Are you passionate about working with children and young people?

Are you enthusiastic about developing excellent and inclusive services with young people to enhance their, wellbeing, happiness and opportunities?

Our Barnardo's Co-op Partnership goals are:

• Improve mental wellbeing
• Improve access to basic needs (food)
• Improve access to opportunities

We are looking for applicants who are:

• Confident and creative in engaging and working alongside young people aged between 10-25 years.
• Skilled in designing and delivering groupwork sessions for young people.
• Able to provide emotional and practical support to young people, in line with safeguarding policies and procedures.
• Flexible to work evenings and weekends where required to meet the needs of the service
• Able to work in partnership with Co-op, Children's Services and the community, whilst keeping young people at the centre.

In return for your commitment, you will be supported with meaningful and supportive 1:1's, ongoing personal development and opportunities to make positive change in young people's lives.

Our Co-op partnership Youth Advisory Group have made this film to support in recruiting the right staff for our in Community Services across the UK (link below):

Barnardo's | Recruitment of Staff for Co-op Partnership by the Youth Advisory Group (youtube.com)

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document.

As & When contract for sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 3.30-6pm

For more information on our exciting partnership with the Co-op, please see our additional information sheet via the link below.

For an informal chat about the role, please contact Robyn Dunn on robyn.dunn@barnardos.org.uk – South East and London Region Children's Service Manager 

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Reference number:21903
• Job Title:Youth Support Worker
• Location:Southsea
• Locality:Portsmouth
• Contract type:As & When
• Hours:As & When
• Salary:£14.62 per hour
• Closing Date:28 October 2025