Location
Royal Borough of Greenwich

Hours
Full Time - 35 hours per week

Salary
£49,056 per annum

About the Role
Children’s Services is committed to ensuring that the voices and experiences of children, young people and families are at the heart of how we design, deliver and improve our services. We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled Engagement and Co-Production Practitioner to help us strengthen the way we listen to, engage with and work alongside children and families. This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about participation and co-production who can build trusted relationships with children, young people, parents and carers from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

You will oversee and support our service user voice groups, creating meaningful opportunities for children and families to share their experiences, identify what matters to them and influence the development of services. You will work directly with teams across Children’s Services to ensure that feedback is translated into action and that we can clearly demonstrate the difference participation and co-production are making.

As an Engagement and Co-Production Practitioner, you will support the development of a strong and consistent approach to engagement, participation and co-production across Children’s Services. You will coordinate and facilitate service user voice groups, working directly with children, young people, parents and carers to ensure they have meaningful opportunities to influence the services and support they receive.

You will develop accessible and inclusive ways for people to participate, recognising that different children and families will want to engage in different ways. You will have a particular focus on ensuring we hear from people whose voices may otherwise be less well represented.

Working closely with practitioners, managers and partners, you will help services to involve children and families in the design, development and improvement of services, ensuring engagement is meaningful and that people can see how their views have influenced decisions.

You will gather and analyse feedback from engagement activity, identifying key themes and insights and presenting these in ways that help colleagues understand the experiences of children and families. You will support effective “you said, we did” approaches, closing the feedback loop so that participants understand what has happened as a result of their involvement.

You will also support engagement and co-production activity associated with service improvement and transformation, helping teams to consider lived experience from the outset rather than consulting children and families only after decisions have been made.

Central to the role will be creating environments in which children and families feel safe, respected, listened to and able to participate, and ensuring that engagement is undertaken sensitively and appropriately.

Experience
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with children, young people, parents and carers.
- Experience of facilitating groups, engagement activities, workshops or other forms of participation.
- Understanding of co-production and meaningful service user participation, differentiating between informing, consulting, engaging and genuinely working alongside people.
- Ability to listen carefully to people's experiences and translate qualitative feedback into clear themes, insights and opportunities for improvement.
- Confidence working with practitioners, managers and partners and constructively challenging services to consider the experiences and perspectives of children and families.
- Good organisational skills and the ability to coordinate a programme of engagement and participation activity.
- Sensitivity and sound judgement when engaging with children and families who may have experienced difficult or challenging circumstances.

About you
- Approachable and compassionate practitioner passionate about ensuring children and families have a genuine voice in the services that affect their lives.
- Ability to create inclusive and accessible opportunities for participation, adapting approaches to meet different communication needs, ages and circumstances.
- Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and to ensuring that the voices of people who may be less likely to participate are actively sought and heard.
- Strong commitment to improving outcomes and experiences for children, young people and families.
- Comfortable working across different services and with people with a wide range of experiences.
- Brings energy, creativity, empathy and curiosity alongside the ability to develop positive relationships and encourage participation.
- Passionate about ensuring children and families are partners in shaping the services that affect their lives.

Qualifications
No specific qualifications are stated as required for this role; however, relevant experience and a commitment to the values and responsibilities described are essential.