Swindon Borough Council Hiring for Senior Education Welfare Officer Job at Swindon, Wiltshire, South West England, England , UK Full Time

Securing high levels of school attendance is a major governmental and Council priority. This is particularly important in the period following the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Education Welfare Service is within the Attendance and Inclusion Team under the Achievement, Inclusion and Skills Directorate of Children Services and we are looking to appoint a Senior Education Welfare Officer.

Your next role

You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a leadership capacity with the aim of supporting the delivery of both the statutory responsibilities and the traded service functions for the service.

As Senior Education Welfare Officer, you will also be to provide leadership supervision and support for a number of Education Welfare Officers. You will work under the leadership of the Head of Inclusion.

This role will involve direct work with children, young people and families, using the Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHA+P) and supporting case management systems. The focus will be to remove barriers to accessing education and to ensure good attendance for all pupils. A key element of the role is to support parents and carers to meet the legal obligations regarding the education of their children.

You will need to demonstrate good communication skills; be able to work in partnership with schools; education settings and all stakeholders, including parents and children/young people, to secure regular attendance at school.

In this senior role, you will be required to oversee the chairing of, ‘Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings’ which can be complex, as well as case discussion meetings which are a part of the legal process. You will also be involved in the oversight of evidence files being prepared for court as well as attending court on behalf of the Education Welfare Service.

As noted above you will have senior responsibility within the Attendance and Inclusion Team and work alongside Lead Safeguarding Advisers and the senior colleague whose role it is to support children who are excluded or at risk of exclusion from school.

Ideally you will have previous experience of working within Education Welfare, but experience of working within the education sector will be an advantage. You will be aware of education issues and of the challenges that families face that may lead to poor school attendance and you will have excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to support and challenge schools and families as appropriate. Our aim is to support the highest standards of efficiency and professionalism within our service.

You must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act “for the effective performance of a customer-facing role”) and have the ability to travel throughout the Borough.

Your next package

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance.

For Swindon to thrive in the future, we need to lay the foundations now. It’s why our regeneration and transformation programmes are already underway. So, you’ll be joining us at an exciting time on our journey. We’ll look to you to share your knowledge, influence decisions and drive real, positive change. With your contributions, we’ll achieve our vision of a prosperous, re-vitalised Swindon by 2030 together. And you’ll be proud to say it was made better with you.

Your next steps

Read the role profile and select the Apply button to start an application.

For further information about the role, please contact Andrea Packer, Interim Lead Education Welfare Service, at [email protected] or Dan Neal, School Effectiveness Consultant, at [email protected]

If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your application please email [email protected]