Youth Worker - Social Prescriber - Dorset

Role Terms

• Salary: Band C - £26,167 to £28,031 (FTE, pro rata for part time)
• Hours: 37 hours per week, Monday Friday
• Role type: Permanent
• Place of work: Dorset Hospitals (1 day), Hybrid Remote Working (4 days) and No Limits Head Office (Southampton - for training/monthly meeting)
• Role screening: Enhanced DBS - Child and Adult Barred List
• Essential driver? Yes
• Closing date: 9am, Wednesday 22nd July 2026 (We reserve the right to close this advert early if sufficient applications are received)
• Interview date: Monday 27th July 2026

Job Description

Are you passionate about helping to make a difference to children and young people? We're looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Youth Worker to join us at No Limits, the leading youth services charity in Southampton, supporting children and young people in the city and across Hampshire.

The No Limits Emergency Department and Social Prescribing team works across seven main hospitals in Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Basingstoke, The Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and Poole. We are currently looking for a full time Youth Worker to join the Dorset team as a community based Social Prescriber.

Our Charity

No Limits is the leading youth services charity in Southampton, supporting children and young people in the city and across Hampshire.

At No Limits, it is important our staff and volunteers reflect, represent, and have experience of the challenges faced by the children and young people we support. We are proud of and appreciate our many staff and volunteers who use their own lived experience to support the children and young people they work with.

With this in mind, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in all aspects of our work and organisational culture - and when recruiting, it's important to us that we continue diversifying our staff and volunteer teams, with children and young people at the centre of everything we do.

We value the transferrable skills and experiences you can bring to No Limits, whether through work, volunteering, or personal experiences. To make sure we get the best talent on our team, we are open to and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and sections of the community, including diverse ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodiverse individuals.

Your Role

Our growing team of Youth Workers are caring, collaborative and courageous professionals, committed to empowering children and young people to achieve positive changes in their lives. Our unique service delivery model aims to support all children and young people who have attended ED in crisis, whether that is through violent crime, substance use or mental health crisis.

The successful applicant will provide direct support to children and young people aged years by helping them to connect with specialist support and other community services through 1 2 1 Social Prescribing and brief interventions. A passion for supporting children and young people, strong communication skills and experience working with children and young people aged years are essential.

As a Youth Worker - Social Prescriber - Dorset, you will provide information, advice and guidance to children, young people and their families who previously attended the emergency department and were identified as requiring ongoing support from No Limits upon discharge. Community based social prescribing will be optimised to help the young person connect with ongoing support over a set period of time.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Engage and build relationships with any children and young people who may need advice and support to avoid further hospital admissions.
• Work closely with the No Limits Emergency Department (ED) youth workers to support their frequent attenders and to build an integrated pathway for children and young people's crisis care in the community.
• Work with the young person to provide appropriate support and advice as well as signposting and referring into community based interventions around the issues that brought them to ED, including mental health, self harm, overdose, substance misuse, being a perpetrator or victim of crime or engaging in risk taking behaviour.
• Working within the YIACS model address the wider practical and social issues that may be affecting a young person's wellbeing such as relationships, healthy behaviours, sexual health, housing, benefits, attendance and attainment in education.
• Provide a No Limits triage service for children and young people who have been referred into the service.
• Use appropriate tools to measure children and young people's wellbeing at set points along their journey with No Limits.
• Use this data along with feedback and observation to evidence the impact of interventions.
• With the Operations Manager, develop and maintain a Directory of Services and key relationships with partner agencies in the local area to ensure provision is seamless across Dorset.
• Provide quality up to date information, advice and support that promotes healthy lifestyles and supports young people's personal and social development.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people is paramount. We particularly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and those who have had experiences similar to the young people we aim to support.

You'll have the essentials of:

• Build trusting and supportive relationships with children and young people.
• Respect and promote children and young people's rights to make their own decisions and choices.
• Be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You may also have:

• Experience working with children and young people aged years and/or a minimum Level 3 (or equivalent) youth work or other relevant qualification.
• Effective communication, organisational and time management skills.
• Confidence and ability to use Microsoft apps, such as Word, Teams and Excel, and databases.
• Working proactively and collaboratively with others; reflecting creativity, adaptability and bringing positivity and enthusiasm to your work.
• Commitment to personal growth, and ongoing learning and development.

Our Benefits

• 36 days annual leave (including public holidays).
• Two additional wellbeing days per year.
• Pension scheme - matching additional pension contributions up to 2 %.
• Life assurance scheme - 2 annual salary cover for pension members.
• Hybrid and flexible working.
• Comprehensive induction and training offer, including an online learning management system.
• Employee Assistance Programme providing counselling, financial, personal support and health and wellbeing services.