Practice Development Lead

Town Hall
160 Whitechapel Road
LONDON
E1 1BJ

Grade: K

1. Context

This is an exciting time to join Tower Hamlets Youth Service.

A key priority within the Tower Hamlets Council Strategic Plan is to transform and improve services for young people in the borough.We are ambitious about ensuring that all young people in the borough have access to a diverse range of youth work opportunities and support through the delivery of a high-quality youth service, this includes:

• Universal 'safe spaces' in every single ward throughout the borough where young people can stay safe, participate in positive activities and educational opportunities as well as access additional support from youth workers. This will be an increase from five commissioned universal services to at least one in every ward therefore providing accessible 'safe spaces' for all young people.
• Targeted whole family support for vulnerable young people and their families.
• Integrated detached youth work team providing a preventative and responsive approach to harm outside the home.
• Commissioning of specialist youth provision for specific groups of young people.

2. The Role

We have an exciting opportunity for a Practice Development Lead to directly support the way services are delivered within a youth service setting.

The key focus for this role is to develop and implement a new quality assurance framework that recognises and enables continuous improvement of excellent youth work practice. The service areas in scope are:

• Universal Team
• Detached Youth Work Team
• Sports Team

In this dynamic role the Practice Development Lead will:

• Contribute to the Young Tower Hamlets Strategy outlining the quality assurance approach and outcomes and how achieve high-quality practice standards.
• Develop and implement a new child centred quality assurance framework and related activities to ensure the quality of youth work delivery is consistently good across all deliverables as well as driving excellence.
• Develop and implement comprehensive audit tools informed by the National Youth Agency as well as toolkits for youth work practitioners to use as part of their day-to-day practice.
• Review pathways and processes to ensure there is alignment to provide consistency in youth work practice.
• Development of Young Tower Hamlets policies, guidance and procedures and ensure they are translated into practice.
• To deliver training and development to the workforce to ensure that the new ways of working are firmly embedded into day-to-day practice.

3. Role Requirements

• Working knowledge of youth work and youth justice operational delivery, as well as the framework underpinning practice (e.g., national legislation, guidance and policies).
• Demonstrable experience of evaluating practice quality leading to timely, sustainable and measurable improvements.
• A relevant degree or equivalent professional qualification (e.g., Social Work, Probation, Youth Justice, Youth Work, Health or Teaching).
• Experience of transformation within a Local Authority setting.
• Ability to plan, programme, deliver and monitor projects and programmes of work, in line with agreed timescales and outputs; ability to contribute to cross-service / agency projects.

4. Our offer

We are committed to developing excellent managers and practitioners and making Tower Hamlets an employer of choice. If you choose to work with us, you will benefit from:

• Up to 31 days annual leave rising to 32 days with 5 years continual service and 8 bank holidays
• Learning and development opportunities via my annual review scheme and supervision
• Enhanced sick pay scheme, maternity/adoption leave pay and maternity support leave
• Opportunities for agile/flexible working
• Cycle to work scheme/ Rent deposit scheme/Access to free eye tests
• Discounted gym/Costco membership
• You at Work discounts and many others

We have fantastic transport links -Tower Hamlets Town Hall is directly opposite Whitechapel Station, which is a minute away. Whitechapel is an interchange station which serves Hammersmith & City, District, Overground, with quick access to central line DLR and Jubilee lines. We also have the Crossrail Elizabeth line with links to Canary Wharf, Shenfield/Abbey Wood/Heathrow and Stratford, which is the best-connected hub in London.

• Closing date: 17th August 2025
• Interviews to take place week commencing 1st September 2025

All applications should be made via our online application system, no CVs or alternative forms of applications are accepted.

Tower Hamlets vision for our borough is that: people are aspirational, independent and have equal access to opportunities; we are a borough that our residents are proud of and love to live in; and we are a dynamic, outcomes-based council using digital innovation and partnership working to respond to the changing needs of our borough. We want people who aspire to our TOWER values: Together; Open; Willing; Excellent; Respect.

Tower Hamlets has a zero-tolerance approach to, and works to eradicate, all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status, status as a civil partner, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and maternity and looks to employ a diverse workforce representative of those groups. We recognise that people can also be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class.We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means applicants who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the post are guaranteed an interview. Care experience has also been adopted by the Council as an additional protected characteristic.

We welcome applicants interested in flexible working arrangements and also applicants who live in the borough.