What's involved with this role:
Interim SEN Assessment & Review Officer – Education
Reference no: Greenwich RQ1401605
Pay Rate: £20.67 per hour PAYE
Hours per week: 35 Monday – Friday, normal working hours
Role Length: This opening assignment is for 2-3 months
City: Woolwich, Greenwich
Enhanced DBS disclosure require for this role.
Hybrid working - Working arrangements are in office whilst completing training then hybrid working (3 days in office, 2 days at home).
A successful candidate must have relevant experience and strong understanding of the legal requirements arising from the Children & Families Act 2014.
Main Responsibilities:
Work directly with senior staff at a designated number of schools, ensuring that the LA meets all legal requirements in regard to the Children and Families Act 2014.
Implement and co-ordinate the needs assessment and review process in compliance with the requirements of the Children and Families Act 2014, the SEN Code of Practice 2015.
Directly challenge and support schools, professionals and families in relation to the Children and Families Act 2014 in order to prevent/reduce legal challenge against the LA.
Manage a complex caseload and casework to ensure that the LA is able to respond to SEND children and young people’s needs as they change.
Assess individual children and young and develop EHC Plans that are aspirational, holistic, outcome focussed and compliant with the Code of Practice 2015.
Directly manage the case co-ordinator, allocating, monitoring and overseeing their work on a daily basis.
Work with parents, carers, children and young people to ensure that the needs assessment process is undertaken in a manner that is clear, accessible and collaborative.
Work in partnership with schools, providing advice, direction and challenge in respect of the needs assessment and review process.
Write EHC plans in co-production with parents and children/ young people, ensuring the range of relevant reports from professionals is considered and reflected in the plan and that it is fully compliant with the Code of Practice, minimising the risk of legal challenge to the LA.
Support parents, children and young people to develop aspirations and aspirational outcomes that informs plans.
Be responsible for negotiating with schools regarding the placement of pupils with EHC Plans.
Directly manage potentially contentious and sensitive situations with a range of partners to minimise the risk of challenge to the LA.
Ensure the timely involvement of the Advice, Information and Guidance Service (Prospects) regarding placements for young people over the age of 16.
Lead work with Health providers, social care – children’s and Adults and other professionals involved in the needs assessment process in order to co-ordinate their professional contributions and development of outcomes for plans.
Represent SEND Assessment with other local authorities regarding the annual reviews of children and young people who are Looked After by Royal Greenwich but living elsewhere to ensure that EHC plans are reviews to Royal Greenwich standard.
Assess a range of professional reports and make timely recommendations regarding EHC Plans.
Lead on a range of contact with parents and professionals that could be potentially contentious and difficult to manage, ensuring the LAs legal requirements are met at all times.
Ensure EHC planning meetings and annual review meetings at schools are held and managed in accordance with the Code of Practice and are person centred and outcome focused.
Qualifications:
Good general standard of education equivalent to ‘A’ level including GCSE English.
Knowledge & Experience:
Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
Experience of SEND processes within a local authority.
Experience of drafting EHC Plans or statements of special educational needs.
Experience of working directly with educational establishments such as nurseries, schools or colleges
Good knowledge of primary, secondary or further education systems.
Good understanding of the principles underpinning the SEND reforms.
Knowledge of the Education Act 1996, the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Code of Practice 2015.
Knowledge of the Department for Education (DfE)’s Transitional Guidance.
Skills & Abilities:
Ability to use word processing packages, spreadsheets and databases to a high standard, including database reporting tools.
Ability to effectively communicate to a high standard verbally and in writing with parents, young people, schools, professionals, members of the public and other agencies.
Ability to initiate working in partnership with parents’ young people, schools, professionals and other agencies.
Ability to challenge schools’ parent and professionals on matters directly relating to relevant legislation.
Skills in direct work and effective communication to develop a partnership with parents and children and young people.
Good understanding of outcome focussed planning.
Ability to maintain accurate records and follow agreed procedure.
Ability to demonstrate resilience, particularly when dealing with contentious situation that pose a risk of legal challenge to the LA.
Ability to demonstrate resilience under pressure and meet targets.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
Unless the DBS requirement stated above is for a Basic Disclosure, your DBS must be either through us or be accompanied by a subscription to the DBS updating service.
Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside – there is no need for a full address.
Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and exact job title.
To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF.
If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms. We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.
Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days, please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles.
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Job Ref: Greenwich RQ1401605
Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.
Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates.
We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed.
Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs.
Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.