Are you an experienced, motivated leader with a passion for improving outcomes for children and young people? We’re looking for someone who can inspire a multi-agency team, drive high-quality practice, and play a key part in reducing offending and re-offending across County Durham. If you're committed to making a real difference and want to help shape Youth Justice Services, this could be the role for you. WHAT IS INVOLVED? You will be joining County Durham Youth Justice Service (CDYJS), part of Children & Young People’s Services. The service works with children and young people involved in, or at risk of entering, the youth justice system, ensuring high-quality and effective interventions that promote safety, reduce offending and support positive change. In this role, you will manage and lead a multi-agency team and oversee the delivery of Youth Justice Services across both Out of Court and Post Court work. You will provide strong leadership in case management, ensuring best practice and high standards aligned with National Standards for Youth Justice. You will: Lead and manage staff, ensuring supervision, appraisal, recruitment and development are delivered effectively. Be responsible for a specialist Youth Justice theme (such as Remands) and drive countywide improvements in this area. Ensure safeguarding, public protection and restorative practice principles are fully embedded. Chair team meetings and case planning meetings and provide oversight of complex casework. Monitor, record and evaluate performance, contributing to service improvement and the delivery of the annual Youth Justice Plan. Build strong partnerships across agencies, chair multi-agency problem-solving meetings, and represent the service in wider forums. Contribute to strategic development and service-wide responsibilities as part of the management team. Work flexibly, including participation in the on-call rota (evenings, weekends and bank holidays). We encourage you to contact Leanne Hopper YJS Strategic Manager via email at leanne.hopper@durham.gov.uk to arrange an informal discussion about the role. WHAT WILL I NEED? To succeed in this role, you will need a relevant professional qualification (such as Social Work, Probation, Health, Education or Police) along with a Level 5 management qualification, and strong operational leadership experience within a Youth Justice Service. You should bring experience of managing multi-agency teams, working with socially excluded children and young people, leading projects, and using youth justice information systems. You will need a solid understanding of youth justice legislation, evidence-based practice, safeguarding, risk management and partnership working, along with strong analytical, communication and IT skills. Personally, you will be an effective, motivating leader who can work flexibly under pressure, drive high standards, collaborate well with others, and maintain integrity and commitment to equality and diversity, with a driving licence and the ability to work evenings and weekends. Please refer to the attached Person Specification for the full criteria. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure. Our commitment to safeguarding Durham County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore if successful in your application, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be sought inclusive of a check of the Children's Barred List and Adults Barred List, due to the position working in regulated activity. Applicants should be aware that the DBS check will disclose both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, in line with current legislation [include this line if includes barred list check - and will confirm whether an individual is barred from working with children, adults, or both. INTERVIEWS Interviews will be held week commencing 27th April 2026. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked after young person, care leaver or a veteran. OUR OFFER TO YOU We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years’ continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions. EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION We are a proud equal opportunities employer and believe a diverse workforce brings fresh ideas and drives service improvement. We welcome applications from everyone and make employment decisions based on skills and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled and neurodivergent people and offer support throughout the recruitment process. HOW TO APPLY Please note, we do not accept CVs. All applications must be submitted online via the Northeast Jobs portal. Use the ‘Person Specification’ section of the form to clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential (and where possible, desirable) criteria. Applications that do not evidence the essential requirements will not be shortlisted. Please visit our website to understand our position on using AI to support your application and for guidance on completing your application. If you require assistance when applying for this role, please contact our Recruitment Helpdesk on 03000 26 27 27, or via email RecruitmentCYPS@durham.gov.uk All correspondence relating to your application will be sent from donotreply@northeastjobs.org.uk. Kindly check your spam/junk folder regularly to ensure you don’t miss any updates. CONNECT WITH US Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook Visit our website VPRS/161