Young Women’s Practitioner
Rescue & Response
Can you reach and engage young women who are criminally exploited through county lines?
Can you respectfully work shoulder-to-shoulder with young women who have multiple needs and experiences of trauma and violence against women and girls?
Have you got what it takes to go the extra mile for young women and hold hope that life for them can be different?
Summary of the role
Abianda is a London-based social enterprise that works with young women affected by violence and criminal exploitation and the professionals who support them. We exist to ensure young women are no longer hidden in our communities and live free from harm and abuse. We aim to bring about a culture shift in the way services are delivered to young women and girls, so they can access support that works for them, when they need it.
This role is part of a team of five and involves delivering one-to-one sessions and advocacy support to young women and girls criminally exploited through county lines. You will work with a minimum of 16 highly vulnerable young women per year using Abianda’s unique model of practice. There is also the opportunity to deliver training to professionals on an ad-hoc basis, disseminating practice, knowledge and experience to a national audience for additional remuneration.
Details of the role
● Salary: £29,274 per annum, plus pension (reviewed annually)
● Full-time (35 hours per week)
● Fixed-term contract until 31 March 2024 (with hope to extend dependent on funding)
● 25 days holiday per year (plus 3 to be taken in Dec when the office is closed), plus bank holidays
● Hybrid working, with at least 2 days in the office (Highbury, London N5) and some working from home
● Reporting to the Service Manager – Rescue & Response
● We can offer flexible working arrangements
● Monthly clinical supervision with a skilled and experienced psychotherapist
● Abianda understands the importance of investing in staff and offers a training and development budget for all our employees
Job Description: Main responsibilities of the role
Work with young women ● Engage a minimum of 16 young women per year across London using Abianda’s unique model of practice; ● Deliver one-to-one, structured, solution-focused sessions to young women and girls up to the age of 25 who are affected by county lines, criminal exploitation and violence;
Abianda is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Registered company #: 08875988
Registered address: Unit 2K, Leroy House, 436 Essex Road, London, N1 3QP
● Support young women to achieve their best hopes and project outcomes, including but not exclusive to, young women being better connected to services and a professional network, with improved skills and confidence to navigate those networks; ● Demonstrate participatory practice, centring and amplifying young women’s voices and advocating for and with them in professional spaces and with service providers, often challenging power imbalances and decision making by other professionals; ● Manage and respond to risk, disclosure, safeguarding and child protection issues in the unique context of criminal exploitation and violence, while working as part of multi-disciplinary professional networks and drawing on contextual safeguarding approaches; ● Use Abianda and/or Rescue and Response case management systems to ensure there are accurate and up-to-date records of all work undertaken with or on behalf of young women and provide timely and accurate quarterly data and narrative reporting to the Service Manager – Rescue and Response.
Work with partners
● Be proactive in promoting both Abianda and Rescue and Response across London to support the identification and referral of girls and young women;
● Develop relationships with partner organisations, including specialist support providers (including Safer London and St Giles Trust as Rescue and Response delivery partners), to ensure that Abianda has a strong network to best support girls and young women with additional and complex needs;
● Engage with partner organisations to develop and enhance Abianda’s awareness of key issues affecting girls and young women;
● Represent Abianda at Rescue and Response and other forums to share good practice, identify themes, develop ideas and work collaboratively to improve outcomes for young people including girls and young women;
● Ad-hoc upskilling of partners through role modelling best practice when addressing specific issues arising when working with young women and girls;
● Deliver training and public speaking events to professionals on an ad-hoc basis, working alongside Abianda Consultants and Interns, disseminating practice knowledge and experience to a national audience.
Other responsibilities / tasks for all Abianda practitioners
Cross-organisational work
● Participate in whole team practice, case file sessions and team meetings;
● Involved in policy and strategy development days, ensuring a ‘bottom up’ approach to service and organisational design;
● Support internal communications by sharing information and feedback up and down the layers of the organisation’s hierarchy – ensuring that young women are informed and consulted.
Safeguarding and participation
● Hold up-to-date safeguarding knowledge in order to identify and respond promptly to emerging safeguarding issues as they arise;
● Where needed, work with the Participation Team to ensure that young women’s voices are embedded in the activities and developments of your service area;
Abianda is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Registered company #: 08875988
Registered address: Unit 2K, Leroy House, 436 Essex Road, London, N1 3QP
● Encourage a culture of equality, participation and excellence when responding to safeguarding issues and practice.
