Head of Youth Work
The Head of Youth Work holds overall responsibility for the development and delivery of Providence House Youth Club’s youth work programmes, working with young people aged 8 to 19 from disadvantaged backgrounds across Battersea. As our foundational senior delivery hire, they will lead the delivery departments of universal youth work, girls work, sports programmes, detached and outreach work, school programmes and community mentoring.
Role purpose
The postholder is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and acts as Deputy Safeguarding Lead. They will be hands-on: delivering youth club sessions, residentials and trips alongside the team, while ensuring Providence House remains a fun, supportive, safe and inclusive place that attracts and retains young people, raises their aspirations, and journeys alongside them for the long term.
Context of the post
Rooted in Battersea since 1963, Providence House Youth Club journeys alongside young Londoners from disadvantaged backgrounds across every stage of adolescence. From after-school clubs to youth leadership to employment, our enrichment, mentoring and community engagement work breaks the link between disadvantage and destiny, because lasting change is built on long-term relationships. Our building at 138 Falcon Road is, for many of our young people, the safest and warmest place they know. Parents who came to Providence House twenty years ago now bring their grandchildren; we are part of family stories. Our Christian foundation, our roots in Battersea and our sixty-year track record with young people and families are core to who we are.
Providence House is entering an ambitious phase. Our 2026 to 2029 strategy commits us to growing from a small, stretched organisation into a small, professional one: reaching 150 young people every week through eight interconnected delivery strands; universal youth work (including a girls-only club), one-to-one mentoring, schools work focused on exclusion reduction, community football, youth voice, residentials at East Shallowford Farm in Devon, and a new detached and outreach programme. Every session includes a free hot meal, often the most reliable meal of a young person’s day. Regular youth club attendance has already risen from an average of 12 to 35 per session; the club is full, the atmosphere is alive, and word is travelling.
This is a chance to be part of something that has the potential to be great. Sixty years of trust in Battersea, a thriving and growing club, new funders backing our model, a refreshed building drawing fresh engagement, and a bold three-year strategy behind it with all the foundations laid, and we are only getting started. The Head of Youth Work will not inherit a finished organisation; they will help build one, shaping what Providence House becomes over the next decade.
Duties and responsibilities
Leadership and team management
- To manage the delivery departments and team, including the Mentoring Practitioner and Girls Participation Lead, alongside sessional workers and volunteers, supporting and coaching them to achieve their full potential.
- To serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, delivering a focused, measurable contribution to Providence House’s 2026 to 2029 strategy and reporting on programme KPIs, risks and milestones to the CEO and Board of Trustees.
- To recruit, induct, develop and retain a high-quality, motivated team of staff, sessional workers and volunteers, building the expanded volunteer base our growth depends on.
- To hold monthly supervision with all direct reports, tracked through supervision logs, and to conduct annual performance reviews against clear role descriptions.
- To be a role model for both the team and young people, presenting a positive, can-do attitude and embodying our values: Excellence, Young People Focused, Christ the Cornerstone, Above and Beyond, United Effort, and Aspiration.
Safeguarding
- To act as Deputy Safeguarding Lead, supporting the Designated Safeguarding Lead in handling concerns, referrals and record-keeping, and deputising in their absence.
- To embed a strong safeguarding culture across all delivery, including building-based, detached and outreach, and residential settings, ensuring lone-worker protocols, dynamic risk assessments and outreach-specific safeguarding practice are in place and followed.
- To support the annual external safeguarding audit and lead on implementing any resulting actions across the delivery team.
- To comply with, and ensure the team complies with, all policies and procedures, with particular reference to safeguarding, codes of conduct, health and safety, and equality and diversity, ensuring all activities are accessible and inclusive.
Delivery
- To personally deliver youth club sessions, residentials and trips, including our two-weekly open-access sessions, and the three annual residential and family trips to East Shallowford Farm in Devon, with wraparound preparation beforehand and debrief and follow-up afterwards.
- Through the delivery team, to programme and structure effectively and safely a vibrant, inclusive weekly delivery offer.
- To oversee the mentoring programme, supporting quarterly case reviews and building the trained volunteer mentor base.
- To manage our schools’ partnerships, supporting exclusion-reduction mentoring and developing new school relationships.
- To oversee community football, and detached and outreach delivery, ensuring conversations on the pitch and on the street convert into progression pathways into the youth club, mentoring and schools work.
- To support the launch readiness of the employability strand (AI and digital skills, and farm-based pathways), working with the CEO on feasibility and partnerships ahead of a 2027/28 launch.
- To ensure that young people and their ideas contribute fully to the planning and delivery of all activities, working closely with the Youth Advisory Group and developing the junior peer-leader programme.
- To ensure standards of behaviour within the club are maintained and that the building remains welcoming, fit for purpose and young-people-first, communicating issues promptly to the support team.
Quality, impact and resources
- To ensure overall and programme participation targets are consistently met, including attendance targets and outcome targets for funded projects, and to embed the Upshot impact measurement system across every session, mentoring relationship and schools intervention.
- To champion evidence-based practice: capturing outputs and outcomes at the point of delivery, contributing to quarterly internal reporting and the published annual impact report, and using data to drive programme decisions.
- To manage delegated programme budgets as required, operating within Providence House’s financial controls.
- To work with the CEO and our external fundraising partner to sustain restricted-funded delivery strands, contributing programme evidence to grant applications and funder reports, and supporting continuity planning where funding is time-limited.
