Youth Commissioner - Children's Services

Salary: 25731 - 27870 per annum (pro rata at 22.5 hours) pending 2025/26 pay award

Grade - B

Fixed Term Contract 17 months

22.5 Hours per Week

Thurrock is located between East London and Essex easily accessible by road rail and even the Thames. We are a diverse and growing community of families and Thurrock Council is committed to delivering services that meet their needs.

Thurrock Childrens Services is rated Outstanding by Ofsted. We offer a close-knit supportive team culture where your voice and ideas will be valued.

Are you passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and young people Do you believe in the power of lived experience to shape better services If so we want to hear from you.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and driven individual to join our Childrens Services Commissioning Team as a Youth Commissioner. This is a unique opportunity to work alongside professionals children and young people to ensure that the voices of children young people and families are central to how services are designed delivered and improved.

As Youth Commissioner you will:

• Work with children young people and families to gather their views and experiences.
• Collaborate with commissioning and operational teams to co-produce services that meet real needs.
• Support young people to be involved in service design procurement and monitoring.
• Help translate feedback into meaningful service improvements.

The Childrens Commissioning Team oversee all purchased services from the needs analysis that shapes them through service design and advertisement of tender opportunities implementationand ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness of these services. We cover over 30 different areas including:

• Foster Care and Residential placements for looked after children
• Supported Accommodation
• SEND residential schools
• Mental Health Services
• Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence and Abuse services
• Advocacy
• Adoption Support
• Home Tuition
• Respite for disabled children
• Speech and Language support
• Autism support
• Young Carers

Our range of work continues to expand as we identify new opportunities to improve effectiveness and value for money of the services we buy.

Key Skills and Experience Required:

• Strong desire to make a positive impact for children and young people
• Excellent listening and communication skills
• Ability to express and present the views of others clearly and with confidence
• Creative thinking and confidence to propose new ideas
• Ability to work collaboratively with teams and external partners
• Interest in issues affecting children in social care and those with SEND
• Able to manage your own workload and meet deadlines
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word Excel and PowerPoint
• Commitment to equality diversity and safeguarding

We are keen to hear from applicants who have lived experience of the childrens social care system or the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system including care leavers those with experience of child protection or youth offending services or those who have accessed SEND support.

What We Offer

• Excellent remuneration package
• Generous annual leave entitlement 25 days rising to 30 after 5 years service (pro rata if part time)
• Career average pension scheme
• Salary sacrifice schemes (e.g. cycle to work)
• Flexible working to support work-life balance
• Enhanced maternity paternity adoption and shared parental leave
• 24-hour health advice and wellbeing support
• Excellent training and CPD opportunities
• Funded DBS
• Mileage reimbursement at 45p per mile

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check at a basic level is required for this role.

Advert Closing Date:

• Redeployment Only: 03/07/2025
• Internal & External: 20/07/2025

Interview Date: to be confirmed

Unless a valid reason for an alternative arrangement is provided all interviews will be conducted in person.

For further information please contact:

Mark Livermore (Lead Commissioner - SEND)

To view the Job Profile and Person Specification please follow the link below:
Download Job Profile (PDF Document)