the support offered. This will include programmes within the Women's Centre as well as in the community.
* Providing continuous and consistent support to women, with a particular emphasis on: motivation and engagement; practical issues (including family); healthy relationships (with family, staff and peers); navigating and accessing services; and self-esteem and empowerment.
* Encouraging women who use the service to provide honest and open feedback in order to promote continuous improvement within our services.
* Providing regular check-ins with women to help them remain motivated to access support and treatment.
* Supporting women with concerns about their children and engaging with relevant Children's Services as necessary.
* Establishing networks with other agencies to refer in for specialist support relating to Accommodation; Finance, Benefits and Debts; and Families and Significant Others.
* Work alongside Probation Practitioners, to inform pre-sentence reports, offering solutions to custodial sentences, providing information to sentencers on the individual and wider social benefits of community alternatives for women.
* Contribute to measuring and monitoring systems as required by the Contract.
* Ensure all necessary records are properly maintained in line with policies on client files, finance and administration.
* Use evaluation, learning and feedback to support service development.
* Support the Centre Managers with stakeholder engagement and ongoing service development.
* Manage and update own skills base to ensure quality service delivery and personal development in role.
Role Requirements:
Essential
* Strong IT skills (PC literate and competent in using MS Office)
* GCSE (or equivalent) in Maths & English - Grade C or above
* Experience of working with women within a support role/ frontline capacity, ideally with experience of strengths-based working and/or trauma-informed approaches
* Ability to assess needs and risks and translate these into a person-centred support and safety plan
* Experience of case management and recording, or equivalent record keeping experience
* Experience of building positive partnerships with other agencies and experience/an understanding of the benefits of collaborative problem solving
* Knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by women, the pathways into offending, and the impact this can have on their life chances and outcomes
* A developed understanding of adult safeguarding and child protection
* Satisfactory enhanced DBS check
Desirable
* Relevant NVQ or equivalent at Level 3 or 4
* Experience & competence in report writing
* Knowledge of child protection issues and a familiarity with procedures affecting women with children in the criminal justice system
* Advocacy experience or skills
* Experience/ an understanding of delivering interventions or programmes which help women recover from complex trauma, develop strategies to overcome obstacles and challenges, and build their skills
* Experience/ an understanding of trauma responsive support for women.
* Experience/ an understanding of working within the criminal justice system
* Experience of group work
* Experience of delivering presentations to internal or external colleagues
The post holder is expected to work within policies and procedures of Together Women and be committed to its ethos and values. This includes promoting and demonstrating the principles of equal opportunity (including encouraging diversity and tackling discrimination) and sensitivity to the environment.
Please note this post is exempt under section e) and (f) of The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and therefore open to female applicants only. The successful applicant will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: £28,266.00 per year
Benefits:
* Company pension
Application question(s):
* Please make sure you have attached a detailed cover letter outlining how you meet the skills and requirements outlined in the job description before submitting your application.
Education:
* GCSE or equivalent (preferred)
Work Location: In person