Some people spend decades searching for purpose. Cezar Tan found it twice — once in a monastery, and once inside the youth justice system of one of London’s busiest boroughs. Now 43, the Filipino-born social worker serves as Service Manager of the Youth Justice Service at the London Borough of Barnet Council, overseeing a multi-agency team of officers, psychologists, police, nurses, and social workers all working toward a single, often thankless goal: keeping children out of prison.
It is not a role most people would associate with someone who spent his formative years in religious life. But for Tan, the through line is unmistakable.
A vocation that changed shape
At 16, Tan entered the Religious Tertiary Capuchins of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Philippines. By 21, he had taken his vows as a religious friar. The congregation’s mission — re-educating young people with behavioural difficulties and those in conflict with the law — gave him his first sustained encounter with the kind of work he would eventually dedicate his professional life to.
After completing his AB in Philosophy and Psychology, he was assigned to a parish in Makati, where he worked with vulnerable youth while simultaneously studying Social Work at the Asian Social Institute. It was there, in the friction between vocation and practice, that he began to question the shape of his calling.
“My work with young people and my social work studies profoundly shaped my values and outlook on life,” he says. “In time, I realised that my vocation was not in the priesthood but in social work.”
He left the congregation without abandoning its purpose. He moved to Quiapo Church Social Services, where for three years he worked as a Social Worker and Youth Coordinator, organising communities and supporting young people facing significant hardship. It was hands-on, unglamorous work — and it prepared him for everything that followed.
From Florida to Barnet
In 2004, while completing his MA in Social Work, Tan took an opportunity to work in Florida as a Social Worker and Educator at an outdoor therapeutic facility for young people at risk of offending. He facilitated group therapy, provided counselling to children aged eight to seventeen, and led outdoor experiential learning programmes across multiple states on the East Coast.
“I witnessed young people begin their treatment and progress from some of the darkest periods of their lives to becoming drug-free, developing basic and leadership skills, and preparing to reintegrate successfully,” he says.
When the recession hit, Florida’s job market contracted sharply. Tan looked elsewhere. In 2007, he relocated to the United Kingdom during a period of acute demand for child protection professionals. He was offered a Senior Practitioner role almost immediately, conducting statutory child protection investigations and taking cases to the Family Court. From there, his career advanced steadily through management and strategic leadership positions — eventually landing him where he is today, at the head of a service responsible for some of the most complex and at-risk young people in North London.
Keeping children at the centre
The Youth Justice Service Tan manages is a statutory multi-agency partnership. Its remit is clear: prevent children and young people from entering the criminal justice system, reduce reoffending, and divert them from custody. Alongside it, Tan oversees the Vulnerable Adolescents Team within Family Services, which works with children at risk of criminal exploitation and in need of safeguarding.
He is deliberate about the language his team uses — and the mindset behind it.
“We lead a multidisciplinary team that is tenacious and committed to seeing children as children — not as offenders or criminals,” he says. “Every child entering the youth justice system deserves a second chance, and we strive to provide opportunities for them to repair harm and achieve positive outcomes.”
The results have been recognised. In 2022, Barnet’s Youth Justice Service received the Team Barnet “You Make The Difference” Staff Award in the Improvement of the Year category. In 2023, the service was awarded SEND Quality Lead Status with a Child First Commendation by the Association of YOT Managers. Two years running — 2023 and 2024 — Tan personally received the Practice Education Award from Barnet Family Services Workforce Development. And in 2025, the service was nominated as one of the top ten finalists for a Local Government Chronicle Award for establishing a first-of-its-kind residential programme for minoritised children and young people subject to youth justice orders — the first such programme of its kind in Britain.
Beyond his statutory role, Tan provides pro bono paralegal support to the Philippine Nurses Association UK, of which he is an Honorary Member. He represents Filipino nurses and healthcare professionals in employment hearings, assists with cases escalated to ACAS and employment tribunals, and advocates for those fleeing domestic violence. He also serves as a qualified Practice Educator for student social workers and a guest lecturer at a university in northwest London.
He frames all of it under the same belief that has guided him since Makati: “A person redeemed is a generation saved.”
What comes next
Tan’s mother and family are now settled in the UK. He visits the Philippines regularly and continues to receive invitations to lecture at his former university. He speaks at conferences and, when the time comes to step back from frontline management, he plans to move into teaching full-time — passing on what twenty-one years of practice, across three countries and two very different kinds of calling, have taught him.
He is also the incoming Worshipful Master of the Earl of Courtown Lodge and intends to dedicate his mastership year to a charity in the Philippines supporting underprivileged children in his home community.
