Job Title: Policy and Participation Lead
Job Purpose: To centre young people’s experiences and build their collective agency in shaping and delivering our work.
Salary: £34,000
Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week
Responsible to: Head of Youth
Length of contract: Permanent
Permanent Probation period: 6 months
Location: The Winch, Camden, London NW3 3NR
Role Summary
The Policy and Participation Lead has responsibility for fostering young people’s engagement in and leadership of the Inspiring Inclusion programme, and the wider work of the Winch Youth Team. They will work as part of the Winch Youth Team, supporting the co-design and co-delivery of high quality, youth services, activities and opportunities. They will help create, administer and facilitate a range of engagement processes and structures. They will organise and lead young people’s participation in the multi-agency Inspiring Inclusions programme, which seeks to reduce and eliminate the disproportionate school exclusion of young people from Black and racially minoritised backgrounds.
The Policy and Participation Lead will have a track record of working with young people using strengths-based, participatory approaches, rooted in justice, equity and inclusion. They will be committed to improving young people’s experience of services. They will know how to plan and deliver participatory opportunities for young people facing adverse circumstances, which embrace and affirm learning, adaptation and growth. They will be skilled at navigating complex networks and partnerships, and influencing with, for and alongside young people. As a Policy Lead, they will be able to grow their insight, understanding and fluency in local education and safeguarding systems and frameworks, and produce authentic and compelling influencing materials, with a view to making a difference for young people in Camden and beyond.
Principal tasks & responsibilities
Engage, Recruit and Support Young People
- Recruit, engage and sustain the involvement of young people, in our activities, with a particular focus on black and racially minoritised young people
- Develop, deliver and embed the policies, processes, systems and behaviours that enable young people to actively participate in the work of the Winch, in alignment with our participatory commitments.
- Affirm and grow young people’s leadership and skills development, developing their individual and collective agency
- Manage and arrange the payment of any incentives and rewards for participants.
- Provide and broker support for young people.
Create and deliver the structures and mechanisms for young people to engage in change making
- Establish and facilitate a Youth Collaborative forum to guide and shape our youth programmes, taking a lead responsibility for participation in the Inspiring Inclusion partnership.
- Help plan, lead and deliver residential programmes for young people to support their collective reflections, skills building and planning.
- Help organise and deliver a Citizen’s Assembly for young people, which creates a compelling young people’s manifesto for education in Camden.
- Produce research and policy positions and written documentation that reflect and advance young people’s aspirations, and which create opportunities for them to be heard and responded to by relevant audiences.
- Identify, design and deliver inclusive, interactive events and activities, which solicit the views and priorities of young people and which inspires them to engage with decision-makers.
Plan, support and deliver the youth-led or co-led activities, including
- Lead and develop our Young Trainers programme, for young people to deliver personal and professional development activities that helps shift attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and policies, with a focus on schools and their partners.
- Help deliver ‘Test and Learn’ activities that can change and improve the education system, helping to research challenges, identifying participatory and partnership opportunities to create new solutions, and delivering and evaluating pilot projects.
- Build and sustain effective partnerships and relationships, which create the conditions for young people’s participation and change.
- Help with publicity and promotion to engage young people, enhance partnership working and that help advance and sustain the work.
- Take photos and film to capture the workshops, activities and events
Youth Work Practice
- Actively contribute to the planning, development and delivery of our work with young people, including outreach and detached work, open access provision, and targeted group work.
- Commit to continuous improvement of our youth work practices, including advancing and benchmarking the quality of our work.
- Work within the framework of our commitment to AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalization Based Integrative Treatment), providing evidence-informed approaches that support young people facing complex challenges.
- Where required, hold relationships of support with young people.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
- Support designing effective tools and processes to get feedback, learning and reflection from young people and partners, and act on it.
- Take responsibility for collecting and entering data safely
- Support the measurement of the impact and evaluation of the project
- Take part in reflection and learning practices to identify barriers and opportunities and successes, and contribute to a culture of continual learning.
- Take responsibility for your personal and professional learning and development, with the support of your line manager
General Duties
- Demonstrate commitment to, and take responsibility for, safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk, in the context of the role
- Demonstrate and model the Winch’s values of Joy, Care and Courage, and advance the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Proactively manage and record young people’s consent, in line with our data protection and information security policies.
- Support the delivery of the Winch Youth Programme and the wider work of the organisation, including our fundraising and promotional activities.