- To develop relationships and partnerships across Battersea and Wandsworth, including schools, faith and community partners, the local authority and police community teams, exploring areas for joint working where appropriate.
- To represent Providence House positively and effectively in all dealings with internal colleagues and external partners, protecting and promoting our brand and reputation.
- To carry out any other reasonable duties as requested by the Chief Executive Officer.
What will success look like?
The successful candidate, in the first 12 months, will have:
- Grown universal youth club attendance to an average of 100+ young people per week, with the girls-only club operational and retaining 80 per cent of its members.
- Developed and led the delivery team, both individually and as a team, to perform to an exceptional standard, with all staff receiving monthly supervision and zero unplanned departures.
- Delivered three well-attended residential trips to East Shallowford Farm.
- Grown active mentoring relationships to 15+, with outcome data captured on every relationship through Upshot.
- Maintained both school partnerships, with at least one new school in active conversation for onboarding.
- Embedded Upshot data capture across all delivery strands, so that every staff member is competent on the platform and impact reporting is data-driven, not anecdotal.
- Established themselves as a trusted Deputy Safeguarding Lead, with the annual external safeguarding audit completed with no critical findings.
- Built an expanded team of trained volunteers and sessional workers, with clear pathways for young people to progress into paid sessional and training roles.
Person specification
Selection criteria: A = Application Form, I = Interview, T = Assessment Task
Experience
- Substantial experience of delivering high-quality, open-access youth workEssentialA & I
- Significant experience of managing staff, sessional workers and volunteersEssentialA & I
- Substantial experience of leading and managing activities, including trips and residentialsEssentialA & I
- A track record of successful project management and working through a team to deliver resultsEssentialA, I & T
- Experience of safeguarding responsibility, ideally as a Designated or Deputy Safeguarding LeadEssentialA & I
- Experience of managing budgetsEssentialA & I
- Experience of impact measurement and working with monitoring and evaluation systems (e.g. Upshot)DesirableA & I
- A track record of working with external funders and delivering funded outcomesDesirableA & I
- Experience of targeted youth workDesirableA & I
Educational and vocational qualifications
- Educated to degree level in a relevant subject, or equivalent experienceDesirableA
- GCSE or equivalent literacy and numeracyDesirableA
- A professional youth work qualification (JNC or equivalent)DesirableA
- Safeguarding training (e.g. Designated Safeguarding Lead training) and First AidDesirableA
Skills and personal qualities
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with strong relationship-building, negotiation and interpersonal skillsEssentialA, I & T
- Ability to relate to young people from all backgrounds and to be non-judgemental and open-mindedEssentialA & I
- Effective people management and coaching skills; able to both lead a team and work as a team memberEssentialA & I
- Self-motivated and able to work to multiple deadlines, remaining calm under pressureEssentialA & I
- Strong organisational skills, with a structured approach and the ability to be flexible and responsive with a focus on resultsEssentialA & I
- Ability to care about and be sensitive to individuals and the community, with a genuine commitment to the young people of BatterseaEssentialA & I
- Flexible to meet the needs of young people, including regular evening and weekend work and residential tripsEssentialA & I
- Sympathy with the Christian foundation, ethos and values of Providence HouseEssentialA & I
Remuneration package
- Salary
- £30,000 - £35,000 per annum, dependent on experience
- Holidays
- 36 days per annum, inclusive of bank holidays and 3 days over Christmas when the club is closed
- Flexible working
- Three days in the office, two days from home
- Pension
- Workplace pension scheme, 3 per cent
- Development
- Ongoing training, monthly supervision and a clear commitment to career development
Why should you apply?
The strength of Providence House is its people and its community. We place huge value on different people doing things in different ways, and we welcome applications from what might be considered non-traditional backgrounds. The one thing we all have in common is our desire to journey alongside the young people of Battersea and raise their aspirations. If you want to be part of something with the potential to be truly great at the very moment it begins to grow, we would love to hear from you.
Providence House Youth Club is committed to the safeguarding of children and young people. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and safer recruitment procedures. Involvement of our Youth Advisory Group in the recruitment process should be expected; young people have real input into senior appointments at Providence House.
How to apply
To apply, please complete an application form with a supporting statement, no more than two pages, and send it to Jerome Hughes, Chief Executive Officer, at jerome.hughes@providence-house.org.
Your supporting statement should explain why you want to work with the young people of Battersea and how your experience matches the role and person specification.
Closing date: Sunday 6 September 2026 (23:30).
Please note, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we reserve the right to close this vacancy early if a successful candidate is found. Early applications are strongly encouraged.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview and assessment task, which will include meeting members of our Youth Advisory Group. The appointment is subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references, and our safer recruitment procedures.
If you would like an informal conversation about the role before applying, you are welcome to get in touch at the same address.
To apply, send an application form and a supporting statement of no more than two pages to Jerome Hughes, Chief Executive Officer:
Apply Nowjerome.hughes@providence-house.org
Salary
£30,000 - £35,000 per annum
Contract
Fixed term, 12 months (extension possible)
Hours
Full time, 37.5 hours per week, including regular evening and weekend work and residential trips
Location
138 Falcon Road, Battersea, London, SW11 2LW
Reporting to
Chief Executive Officer
Direct reports
Mentoring Practitioner, Girls Participation Lead, Sessional Workers and Volunteers
Closing date
Sunday, 6 September 2026
To apply, send an application form and a supporting statement of no more than two pages to Jerome Hughes, Chief Executive Officer:
Apply Nowjerome.hughes@providence-house.org