Children, Young People and Volunteer Worker
Job Summary
Working Pattern:
Full time
Advert Start Date:
16/10/2026
Advert End Date:
Closed for applications on 02/11/2026 17:00
Job Category:
Youth / Community / Leisure Services
Employment Location:
Hartlepool
Further Information
You have a superb opportunity to join our growing Independent Visitors befriending project for children and young people who have experience of being in care. This project works with over 100 children and young people across Tees Valley.
An?Independent Visitor (IV)?is a volunteer, who wants to get to know young people and spends time with them. They are there to support, listen and advise and have fun with young people. These activities can range from going out to eat at a favourite restaurant; sporting activities such as football or basket ball; a trip to the cinema to see the latest films and lots of other things. Children and young people in care have a right to be considered for an Independent Visitor, if it’s in their best interests to have one. This is a statutory right enshrined in legislation.
The key elements of your role will be:
- Talk to children and young people about the IV role, establish if they’d like an IV and what a good match would look like in a volunteer
- Support in recruitment, selection and training of volunteers
- Be a constant source of support and guidance to volunteers
- Work with and regularly keep in touch with social workers, parents, residential homes, children and young people, volunteers and other stakeholders to ensure matches are going well, are safe, and visits taking place regularly.
- Organise and host quarterly events for children, young people and volunteers
- Implement the organisations participation framework, ensuring young people’s voices are heard and supporting them to co-deliver aspects of the project
- Identify opportunities to broaden the project to better meet young people’s needs
Some of your job can be done working from home if you’d like to, and at least some of it working from our office in Hartlepool. The ability to travel around Tees Valley is essential as some visits must be done face to face.
You can find out more about the Independent Visitors project at our website, and through the National Independent Visitors network.
About Changing Futures North East
Changing Futures North East is a vibrant and fast-growing Charity that is in the privileged position to be able to trial new approaches to working with children and families to catalyse their own, sustainable change. Over the past 25 years, we have grown from an estate-based youth club to a provider of children and families work across Tees Valley, particularly specialising in work that supports and is enabled through healthy relationships.
As a Children’s Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, you will join a team of 30 or so staff where you will benefit from working with colleagues from your discipline, as well as people from a variety of other disciplines. The mix of professional backgrounds and training within the agency helps aid everyone’s learning and practice.
Changing Futures North East has particular strengths and experience in:
- Pioneering delivery of emotional wellbeing and mental health services – pioneering mentalisation-based therapy for couples in Tees Valley, and providing EMHP’s, CWP and Counsellors into the children’s emotional wellbeing system through two partnerships, as well as delivering adverse childhood experiences programmes for parents and children separately.
- Supporting care experienced young people – through a fostering service (underpinned by a bespoke trauma informed therapeutic training programme, changing futures through fostering) and through mentoring and befriending support
- Reducing parental conflict services –delivering mediation and groupwork programmes, and supporting statutory agencies across England to embed a reducing parental conflict offer within their systems
This position is subject to satisfactory references, Changing Future’s policies on Safeguarding of Children and Young People and Vulnerable Adults and an enhanced DBS check and subsequent re-checks.
Role Description (Main Duties and Responsibilities)
Your Duties
Working with your Manager(s)
1. Work with your Managers to ensure that they receive appropriate advice and information on all relevant matters thus enabling them to fulfill their responsibilities, and to effectively monitor plans and targets.
Leading and Managing your Work Areas
2. Work with your Managers in developing and implementation of a programme of beneficial and developmental activities for Children and Families.
3. Lead sessions for children, young people and volunteers ensuring that activities are delivered effectively, safely and taking into account the needs of participants.
Service Delivery
4. To engage and build relationships with children and young people and their families, on a one to one and group basis, using a variety of ways of working, to identify needs and to help them achieve positive outcomes.
5. Use a variety of ways of working to help children and young people make changes that matter to them and to achieve their own goals.
6. Ensure provision of support that protects, respect and promote the rights and responsibilities of the people we work with.
7. Ensure provision gives the people we work with appropriate opportunity for participation, developing and maintaining mechanisms for participation.
8. Engage with child and young people, and significant adults in their lives, to build and maintain effective, supportive and empowering relationships.
9. Contribute to assessments as appropriate.
10. To use feedback and data from young people and other stakeholders to inform the planning and design of work to be carried out with them and feedback progress against actions plans resulting from the work.
11. Work with parents where appropriate to identify and action needs to enable them to meet the needs of their family.
12. Operate within ethical and professional boundaries relevant to your role and the people you work with.
13. Coach, mentor and train volunteers, and supervise their practice.
14. To work co-operatively with other professionals in children’s services, health agencies and other community based services, to provide the most effective support for children young people and families.
15. To be responsible for ensuring robust case and session recording, report writing and producing and keeping management information. This includes outputs and outcome recording for every session or activity undertaken.
Other Duties
16. Work to CFNE policies and procedures and to implement said policies and procedures.
17. To undertake any other duties as may be reasonably requested from time to time your Line Manager
18. It may be necessary to change these duties in accordance with the needs of the job and the project. Existing duties may be changed, and new duties may be added. Any changes will be made in consultation with you.
Please note
This job is closed for applications.