Essex County Council Hiring for Education Access Coordinator Job at Chelmsford, England Full Time

Education Access Coordinator

Fixed Term, Full Time

Up to £29,172 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date:

Please note this is a full time, fixed term contract initially for 12 months but may be extended.

The role is primarily remote working but will involve attendance at meetings.

Essex County Council (ECC) is responsible for ensuring that children and young people at risk of missing out on education are supported in being able to access suitable alternative, high quality education provision.

The role

A flexible and creative individual is required to support the Education Access Specialists where needed to ensure children are supported to receive a suitable education. The successful candidate may be required to work with children at risk of exclusion from school, or who are unable to attend school for physical or mental health reasons, including where incidents of bullying have been raised.

This role requires effective skills in working with families, young people, schools and professionals to reduce risks to children missing education and to offer advice, guidance and practical solutions to secure the best outcomes for children and young people.

Duties include:

• Responsible for individual case management to ensure ECC responsibilities in relation to ‘Education other than at School’ are properly discharged by offering advice, guidance and supporting, as necessary, with the commissioning of appropriate alternative provision for children.
• Work collaboratively with schools, professionals, providers, families and young people to ensure adequate support and guidance for children to move forward and achieve their best educational outcome.
• Responsible for supporting the ongoing work within the team where children and young people have been excluded from school, referred to Alternative Education for medical reasons, placed on a reduced timetable or who may be struggling to access their education for other reasons including bullying. To ensure all options are considered and options for reintegration are pursued as appropriate.
• Provide advice and guidance on strategies, policy, procedures, and review mechanisms to schools / Headteachers, Governors and parents, relating to exclusions or children at risk of exclusion, low attendance due to medical reasons and other children and young people struggling to access their education.
• Attendance at School based / Team around the child meetings as directed by the Education Access Specialists
• Home visits and / or face to face meetings with vulnerable students and their families
• Quality assurance checks on alternative providers
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Skills and knowledge

• Educated to RQF Level 3 (A Level) or equivalent by experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Experience of working in the educational field and supporting young people to overcome anti-social behaviours, working within a team.
• Experience of making decisions and using initiative to ensure positive outcomes for young people.
• Experience of organising and prioritising own workloads with no supervision.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to engage with and deal with young people often with complex and distressing circumstances.
• Good knowledge of DfE guidance around exclusions, medical needs preventing attendance at school and alternative provision.

As part of employment with Essex County Council should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. For more information please use the following link: https://www.workingforessex.com/working-here/pay-reward/

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people, as diversity is key to our success. If you’d like to find out more about our latest opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news click here to join our talent pool.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk.