Violence Reduction Service Manager

Belong is an award-winning charity with a vision of hope, rehabilitation and recovery for perpetrators and survivors of crime. We work with our beneficiaries and multiple stakeholder organisations to develop a more humane and effective criminal justice system. Through engaging with our mentoring, restorative justice, psychotherapy and training interventions, individuals and communities achieve positive, lasting change.

We need a reliable, organised, resilient and energetic manager to join our committed, specialist team. The successful applicant will have over three years’ experience of facilitating interventions in prisons or a related area. They will lead and support the delivery of group and one-to-one structured behavioural change interventions to men aged 18 to 30 years old, serving sentences at HMPYOI Feltham, who present with a risk of violent reoffending. In addition, they will provide reports to funders and Belong’s senior leadership team on the effectiveness and impact of interventions delivered.

We particularly welcome applications from people from Global Majority ethnicities, with lived experience of the criminal justice system, and/or with current enhanced prison security vetting.

The successful applicant will empower and support our Psychotherapist to engage participants in interventions using verbal and non-verbal, creative techniques such as movement, visual arts, creative writing and drama. They will build excellent working relationships with participants and other teams in the prison, showing a high level of professionalism along with the ability to multitask, overcome challenges and plan ahead. With knowledge and experience of delivering trauma informed, psycho-educational, strengths-based approaches, the successful applicant will ensure risk and safeguarding issues are dealt with appropriately. They will proactively facilitate regular reflective practice and line management sessions, as well as engaging consistently in their own clinical supervision and line management.

Please apply for this role by sending your CV and a detailed covering letter explaining how you meet the essential requirements for this position, by Friday 21st February at 11.30pm. Please note that we will not be able to consider applications sent without covering letters.

Place of work: HMPYOI Feltham, with monthly travel to Central London.

Hours of work: Full time (35 hours per week) worked Monday to Friday

Pay scale: £41,800 per annum FTE, on an initial one-year contract with potential for renewal subject to available funding and excellent performance.

Reports to: Head of Programmes/CEO

Vetting Required: Enhanced DBS and Prison Security

Annual leave and benefits:

• 28 days paid holiday per year, plus Bank Holidays
• 3 days fully funded training leave per year
• Fully funded fortnightly Clinical Supervision
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Stakeholder Relationships

• Build excellent working relationships and communicate effectively with programme participants, other members of Belong’s team, and with members of prison and probation teams.
• Actively participate in internal and external meetings e.g. team meetings, line management meetings, clinical supervision meetings, programme reviews with participants, safer custody, reducing reoffending meetings, including leading meetings when appropriate.

Programme Publicity

• Develop resources and materials to promote and publicise the behavioural change interventions, to ensure that the interventions are accessible to men who are at risk of violent reoffending.
• Publicise the behavioural change programme and its potential benefits, to men serving sentences in Feltham, as well as to prison staff.

Programme Management

• Empower and support the behavioural change psychotherapist to facilitate semi-structured group and one-to-one behavioural change interventions over 14 weeks, for men who present with a risk of violent reoffending, including co-facilitating sessions where appropriate.
• Ensure that interventions are targeted towards enabling men to improve their wellbeing and tackle issues related to violent behaviour e.g. relationship problems, gang affiliation, substance misuse issues, adverse childhood experiences and racial trauma.
• Analyse complex, sensitive and potentially disturbing information from prison databases to undertake dynamic risk and needs assessments regarding the delivery of behavioural change interventions, on a case-by-case basis.
• Champion and adhere to Belong’s Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics and all Belong’s policies and procedures, including those on Safeguarding, Anti – Corruption, Anti – Bribery, Complaints and Comments, Confidentiality and Single Equality.

Recording and Reporting

• Ensure that detailed, accurate and high-quality records of interventions are maintained, and that risk and safeguarding information is appropriately shared disclosed to other agencies, in accordance with Belong guidelines and standards.
• Collect, collate and analyse information on the effectiveness and impact of interventions, producing high quality monitoring and evaluation reports for Belong and programme funders.
• Undertake any other duties as may be appropriate to the level and nature of the post.

Essential Qualifications, Experience and Knowledge

• Knowledge and understanding of psychological principles, trauma informed approaches and psychotherapeutic interventions.
• Understanding of the intersecting disadvantages that may be faced by men serving prison sentences, such as substance misuse problems, trauma histories, mental health diagnoses, poor literacy and numeracy, gang affiliation.
• Minimum one years’ experience of line managing, training and/or supporting colleagues.
• At least three years’ experience of delivering rehabilitative interventions in prisons or a related area.
• Experience of using Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Experience of liaising confidently and professionally with a range of stakeholders at different levels of seniority and from diverse backgrounds.
• Strong awareness of appropriate boundaries to be maintained and of personal safety considerations whilst working in prisons.
• A strong understanding of the principles of confidentiality and of instances when this should be breached.

Essential Skills and Abilities

• Ability to line manage and support team members in a collaborative and empowering manner, enabling them to achieve programme objectives and effectively deliver interventions.
• Ability to develop excellent working relationships with other professionals and with men serving prison sentences who present with risks of violent reoffending.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organisational, multi-tasking and team working skills.
• Ability to maintain appropriate boundaries with participants and manage personal safety whilst working in prisons.
• Proficiency in using Microsoft Office packages including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Ability to consider and respond to participants psychological, non-verbal and symbolic expression as meaningful communications where appropriate.

Desirable Knowledge and Experience

• Understanding of the specific issues faced by people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Backgrounds in contact with the criminal justice system.
• Ability to be attune to and process transference and countertransference feelings and work with emotional projections from individuals.
• Knowledge and experience of the charity sector.
• Knowledge and experience of using design and publicity software such as Canva, MailChimp.

Desirable Skills and Abilities

• Creative skills in assisting with the design of publicity materials and planning content for newsletters and social media posts.