Change Lead for Diversion

Salary : £5 2 , 7 00 per annum, depending on experience

Location: Central London or Hybrid (see below)

Contract: (2-year fixed term - potential to extend)

Closing date for applications: 12pm Monday 12 th January 2026

Interview dates: Week commencing 26 th January 2026

About the Youth Endowment Fund

We're here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children becoming involved in violence. Our mission is to find what works and build a movement to put it into practice. A big part of the movement that we need to build is in the world of youth justice. We need to inspire and connect with youth justice leaders across England and Wales to spread what works and make our country safer for some of our most vulnerable children. We are looking for someone to lead on making this happen.

Key Responsibilities

We are making good progress building the evidence of what works within and around youth justice to reduce violence. This year, in conjunction with the Centre for Justice Innovation, we published Diversion Practice Guidance and have recently launched our new self evaluation tool for diversion practice (ORPIC). But the big risk is that we publish these resources and nothing changes. That's where you come in.

Your role is to work out the best way to make this change happen by getting youth justice services (YJSs) and police forces to adopt evidence based practice through our new change programme: the Whole Area Model (WAM). WAM helps police forces and youth justice services strengthen diversion practices by aligning their work with the 7 C's:

• Contact - Interactions are trauma informed and maximise prevention and safeguarding opportunities

Support the delivery of the Whole Area Model through activities such as:

• Facilitating completions of diversion self evaluations with youth justice services and police forces.
• Delivering training to youth justice, police and other relevant agencies about the evidence base or specific areas of diversionary practice and governance (e.g. scrutiny panels).
• Supporting the ongoing development of a National Diversion Network, which will contribute to a wider repository of diversion resources and evidence.

As a senior member of staff in the organisation you also:

You must have this sort of experience:

• You are fascinated about change and are experienced in making it happen. You have outstanding analytical judgment alongside the emotional intelligence and experience needed to identify the right opportunities for change, then make them happen. You understand why people find change difficult. You come alive talking about how people make decisions and why they do the things they do.
• You understand the youth justice sector and diversion specifically. You really understand how the youth justice sector works, from leaders to frontline officers.
• You write in a way that people easily understand. You have that rare skill of writing in plain English. You have experience of translating complex information into plain writing that everyone can understand.
• You have excellent project and time management skills and the ability to design and deliver high quality outputs such as reports and digital resources to a high standard.
• You win people over. People tend to warm to you and respect you. You have built good relationships with very senior people and with very junior people. You are good at chairing meetings, connecting people and having good introductory meetings. You are comfortable talking to a government minister, a youth worker, a company CEO, a teacher and a 15 year old student. Listening to people from all backgrounds matters to you.
• You learn fast but remain humble. You are very quick at getting your head around things. You like learning. You are very good at synthesising information. You know how much you don't know. You know that you can learn more. You know that it's easy to assume you know when you don't. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You are a great and supportive team player.
• You don't want your days to pass without making a difference. You want to play a significant part in reducing violence.
• You understand young people. You understand what the lives of vulnerable young people can be like, and you understand some of the organisations that work with them, ideally through first hand experience.
• You are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Hybrid Working

Please Note: We do not sponsor work permits and you will be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK.

Benefits Include

• £1,000 professional development budget annually
• Employee Assistance Programme - 24hr phone line for free confidential support
• Volunteering days - 4 half days per year
• Death in service - 4 times annual salary
• Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am - 4pm
• Financial support including travel and hardship loans
• Employer contributed pension of 5%

You've changed frontline practice and/or systems. You're working in or around the youth justice service. You work well in multi agency environments.