- Attend and participate in individual and team meetings, supervision, and appraisals, as required
Person Specification
Experience
- At least two years experience of leading participatory practices with communities facing disproportionate disadvantage and exclusion
- At least two years experience of relevant policy development and influencing work
- Hands-on experience of working with children’s safeguarding and inclusion systems, and a commitment to keeping children, young people and adults safe.
- Experience of building and sustaining effective partnerships and alliances for change
Skills and qualities
- Able to effectively work with racially minoritised young people and their communities, representing their lives, their ambitions and the challenges they face with dignity, respect and care
- Skilled in forming and sustaining relationships of trust with people from all walks of life, and with a range of partners and stakeholders and their organisations.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, which enable you to engage with complex public policy and use a range of communication techniques to distil complex information into accessible messages
- An effective planner, who can manage detail, competing priorities and risk.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced and changing environment, using your own initiative and creativity to solve problems
- Able to work independently and collaboratively as part of a team
- Confident in the use of Microsoft Office, Google docs and other online platforms, and in the use of basic design and marketing packages
Knowledge, understanding and interests
- Knowledge and understanding of different participatory methods and strengths-based approaches in facilitating work with communities facing systemic disadvantage.
- Knowledge and understanding of the systems in which young Black and Racially Minoritised people operate, with specific insights into the education and safeguarding systems, and how they interact.
- Evidence of enacting the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in your work.
- Demonstrable commitment to young people leading change
- An understanding of and interest in systems change
Desirable
- Experience of supporting a citizens jury, citizens assembly or legislative theatre
- Personal and/or professional experience of school exclusions
- Experience of leading and facilitating training and development
Important Notes
The Winch is committed to keeping children, young people and vulnerable adults safe from harm. The successful candidate will be subject to enhanced DBS checks and will be required to undertake safeguarding training.
We will ask for proof of eligibility to work in the UK and will undertake a social media check.
The Winch is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment and its employment policies for recruitment are designed to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, ethnic and national origin, disability or gender reassignment.
What else do I need to know?
The Winch is based at 21 Winchester Road, London NW3 3NR, just a minute’s walk from Swiss Cottage underground station and within walking distance of multiple bus routes.
This full-time, permanent role includes some evening work and weekends.
The Benefits
We offer a training budget. You will also be asked to complete mandatory accredited training, which counts towards your continuing professional development.
The Winch has an Employee Assistance Programme with Health Assured. This includes access to a wealth of services including counselling, legal information, bereavement support, medical information and CBT online. There is also access to a virtual library of wellbeing information.
We offer new employees 30 days holiday pro rata per year (including Bank Holidays and three day closure over Christmas) and the opportunity to join a contributory pension scheme.
How to apply?
Please apply by sending in a comprehensive CV (maximum 3 pages) and a personal statement outlining how you meet the person specification. Your personal statement must be no longer than 2 pages of A4, with a minimum font size 12. We will not consider applications that do not include a personal statement.
You will be asked to provide the names, positions, organisations and telephone contact numbers of two referees, one of whom should be your current/most recent employer. References will only be taken once your permission has been granted.
Please apply via charityjobs.org at the link below. The closing date is midnight on Sunday 26th April 2026. If you are shortlisted, interviews will be held on Friday 8th May 2026
If you would like to speak to someone about the role, contact soye@thewinch.org
Use of AI Statement
We accept that some applicants will use AI to help plan and submit their job applications. We ask that if you find it helpful to use AI, that you use it with care.
We are interested in your specific experiences, your perspectives and your personal potential to contribute to our work. Where it is apparent that your application is entirely written by AI, or that your application is simply a recycled composite of other people’s experiences or views, we may not consider it.
The Winch is primarily an ‘in place and in person’ community. We believe that young people deserve authentic supportive relationships, from people who try to be fully present and who can model and lead critical thinking. This is not a role that you can short cut your way through, by over-relying on ChatGPT, OpenAI or other such tools.
We are aware that AI can entrench, amplify and advance biases, prejudices and disinformation. An important part of our mission is to dismantle the structures, systems and beliefs that hold young people back. As a result, where you do use AI, we expect you to consider, engage with and actively manage these significant issues and risks and be transparent about your AI use.
It is never appropriate to upload people’s personal data or confidential information to open-to-all LLM/AI systems. Please do not use AI to create case studies based on young people’s individual experiences, which may compromise their privacy or consent.
