**CVs AND EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. PLEASE VISIT NO LIMITS WEBSITE FOR FULL JOB DESCRIPTION AND TO COMPLETE THE APPLICATION FOR THIS ROLE**
✨ Are you passionate about helping to make a difference to children and young people? We're looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Lead Youth Worker to join us at No Limits ✨
Role terms
Salary: Band E - £32,166 to £36,912 (FTE)
Hours: 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday (Evening work required Monday + Thursday until 20:00)
Contract Type: Permanent
Place of work: Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Safe Havens (Royal Oak Wellbeing Hub), Yateley. (No Limits, Southampton Head Office attendance required once a month plus any initial/adhoc training)
Role screening: Enhanced DBS – Child and Adult Barred List
Closing Date: Friday 17th July 2026 at 9am
Interview Date: Monday 29th & Tuesday 30th June 2026
The Team
We're looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Lead Youth Worker to join us at No Limits, who are the leading youth services charity in Southampton, supporting children and young people in the city and across Hampshire.
The No Limits Emergency Department and Social Prescribing team, work across seven main hospitals in Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Basingstoke, The Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and Poole. The No Limits Safe Havens team work across Southampton, North Hampshire and The Isle of Wight.
We are currently looking for a Lead Youth Worker to join the Basingstoke and Winchester ED Team and the North Hampshire Safe Havens Team as a combined leadership role.
Our growing team of Youth Workers are caring, collaborative and courageous professionals, committed to empowering children and young people to achieve positive changes in their lives. Our unique service delivery model aims to support all children and young people. The ED Youth Workers have been working with the ‘reachable moment’ when a young person attends ED in crisis, whether that is through violent crime or mental health crisis to help them to start thinking about change. The successful applicant will provide direct support to children and young people, both in the emergency department and in the community. By helping the young person to connect with specialist support and other community services through Social Prescribing. To apply for this post, you must have a passion for supporting children and young people, be a strong communicator and have experience of working with children and young people.
Your Role
As a Lead Youth Worker within both the Emergency Department and Social Prescribing Team as well as the Safe Havens team, you will play a crucial role in providing support, information, advice and guidance to children, young people and their families both within the hospital and out in the community post-discharge. Through crisis interventions, you will connect them with local and specialist support, helping to reduce future hospital admissions and reducing the crisis in their life.
You will be providing in-person support in both services, through brief interventions, open access drop in, telephone support, and outreach preventative work in educational settings and community locations when required.
You will support and lead a team of Youth Workers and promote the partnership working and integration of both crisis and intervention services.
Your key responsibilities will include:
- Leading the Emergency Department and Social Prescribing Team (EDSP) who support children and young people aged 11-25 who have been admitted to hospital, providing bedside support and intervention during their ‘reachable moment’ and continuing with short-term community based social prescribing where appropriate.
- Engage and build relationships with any children and young people who have come into the Emergency Department (ED) and may need advice and support to avoid further admissions.
- Build and maintain positive working relationships with hospital staff to encourage collaboration and the effective use of referrals in addition to promoting No Limits services with stakeholders in the community.
- Leading the Safe Havens team who provide a community-based crisis mental health service for children and young people aged 11-17 via one-to-one support and open access drop in.
- Offer a variety of youth work-based interventions to children and young people through, brief interventions, pre-booked one to one meetings and drop in support, to reduce future hospital admissions and use of crisis services.
- Supervise your teams by conducting regular one-to-ones, support learning and development, monitor absence and coordinate annual leave.
- Regularly monitor and manage the data recording of your team, so that timely data can be provided for reporting, funding and service impact.
- Through a Youth Information, Advice and Counselling Services (YIACS) model address the wider practical and social issues that may be affecting a young person's mental health such as relationships, healthy behaviours, sexual health, housing, substance use, risk-taking behaviour, crime and offending, finance and benefits and education or employment.
- Work closely with No Limits and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) regarding the mental health needs of children and young people.
- Act as an advocate for children and young people and refer them on to other relevant agencies and services, as appropriate, to ensure their needs are appropriately met.
- Provide quality up-to-date information, advice and support which supports young people’s personal and social development and promotes healthy lifestyles.
- Promote the involvement of young people in planning, delivery and evaluation of services.
- Improve the lives of children and young people by minimising the impact of their difficulties through the delivery of excellent services to promote wellbeing.
