Job summary
To assist the Headteacher in championing the educational needs of
children who are looked-after.
To promote the education of children looked-after by monitoring and
championing their educational needs through direct work, the Personal Education
Plan process and through organisation of additional support and deployment of
resources where required.
This role will support the continuous improvement and development of
Sutton Virtual School through support and challenge of all professionals
working with Children Looked After to enhance outcomes for Suttons children
and drive up standards.
The
successful candidate will have experience of working with vulnerable children
and young people and an understanding of the complex issues facing children in
care and care leavers and how these impact on their learning needs and academic
attainment. You will have experience of teaching and learning and an
understanding of children with special educational needs. The successful
candidate will work with schools and professionals to promote improved outcomes
for children looked after, including regular travel to PEP meetings in Sutton
and surrounding LAs.
Main duties of the job
1. JOB SUMMARY:
- Manage a caseload of Children Looked After to ensure they are making good progress in school
- To attend at least one PEP meeting per year in person at the childs school
- Work collaboratively with educational professionals and social care practitioners to ensure the educational needs for Children Looked After are met.
- Identify and address educational barriers these children are experiencing and work effectively to ensure they have the support to overcome them.
- Effectively use data for monitoring and evaluation purposes for Children Looked After.
- To take a lead role for a Key Stage and develop Sutton Virtual Schools approach to supporting this cohort.
- To work with schools and settings through a Team Around the School approach to support all Children Looked After within those settings.
- Have due regard for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and to follow the child protection procedures adopted by the Cognus Limited, Sutton Virtual School and Sutton Councils Safeguarding Childrens Board.
- Carry out any other duties as reasonably required
About us
Sutton
Virtual School works to promote the educational outcomes of children looked
after, previously looked after and children with a social worker and is seeking
an energetic and unrelenting candidate to support our children and young people
to ensure they make the best educational progress possible. If you want to make
a real difference to the educational futures of the most vulnerable children
and young people, then please consider applying for this role.
Sutton
Virtual School offers guidance and support to professionals, foster carers and
schools supporting Suttons most vulnerable children to ensure the best
possible educational outcomes. The post holder will be expected to represent
Cognus Limited (the service) and the Local Authority (corporate parent) and be highly
knowledgeable within the field of education.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1.
SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES:
The main duties
and responsibilities of the postholder are indicated below although other
duties of an appropriate level and nature will also be required.
1.
To be responsible for
a caseload of Children Looked After, liaising with and advising individual
Designated Teachers and Social Workers, ensuring that PEP meetings are
organised and written by the Designated Teacher, which are of a high quality:
to attend PEP meetings in person once a year for each CLA on caseload and
attend professionals meetings as required.
2.
To work in an advisory
role to secure timely school admissions for all Children Looked After on their
caseload, and to progress additional timely assessments or requests for
Statutory Assessment in line with the needs of the child.
3.
To monitor and
maintain an overview of quality of all Personal Educational Plans on the
allocated caseload, providing an analysis of quality of PEPs for the Virtual
School Headteacher, and where quality is less than satisfactory, taking
corrective action.
4.
To deliver training to
schools, social workers and other professionals to help them develop strategies
that improve the educational outcomes of vulnerable children.
5.
To work with a group
of Sutton schools / settings in a Team Around the School approach to provide
targeted advisory case work for Children Looked After, as required, providing
additional liaison or outreach in line with needs of the children.
6.
To be responsible
together with the Headteacher for scrutinising and monitoring the work of
Sutton Virtual School within current legislation, regulations, guidance,
practice, standards and national and local priorities.
7.
To lead on quality
assurance and audit activities within Sutton Virtual School to drive up
standards and to assist the Headteacher in self-evaluation and service
improvement in line with Sutton Virtual School Service Development Plan.
8.
To be responsible for
monitoring attendance and progress of Children Looked After, against national
and local outcomes. Ensuring best
practice in the collection and use of management information: to maximise the
effectiveness of existing systems and processes for data collection and
analysis.
9.
All other reasonable
requests as required/made by your line manager. Some tasks listed in this job
description are subject to change.
10.
Carry out any other duties as reasonably required.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Qualified Teacher status is desirable and / or a level four qualification in education appropriate to the phase (Secondary, Post-16)
Experience
Essential
- An awareness of the needs of Children Looked After
- Experience and knowledge of working in education settings
- A willingness to undertake training and development
- Ability to use data and technology efficiently and effectively; experience of electronic assessment database for data collection and analysis
- Experience of planning, monitoring and evaluation of work
Desirable
- Knowledge of the phases and pathways through education, from Early Years to Post-16 and an understanding of the assessment outcomes for each phase or setting
- Experience in personalised planning and differentiation for a range of special education needs
- Experience in self-evaluation and formulating development plans
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Use data analysis to inform PEP targets and improve the attainment and progress of CLA
- Analyse attendance data, identifying trends and suggesting appropriate action in the best interests of the child
- Demonstrate a strong partnership working with parents, carers, children and young people, educational professionals and other agencies, ensuring a multi-agency approach
- Demonstrate strong organisational skills and superb with deadlines
- Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills
- Remain objective and act confidentiality
- Be professional, courteous and strong customer service skills
- Work as part of a team, sharing working knowledge and skills
- Work flexibly, with the ability to travel to schools in Sutton and surrounding LAs regularly in person, able to re-arrange work in relation to changing priorities and to meet the needs of the business
- In line with service delivery needs, the post holder may be required to work outside normal office hours, for which prior notice will be given
- If appointed, it will be your responsibility as an employee of Cognus Limited to treat all sensitive data in line with the mandatory protocols to ensure data protection and compliance at all times in accordance with GDPR regulations
Personal Qualities
Essential
- a. Highly motivated and reliable
- b. Ability to work effectively as part of a team and liaise with other teams
Other
Desirable
- Ability to travel to the Cognus Office in Wallington
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website .
Employer details
Employer name
Cognus Limited
Address
Cognus Ltd
Railway Approach
Wallington
Surrey
SM6 0DZ