Do you want to make a difference to young peoples lives in our community? Are you a creative thinker, with an eye for detail and experience of community development? If so we would love to hear from you. 
West Oxfordshire District Council is focused on enabling a fulfilling and meaningful quality of life for our residents with opportunities for all to flourish. We provide a range of important services including planning, housing, waste and recycling, leisure, community safety and environmental health.  The Council has an ambitious Council Plan focused on a range of important priorities including putting residents first, climate and ecological action and affordable housing.  We also want to continue working in close partnership with our local communities. 
We are looking for a Youth Development Officer to join the Council’s dedicated Community Wellbeing team here. Our purpose is to help people live their best life and your focus would be to make sure that Young People are able to do just that! In our Youth Needs Assessment of 2022 young people told us about a range of barriers getting in their way - making it difficult for them to thrive. We have a chance to change this and make a difference in West Oxfordshire. We want to be ambitious and courageous. Our young people deserve it. We want to put young people at the heart of what we do, work better together to support young people and find news ways to continue the conversation with them. You will be at the centre of this.   
About the role…
The Youth Development officer will tackle the barriers faced by young people as expressed in the Youth Needs Assessment including cost of activity, access to services, isolation and range of provision. Your role will include working externally to grow the offer from local and regional providers; working internally in the Council to achieve greater youth engagement; engaging with young people directly and challenging service providers and commissioned services to deliver fairly in West Oxfordshire. 
This is a new role which will cover West Oxfordshire but with lots of opportunities to connect and share good practice in the county and across the region. 
You will need…
*Previous experience and understanding of community development
*Experience of designing and delivering projects or community based activities with and for young people.
*Exceptional communication skills to engage with a variety of stakeholders
*Proven experience of engaging with young people in a supportive and empowering role. 
*Skills in strategic and creative thinking 
Special Conditions…
*Access to a car and ability to travel
For more information about this role please see the Job Description/Person Specification.
What can we do for you…
*Agile working allowing a mix of home and office working
*Flexible working arrangements (depending on the role)
*27 days paid annual leave (pro rata if you are working part time) plus bank holidays, which increases to 30 days after five years’ service and 33 days following 10 years’ continuous service
*In addition you will have an extra two volunteering days a year for you to support a charity of your choice
*Renewed again for another year there is a Health cash plan giving you cash back on health, dental and eye care 
*Generous contributory local government pension scheme
*Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, providing positive, preventative and supportive advice and counselling to deal with everyday events and issues
*Cycle to work scheme
*Salary sacrifice car lease scheme with significant tax and NI savings to be made on electric cars
*Generous sickness cover above statutory entitlements
Terms and conditions apply
These are just a handful of the benefits that you can enjoy when you join us!
To apply for this position please click on "apply now" within this page to complete an application form and supporting statement together with your CV. Please tell us about your skills, knowledge, qualifications, experience and how they meet the criteria listed above and in the job description/person specification. It’s important that we’re a good fit for each other, so let us know what’s important to you and why you want to work for West Oxfordshire District Council. Your CV will not be available to the hiring manager unless you are shortlisted for interview to assist with our non-biased screening process so please ensure you complete the application form in full.
It is important that our staff reflect the diversity of our community, and we therefore welcome and encourage applications from people of all genders and sexual orientation, those from Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic backgrounds, and those with disabilities.
Accredited of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies - Please state this within your covering statement or in a separate email.
Our organisation is committed to safeguarding the welfare of vulnerable adults, young people and children.  Safer recruitment practices are applied to all job vacancies
Safer recruitment practices are applied to all job vacancies. Successful candidates will be required to complete a pre-employment medical questionnaire; provide references;  proof of identity; nationality and immigration status; three years’ employment or education history (if applicable) and, in some cases, verification of criminal record.