Community Youth Participation Officer

Are you passionate about empowering young people and giving them a platform to shape their future? Join our Specialist Participation Team as a Community Youth Participation Officer, where you'll play a key role in strengthening youth voice opportunities across Buckinghamshire.

This role enables you to lead and support the delivery of programmes and interventions that ensure children and young people's voices influence the design, delivery and evaluation of services and their ongoing development.

If you're dedicated, collaborative and excited about making a real impact to young people and ensuring their voices are heard, this could be the perfect next step.

This is a fixed term/secondment role until 31 st March 2027.

Buckinghamshire is an ambitious, rapidly growing county, and our economy is one of the strongest in the country. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ranks as one of the top rural areas to live in the UK and yet it is incredibly well connected- only an hour from London on the train. The county has a rich history and heritage and is the birthplace of the international Paralympic movement.

We are looking for motivated, ambitious and inspiring people to join us on our journey. You will be entitled to a range of different benefits to make sure you are happy both at work and at home.

As a Community Youth Participation Officer, you will:

• Work directly with young people to support their personal development, wellbeing and participation.
• Help deliver groupwork programmes with a youth voice focus.
• Support the planning and delivery of large-scale events to celebrate looked after children.
• Support specific projects and youth voice initiatives, helping children and young people actively influence decisions.
• Build strong, trusting relationships with young people from diverse backgrounds.
• Use creative communication methods to ensure all young people-including those with SEND or care experience-can express their views.
• Collaborate closely with partner organisations and professionals to ensure interventions meet young people's needs.
• Advocate on behalf of young people where necessary.
• Record accurate session notes and maintain professional documentation.
• Contribute to quality assurance, evaluations and continuous improvement of our youth provision.
• Support delivery during evenings, weekends and school holiday periods.

This is a varied, hands on role where no two days are the same-you'll be a crucial part of a team committed to making a positive difference.

You'll be someone who cares deeply about the experiences and outcomes of young people, with the ability to build rapport quickly and positively influence their lives.

We're looking for someone who:

• Has extensive experience within the youth sector and an understanding of services supporting young people and early help.
• Understands participation and the value it brings to services.
• Understands legislation, safeguarding requirements and best practice within youth work.
• Can engage confidently with young people, families, partners and professionals.
• Is organised, proactive and able to manage sessions, records and planning effectively.
• Is resilient and skilled in working with challenging situations or sensitive topics.
• Is confident using ICT systems and maintaining accurate records.
• Shares our values-Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

If you are passionate about ensuring young people feel heard, understood and supported, we'd love to hear from you.

Closing date: Midnight on Monday 13th April 2026

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

We understand that candidates may use AI tools to assist with their applications. While we welcome innovation, we expect all submissions to reflect your own experience, skills, and achievements accurately. Please ensure your application is truthful and demonstrates your personal capabilities, as this will be assessed during the selection process.