Victim & Witness Care Officer (Ashford)

Location of Role: Ashford

Advert Closing Date: 30/07/2025

Starting Salary: £26,385.00 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)

Part/Full Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Secondment/fixed-term

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri

Weekend/Evening Working: No

The main role will include making and maintaining contact with victims and witnesses at key stages of the case, as it progresses through the Court System. You will ensure that Police and Civilian witnesses will attend court to give their best evidence at the trial date, to support effective prosecutions. The Victim & Witness Care Officer is required to fully comply with the statutory requirements of the Victims Code of Practice, along with the principles of No Witness No Justice and the requirements of the Witness Charter.

Main Responsibilities

Manage your own caseload in a home-based working environment and the requirements for victims and witnesses to attend court. Completing a detailed Needs Assessment and ensuring all information is recorded accurately.
Ensuring appropriate support is offered and applied for, including travel, accommodation, Special Measures and Restorative Justice Referrals.
Deal with queries and issues from victims and witnesses ensuring Victims Code compliance is adhered to.
Manage extra caseloads for colleagues due to absence.
Deal with queries and issues from other agencies such as CPS, Courts, Police Officers and other victim/witness support partners. Providing advice and guidance as appropriate and in accordance with Force Policy surrounding Data Protection.
Work in accordance of the Witness Care Unit process timelines, CPS target dates and other Service Level Agreement timeframes. Maintaining regular contact with and passing on when relevant, witness information to the appropriate agencies.
Maintain a working knowledge of current policies surrounding victim and witness care, engaging with all training required as directed by the Witness Care Unit.

In this role you will manage your own workload daily, maintaining a proactive approach to the work and react accordingly to urgent requests that may arise. You should possess strong communication skills, both written and verbal. These will need to be flexibly applied to handle a variety of situations including dealing with all types of witnesses from all walks of life, who may present as angry, abusive, vulnerable and reluctant and can be very frustrated with the Criminal Justice System.

The Victim and Witness Care Unit uses Athena (an online Police Database) to gain relevant information surrounding a case. Sound IT skills are desirable but not essential as these will be developed during the initial training period.

You must be able to demonstrate good problem solving and decision-making skills to ensure effective management of cases and witnesses through the Criminal Justice System. You will have a sound knowledge of the Criminal Justice environment, policy and procedure with an understanding of victim care. A certain level of flexibility is expected to deal accordingly with late night court warnings or urgent witness issues which may arise. You must be comfortable managing your workload remotely, although support and contact with colleagues is maintained virtually.

The nature of crime work is often distressing and sensitive as we deal with rape, child abuse, and other sexual offences as well as murder and offences against the person. The work within the Witness Care Unit demands resilience, dedication, and commitment.

In-house training will be given along with a buddy to provide support during your initial months; therefore, flexibility is required as to the frequency of office attendance during this period.

The Victim and Witness Care Unit is a center of excellence; we are looking for a team member who embodies this ethos and applies a positive approach to their daily working commitments.

Within your application, please ensure you provide evidence of the essential criteria - knowledge of the Criminal Justice System, Strong verbal and communication skills and ability to prioritise workloads.

For any queries please contact V&W Care Unit Manager Nikki Burns nikki.burns@kent.police.uk

Kent Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £30,453.00.

For the full job description please click here.

Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the “reason for application” question, within the application form itself. CV’s, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your “reason for application” answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833.

Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

If you’re not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain.

If you’re from the UK you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn’t apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.

Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.