- Work alongside the other Lead Youth Workers and Operations Manager to continuously evaluate and develop the services, making sure targets and outcomes are met, and raising any concerns.
- Support the Operations Manager to coordinate service delivery including recruiting and inducting staff, identifying teams training needs, and identifying individual needs within the team.
Please see the job description for further details about the responsibilities of the role.
We are committed to making a difference in the lives of the children and young people we work with, and as such, you must show a willingness to demonstrate commitment to the values and behaviours which flow from the No Limits ethos. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people is paramount.
We particularly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and those who have had experiences similar to the young people we aim to support. We are committed to creating a diverse environment where people can be their authentic selves, where their experiences and opinions are valued, and we are all open to learning from each other.
As part of our team, you’ll receive a comprehensive induction and access to learning and development opportunities relevant to your role, supporting your ongoing growth.
You'll have the essentials of:
- Build trusting and supportive relationships with children and young people
- Experience of providing mental, emotional, health and wellbeing support, information and advice to individuals
- Respect and promote children and young people’s rights to make their own decisions and choices
- Be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults
You may also have:
- Experience in working with children and young people and / or a minimum Level 3 (or equivalent) youth work or other relevant qualification
- Experience of supervising, managing and/or mentoring individuals or teams
- Knowledge of mental health issues, including the evidence base for intervention, for example: self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, depression, substance use, anxieties, phobias, ADHD, Autism etc.
- Effective communication, organisational and time management skills
- Confident and able to use Microsoft apps, such as Word, Teams and Excel, and databases
- Working proactively and collaboratively with others; reflecting creativity, adaptability and bringing positivity and enthusiasm to your work
- Commitment to personal growth, and ongoing learning and development
About No Limits
No Limits is the leading youth services charity in Southampton, supporting children and young people in the city and across Hampshire.
At No Limits, it is important our staff and volunteers reflect, represent and have experience of the challenges faced by the children and young people we support. We are proud and appreciate our many staff and volunteers who use their own lived experience to support the children and young people they work with.
With this in mind, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our work and organisational culture – and when recruiting, it’s important to us that we continue diversifying our staff and volunteer teams, with children and young people at the centre of everything we do.
When we talk about talent, we value the transferrable skills and experiences you can bring to No Limits, which can be through work (in the same or a different sector), volunteering or personal experiences. To make sure we get the best talent on our team, we are open to and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and sections of the community, including diverse ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+, disabled and neurodiverse.
If invited to interview, please let us know if we can support you at interview with any reasonable adjustments, such as flexible working, access arrangements or a suitable place to pray.
Staff Benefits
We are committed to being a great place to work, where people achieve and feel valued. In our People Survey, 98% of staff and 100% of volunteers said they were proud to tell people they work or volunteer for No Limits. We’re proud to offer some great benefits, on top of being able to make a meaningful contribution to the lives of local children and young people:
- 36 days annual leave (including public holidays).
- Two additional wellbeing days per year - Supporting you to take additional time off for your wellbeing or development.
- Pension scheme - Supporting your future by matching your additional pension contributions up to 2%.
- Life assurance scheme - Giving you peace of mind with 2x annual salary cover for pension members.
- Hybrid and flexible working - Giving the flexibility to work in the best way for your role.
- Comprehensive induction and training offer - Including our online learning management system with hundreds of opportunities to support your development.
- Employee Assistance Programme - Providing you with counselling, financial, personal support and health and wellbeing services.
Please let us know if we can support you with any reasonable adjustments at any point prior to, during or after the selection process, such as access arrangements, flexible working, or a suitable place to pray.
Interested......? We'd love to hear from you!
We’d be happy to have an informal discussion and answer any immediate questions you might have. If you’d like an initial discussion, please contact Charlotte Tommans-Porter who is the Operations Manager for this service on [email protected]
To apply, please complete an application form (see link above) and upload using the portal below, before the closing date of Friday 17th July 2026. Please contact [email protected] if you need your application in an alternative format.
In the ‘Your Supporting Statement’ section of the application form, please include how your knowledge, skills and experience meet the ‘About you – knowledge, skills and experience’ section of the role description: link to job description
Please note that as we follow safer recruitment guidelines, we do not accept CVs and will only accept fully completed applications.
Pay: £32,166.00-£36,912.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Cycle to work scheme
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Life insurance
- Sick pay
Work Location: In person
