Are you passionate about championing the voices of care-experienced children and young people and influencing meaningful change at a strategic level?
Based in Sheffield – a vibrant, diverse and rapidly developing city – this is an exciting time to join the Youth Voice and Influence Service. The service brings together a range of youth voice offers designed to meet the needs and aspirations of children and young people. Rooted in high‑quality youth work values, we deliver safe, creative and ambitious provision where young people’s voices are central to everything we do.
Working alongside voluntary sector partners and statutory services, we are committed to ensuring children and young people, particularly those who are care- experienced or seldom heard have genuine opportunities to influence the services that affect their lives. Through strong partnerships, innovative participation approaches, and a commitment to inclusion and anti‑discriminatory practice, we strive to create lasting, systemic change.
About the Role
This is a key leadership role within the Youth Voice and Influence Service. As Voice & Influence Team Manager, you will lead, manage and develop a small team of care-experienced Young Influencers to deliver high‑quality participation, engagement and co‑production activity across Sheffield.
You will be responsible for building and sustaining partnerships with internal services and external organisations, developing projects, and ensuring the voices of care experienced children and young people are heard, valued and acted upon at every level, from service design to strategic decision‑making.
You will oversee the development and delivery of high‑quality participation and engagement work, including leading on project planning, managing resources and ensuring strong outcomes for care-experienced children and young people. You will oversee the development of the Children in Care Council and other care experienced youth voice groups, ensuring their views are amplified and embedded within service development and decision‑making. You will also play a central role in shaping how services respond systematically to young people’s voices, supporting senior leaders and elected members to listen and act.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced leader who is passionate about participation, system change and amplifying young people’s voices.
What You’ll Need
- Degree level qualification in a relevant field (or equivalent experience)
- Experience of working with care experienced children and young people and understanding the challenges they face
- Experience of managing staff and supporting teams to deliver high‑quality work
- Strong knowledge and experience of participation, co‑production and how to embed young people’s voices into systems and decision‑making
- Excellent communication, organisational and leadership skills
- A passion for inclusion, anti‑discriminatory practice, and championing the rights of care experienced children and young people
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, manage and support a team of Young Influencers, including supervision, development and performance management
- Develop and maintain strong partnerships across services and with external organisations to create new opportunities for care-experienced children and young people.
- Design and deliver structures that enable young people to influence senior leaders and elected members
- Ensure robust monitoring, evaluation and reporting of projects and service impact
- Lead on consultation and research activity, supporting data collection, analysis and report writing
- Promote best practice and deliver training to professionals when required.
- Ensure young people’s voices are central to service development and decision‑making, providing appropriate challenge where needed
- Promote, protect and enhance the reputation of the service through high‑quality participation work
For an informal discussion please contact: [email protected]
We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.
It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.
Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.
Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.
If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.
Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.
