London Borough of Waltham Forest
**INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY** Engagement and Participation Officer
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London Borough of Waltham Forest
Salary: SO2 £40,182 - £42,060
Contract Type: Full-time/ Permanent
Working hours per week: 36 hours per week
Application Deadline: 20/09/2026
Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC
Reference: 2324
INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY
About Us
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.
We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.
London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.
About the Role
This is an exciting opportunity to work within the Virtual School. The purpose of this role is to help drive the best possible experiences and outcomes for children whose lived experiences and family circumstances have made it much harder for them to fulfil their potential and thrive. This newly created post will have a particular focus on engagement and participation for care experienced children.
This front facing position will work directly with children and young people that are working with childrens social care to understand their experiences and ensure their voices are heard. The role will develop and maintain various activities and services for young people; this includes leading events, workshops, group work and forums like the children in care council.
This role will involve being a champion for inclusion in education and equitable support for vulnerable children, working with schools, social workers, foster carers and many others to ensure that everyone understands the challenges that our children and young people face, and intervening through direct intervention, meetings, training and wider activities in pursuit of that goal.
Click here to download the Role Profile
Key Responsibilities
- To contribute to development and maintaining the programme of participation events and activities for children and young people of all ages that experience Childrens services.
- To contribute to enabling young people to share their views and participating in consultations and co-production of council services.
- To lead on specific areas of work in preparing children and young people for independence.
- To effectively communicate with service users, carers and professionals.
- To embed diversity, equity and inclusion across Children’s Services, ensuring that every child and young person, especially those who may be harder to reach or at greater risk of exclusion, is seen, heard and supported.
- To organise, promote and deliver the participation and engagement opportunities to children and young people.
- To support the Virtual School Team in working with children and young people who are not engaging with the service.
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Qualifications and Requirements
To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:
- Numeracy and literacy qualification e.g. GCSE English and Maths or equivalent.
- Relevant professional qualification.
Terms and Conditions
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
- Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
- Satisfactory declaration of interest;
- This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/or vulnerable adults;
- Satisfactory DBS check.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Emma Austin, Assistant Head Virtual School, at emma.austin@walthamforest.gov.uk.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace.
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The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives:
- Promoting equality of opportunity
- Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage
- Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels.
- Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all.
Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Fraud Awareness Notice
The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).
We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.
If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.
If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to: fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk
[Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.](Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.)
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