Lived Experience and Engagement Worker (23744)

Company

Barnardo's

Location

Leeds

Employment Hours

New Jobs

Employment Type

Permanent

Salary

£11,474.80 - £28,687.00 a year

Job Highlights

Lead the support and engagement for children and young people, utilising lived experiences to enhance service development and community understanding.
The ideal candidate will possess strong communication skills, an understanding of autism and learning disabilities, and a passion for helping others.
The role is part-time at 14.8 hours per week, scheduled over 2 days, based in Leeds with potential for impactful community engagement.

Job Requirements/Description

Make a Difference in Your Community

West Yorkshire Keyworker Service

Barnardo's is proud to lead the delivery of Keyworker provision across West Yorkshire.

Incredible things happen when we believe in children

The West Yorkshire Keyworker Service offers non-clinical support for children and young people (up to the age of 25) who have a learning disability and/or who are autistic and are supported by the Dynamic Support Register. Support is also offered for their families/carers. This includes those who are currently in mental health inpatient settings or are at risk of admission and those at risk of family and residential placement breakdown.

We provide a wide range of high-quality, locally designed services for families in Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield.

Our commitment is to create strong, resilient children, young people and young adults, supported by cross sector services, their families and friends within their local communities.

The values of our Keyworker Team are paramount; person centred, non-judgemental, creative and passionate about supporting children, young people, and their families.

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and is an important part of all the work we undertake.

About the Role

We are looking to recruit a Lived Experience and Engagement Worker who will lead supporting and capturing lived experience and engagement. The role is 14.8 hours per week and would be worked over 2 days per week.

You will be part of the Lived Experience and Engagement Team. Lived experience and learning is fed into ongoing service development and shared on a local level with service and area leads and at regional and national strategic levels.

This role will be embedded in the Keyworker Team to work closely with, co-design, engage and consult with autistic and/or learning-disabled young people and their families.

We recognise from our work with families that having a young person on the Dynamic Support Register (DSR) can be an anxious and isolating experience and the need for support and contact with other parents and carers in a similar position is valuable. You will empower parent carers and young people to share their experiences, share their learning and reduce isolation. This will be in a variety of ways, including drop-in sessions, virtual appointments and 1:1 home visit, where appropriate.

You will have experience of being the parent/carer of a child or young person with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)/autism and/or learning disability or experience of working with families of children or young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. It is essential to have a high level of computer literacy, proficiency in the use of MS Office applications, note taking and video conferencing (e.g. Teams).

As our Lived Experience and Engagement Worker you will have excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to present complex information in an accessible manner for a variety of audiences, a non-judgemental attitude which makes you approachale and compassionate towards working with families and young people in crisis.

Barnardo's is taking a ‘work from anywhere' working approach meaning a blend of, community, office and home working.

Access to a vehicle for work is essential in this role.

For an informal discussion, please contact Cheryl Shaw – Lived Experience and Engagement Lead at Cheryl.shaw@barnardos.org.uk

Interview date is Thursday 22nd October 2026, please ensure you are available on this date.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible

Pay & Reward Framework

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values

Reference number:

23744
Job Title:

Lived Experience and Engagement Worker
Location:

Leeds
Locality:

Three Yorks
Contract type:

Permanent
Hours:

14.8
Salary:

£28,687 FTE (£11,474.80 actual)
Closing Date:

13 October 2026
Interview Date:

Thursday 22 October 2026