Participation Lead - The Guardian : Job Details

The starting salary for this role is £35,730 per annum based on working 36-hours per week.

This is a 12-month fixed term contract or secondment opportunity.

Rewards and benefits:

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the project

'In Our Own Words' is a youth-led, peer research project which trains young people in social research methods so they can lead new research into topics they believe are most important right now. Young people are supported to engage directly with other young people, capturing experiences and perspectives, generating new insights and taking forward recommendations that will make a difference to youth services across Surrey.

'In Our Own Words' is a partnership project including youth voice and research representatives from: Surrey Youth Voice

• Healthwatch Surrey
• Mindworks Surrey
• Surrey and Borders Partnership
• Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum
• Surrey Youth Focus
• University of Surrey

About the role

We are looking for someone who is motivated and highly organised to deliver year two of the "In Our Own Words" project. Year one saw 11 neurodivergent young people become youth researchers and delve in to topics relating to mental health. They developed skills, confidence and friendships, and formed recommendations that are now being disseminated far and wide to improve the experiences of neurodiverse young people. The second phase will equip a new cohort of young people to design and lead their own research projects, and present their findings to senior leaders across Surrey to enact positive service change.

Your role will involve coordinating the project over a period of 12 months, facilitating partnership working, youth involvement in project governance and managing the joint design and delivery of the programme.

Our ambition is that this project will capture the voices of young people we don't often hear from, producing powerful new insights and recommendations that shape and improve our services for children and young people. We are committed to the development of sustainable skills for the youth researchers themselves and support them through mentoring into future opportunities off the back of this project.

As the Participation Lead responsible for this project, you will work with partners to:

• Establish, coordinate and chair monthly partnership meetings
• Adapt and implement our simple module-based course aimed at training young people in social research methods and skills
• Recruit volunteer mentors to support young people & 15-30 young people as researchers
• Support young people with their research projects and organise group events for them to socialise, learn, share and develop their projects
• Organise one or two larger networking events for young people to showcase their projects, and to involve a wider number of young people in the project
• Identify and create opportunities to share insights in key decision-making forums
• Write reports for internal and external use, and present insights in engaging, compelling and accessible formats
• Support youth researchers to present their findings to the right audience to influence positive service change
• Support the youth researchers towards the end of the project to understand how the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have developed can be transferred to enhance their future education/training/employment opportunities

Shortlisting criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• Passion for participation and advocating for the rights of children and young people to have their voice heard
• Experience of managing, supervising and coaching others with evidence of how the support offered enabled them to achieve their goals
• Ability to effectively manage multiple areas of work
• People and influencing skills: empathy, active listening, understanding and aligning objectives, presenting compelling cases
• Teamwork: identifying and bringing together resources, skills and experience to achieve more together than we could alone
• Ability to analyse data, identify feedback themes and create engaging, meaningful reports
• You will need to be a team player and embody the values of the team: being empowering, trustworthy, honest, collaborative and inclusive.

This is a role that we believe will be extremely rewarding and will provide the opportunity to truly make a difference.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on Monday 24th March with interviews to follow from Wednesday 26th March - Wednesday 2nd April.

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applicants where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.