SY-Witness Care Officer
Role: Witness Care Officer
Department: Criminal Justice Unit
Location: Snig Hill, Sheffield
Salary: £24, 222 - £26,106
Hours: 37, 34.5 & 27
Contract Type: Temporary until 31st March 2026
As a Witness Care Officer you will be responsible for witness care to assure delivery of service defined under ‘No Witness No Justice’ programme.
We have 3 positions available 1 full time position (37 hours) and 2 part-time positions (34.5 hours & 27 hours).
Key responsibilities:
- Act as single contact reference with witnesses from point of charge to case conclusion.
- Determine and maintain the up-to-date status of all witness availability and provide to court and CPS.
- Conduct witness needs assessments for victims/witnesses.
- Obtain and document contact with all witnesses, acknowledgment of attendance, ensuring that any needs are met, to legislative compliance and assuring effective case progression.
- Alert witnesses to requirements for court hearing attendance and to outcome.
- Finalise cases.
- Interrogate, maintain and retrieve data/information.
Skills and experience:
- Experience of communication by a variety of means, including telephone and keyboard skills.
- Flexibility to work at other locations and within specified time frames, and also to cover Saturdays and Bank Holiday courts on a ROTA basis if required.
- Experience of interrogating/maintaining and retrieving data/information using various computer and manual recording packages.
- Ability to remain calm under pressure when dealing with internal and external customers.
Skills and experience as documented in the role profile need to be evidenced in your application to be considered for interview
For more detailed information relating to the role, skills and experience for this role, please click here to view the role profile
What we offer:
We offer generous entitlements and supportive policies to enable a better work-life balance, some of which are listed below:
- A highly competitive salary and access to a generous pension scheme
- Generous annual leave allowance
- A wide range of family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
- Flexible working arrangements including flexi-time and hybrid working
- A transparent and collaborative team culture underpinned by our core values of Fairness, Integrity & Trust
- Comprehensive range of development and leadership courses to develop your career with South Yorkshire Police
- Employee Assistant Programme (accessible 24/7) offering confidential support and advice
- Flexible lifestyle benefits such as: Blue Light Card, Company Shop, Cycle to work scheme
- Committed to embedding sustainability: South Yorkshire Police Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025 (yhrn.police)
- Membership to the Sports and Social Club
- Access to a wide range of staff support groups and networks
Eligibility:
Applicants must meet the minimum requirement checkable history criteria, which must be taken into account for individuals applying to work with South Yorkshire Police in any capacity. A minimum checkable history of 5 years is required for this role and successfully undergoing recruitment vetting procedure is a pre-requisite of employment with South Yorkshire Police.
Appearance & Standards:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to striking a proportionate balance between self-expression and the need to maintain role sensitive professional standards in dress and appearance. Officers, staff, and volunteers of South Yorkshire Police are permitted to have tattoos visible whilst on duty provided the tattoo is not considered to be unacceptable or otherwise inappropriate. Tattoos will be reviewed as part of the recruitment and selection process.
Smarter ways of Working:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to developing working practices which assist staff to balance their personal and professional lives, whilst meeting the needs of the organisation. This in turn enables South Yorkshire Police to provide an outstanding service to the community.
There are 3 different categories as part of this which are: Fixed, Field and Hybrid.
This role has been evaluated as a hybrid role.
Hybrid: Applicable when the work can be undertaken at any location, whether that be a SYP building or from home.
South Yorkshire Police’s Key Values:
At South Yorkshire Police we have 3 key values which run through everything we do Fairness, Integrity & Trust, the attached document details the key behaviours we expect all employees to adhere to.
Contact details:
For further information about the role, please contact: Catherine Broughton on 0114 2964113/07905 143111
Closing Date: 25th February 2025
Closing dates are not normally extended, other than in exceptional circumstances and agreement is made between the Talent Acquisition Manager and the Line Manager for the role.
How to apply:
Please click ‘Apply’
Candidate Information:
Please note that, should you be successful at the interview stage and before appointment, the relevant pre-employment checks are required. These include references, medical clearance, vetting clearance and sickness absence criteria check.
Diversity & Inclusion:
Applications are particularly welcome from female and ethnic minority candidates.
It is really important to us that the department represents the community we serve, in order for us to provide the best service, utilising a range of backgrounds, experience and skills. We support and value all officers and staff and the unique experiences they bring to the role. We strongly encourage and welcome applications from these valuable underrepresented groups.
If you are from an underrepresented group and want to find out more about the support we can offer, please contact our dedicated team on positiveaction@southyorks.pnn.police.uk
In addition, we will look to support anyone who requires Part Time/Job share working hours.
Internal Candidates:
This vacancy is temporary therefore, you must have the support of your current Line Manager to apply. If you are a permanent member of staff, this would be classed as a secondment opportunity. If you are on a fixed term contract, you must contact the Talent Acquisition Team before applying.
Please ensure that you and your current line manager complete the attached consent form. Please email the completed form to the hiring line manager, with the role title and the closing date stated in the subject of your email.
Without support, your application will not be considered any further.
The decision to make all adverts temporary for a fixed term of 12 months is due to the financial position. As the financial position becomes clearer, it may be that we can make some of these posts permanent without the need to run a second recruitment process, equally they could be ended sooner than the 12 months.
Documents to Review:
For the Police Staff Recruitment Vetting Handbook - Please Click here
For Application Guidance and Tips - Please Click Here
For the FIT Values of South Yorkshire Police - Please Click Here
For Secondment Approval - Please Click Here