Monitoring and evaluation
● Maintain monitoring, evaluation and reporting requirements of the project, so that partner and funder questions are answered accurately and on time;
● Maintain accurate project case files in a timely fashion;
● Respond to quality assurance and progress monitoring requirements, contributing to Abianda’s quality assurance standards.
Line Management and Support
● Report to your line managing Service Manager across all aspects of your responsibilities;
● Participate in monthly supervision and quarterly professional development and performance reviews with your line manager;
● Engage in monthly clinical supervision to support wellbeing and a reflective practice.
Working in partnership
● Your professionalism will reflect the reputation and integrity of the organisation, and your conduct in all responsibilities will uphold Abianda’s policies and procedures;
● You will promote Abianda’s services, support the engagement of young women and girls in our services, and maintain relationships with partners and local professionals;
● You will work with multi-disciplinary and external partners to ensure young women are better connected to services;
● You will work in partnership with other Abianda Practitioners, being a source of peer support and shared learning.
Person Specification (please include how you demonstrate each point within your supporting statement)
Essential skills/experience
● Experience of one-to-one work with girls and young women with multiple needs and a history of facing barriers to engagement – perhaps you have worked with young women who have experienced violence against women and girls, mental ill-health, trauma and/or who perpetrate violence and crime;
● To have a working knowledge of local authority child protection procedures and contextual safeguarding and be able to attend and contribute to these processes effectively when required to do so;
● Experience in responding to risk, safeguarding and child protection issues in the unique context of county lines and criminal exploitation;
● Experience of advocating on behalf of young people and navigating statutory safeguarding and policing processes with the confidence to challenge other professionals and the tenacity to ensure young women’s voices are heard;
● A commitment to our equalities framework and an understanding of the intersectional nature of social identity and how this impacts staff and service users;
● A proactive nature, a willingness to ‘go the extra mile’, and a curiosity to understand the lives and experiences of young women;
● A willingness to take on Abianda’s unique model of practice to support the engagement of young women;
Abianda is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Registered company #: 08875988
Registered address: Unit 2K, Leroy House, 436 Essex Road, London, N1 3QP
● Excellent communication skills and organisation skills, so that you can maintain accurate case files on time;
● Open to travelling to different locations across London to meet and support young women;
● A strong values match with our principles – we believe that:
● Young women are experts on their own lives
● People affected by a problem are best placed to find the solutions
● Young women must participate in building solutions and influence the design and delivery of services
● If this is to happen traditional power hierarchies in service delivery must be overturned
● We have a fundamental belief in young women’s innate strengths, resources and competence.
Desirable skills/experience
● You will have a social work or JNC professional youth work qualification or equivalent;
● Experience of delivering training and/or public speaking events.
To apply please send your CV and a supporting statement (max. 1,000 words) detailing why you want to work for us and how you meet the skills and experiences listed in the person specification to [email protected]. If you would prefer, you can also submit your application via video or voice recording (no longer than 5 minutes.) Please also download and complete our equal opportunities form (this is optional).
Early applications are encouraged. Applications will be received and reviewed on a rolling basis. Deadline for completed applications is 11.59pm, Sunday 15 January. Interviews will be held on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January.
Abianda is a Disability Confident employer. A disabled candidate who meets all of the essential requirements of the role is guaranteed an interview.
If you need any recruitment information in another format to be more accessible to you, or would like to have an informal conversation about the role, please contact Sam at [email protected]. Sam is not on the recruitment panel and your conversation with them will not affect your application should you choose to apply.
All applicants are requested to complete a criminal record self-disclosure form at interview stage. We value and welcome the lived experience of our applicants and all disclosures will be fairly and sensitively reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Please note
o Due to the work we do, Abianda’s roles are subject to an Occupational Requirement on the grounds of the protected characteristic of sex. We are a women’s only employer, and as such this position is exempt under Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010. For the avoidance of doubt, all women including trans women are welcome to apply for and hold such roles, as are non-binary people if the applicant believes that their lived experience aligns with that of women and girls.
o We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community and from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds.
o We encourage applications from people from all walks of life, including those who may have had exposure to similar experiences that young women across London are facing including experience of the criminal justice system.
o Applications are anonymised before they are shared with the recruitment panel to reduce any unconscious bias.

https://www.abianda.com/work-with-us