Advocate

We are looking to recruit an Advocate to provide independent and confidential advocacy to children and young people under Local Authority care in Southend-on-Sea. 

You will work with care-experienced children and young people to empower them to express their wishes and feelings in decisions that affect their lives and to ensure that their voices are heard. 

Your role will be to listen to them, hear how they feel and what it is they want and then support them by promoting their understanding of the outcomes and options that are available to them so they can make informed decisions while ensuring that their legal rights are upheld and they are treated fairly. 

You will do this by: 

• Attending decision making meetings with the young person and ensuring that others know how the young person is feeling and what it is they want. 
• Providing impartial information to the young person. 
• Assisting the young person making a complaint. 
• Asking question to other professionals on behalf of the young person. 
• Signposting to other relevant services. 

To meet the requirements of the role you must live within the geographical area and be willing to travel. 

For more information, please view the attached job description. 

In your application, you will need to evidence, using specific examples, how your skills and experience meet the criteria laid out in the person specification, within the job description attached. Our requirements include: 

• Significant practice experience in directly working with children, young people and possibly vulnerable adults in a relevant setting, 
• Experience and understanding of child/vulnerable adult safeguarding procedures 
• Ability to maintain professionalism at all times 
• Ability to communicate effectively and to a high standard both orally and in writing, particularly with service users and other professional.  This includes the importance of listening to children, young people and adults objectively. 

NYAS operates robust safeguarding procedures to ensure the protection of the children, young people and adults at risk we work with. To comply with NYAS’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, candidates will be subject to an enhanced DBS check, references and a Digital Risk Assessment. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early once we receive a high number of applications.