Senior SEND lead worker

Job description

Job responsibilities

Wiltshire is adopting a Whole Life Pathway and the vision is to enable people through all stages of life to reach their potential to live happy, healthy, safe, and rewarding lives within their communities regardless of ability.

Preparing for adulthood is a lifelong process. Our aim as a council is to support people to live independent lives, where we value parents/carers as enablers in developing 'shared outcomes'.

To act as the key point of contact for the young person and family, and to coordinate any activities that are required to assess needs, meet any outcomes specified, and ensure the provision of holistic care and support required to prepare children and young people for adulthood.

This postholder will work alongside SEND Lead workers to start the formal preparation work when a child is aged 13-14 years of age, ideally earlier if possible, but no later than their year 9 school review. This work will identify their aspirations and hopes for the future, adopting a person-centred approach and strengths-based principles to develop a Preparation for Adulthood plan as part of their Special Educational Needs (SEN) Support Plan, Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and where applicable aligned with their leaving care pathway plan. The Preparation for Adulthood Plan shall be created with young person at the centre and shall identify the childs Preparation for Adulthood outcomes, based on their aspirations for the future.

To champion increased independence, enabling young people to live, work and be active contributors in their community, making the best use of their own and other available resources and opportunities, there will be a requirement to coordinate the new single assessment process, working with the child, young person, and their families to identify outcomes and how these can be met.

The Pathway for Adulthood Senior SEND Lead Worker will be the person who liaises with other professionals such as education and social care practitioners, any clinicians involved in the young persons care and the school or education setting to ensure that the child/young person and their family has an organised and coordinated approach in order to meet their outcomes.

The children, young people and families with more complex needs will be supported through this process by the Senior Pathway for Adulthood/Post 16 SEND lead worker.

The Senior Pathway for Adulthood/Post 16 SEND lead worker will take on the responsibility to lead on three particular areas ensuring that best practice is followed and SEND lead workers are supported in relation to these areas. These areas are:

Statutory Responsibilities,

Preparation for adulthood.

Post 16 Education and support. These three areas are of particular importance and are related to the key stages/transitions of a child or young persons life therefore that lead the Senior Pathway for Adulthood/Post 16 SEND lead worker will take on this is crucial. The Senior PfA/Post 16 SEND Lead worker will provide supervision and day to day support to the SEND lead workers in relation to case load management CA11-2195 Senior Pathway for Adulthood SEND Lead Worker (March 22) Page 5 of 9 Specific duties and responsibilities include:

Act as a single point of regular and consistent contact for children, young people with SEND and their families with complex cases, when being supported with a My Plan.

Advise colleagues on how to increase inclusion support within mainstream and universal settings.

To provide advice and support for settings/services and families on SEND related matters, including when applying for statutory assessment for individual children and young people.

To work in close partnership with settings/services, securing best outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

To promote the early identification of children and young people with SEND additional needs.

Coordinate practitioners and services around the child, young person, and their family. A key role of the Senior Pathway for Adulthood/Post 16 SEND lead worker will be to identify when specialist (Social workers, Educational Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, other professionals etc.) involvement is required, make the appropriate contacts, and ensure effective liaison with the specialists. Arrange person centred Team Around the Child/Young Person meetings (Multidisciplinary and/or multiagency) as required.

Be proactive in promoting multi-agency partnership working as best practice. To be instrumental in developing pathways for joint working to support transition to adulthood.

Ensure plans outline the young persons and their families aspirations for adulthood. Ensure that each need identified in the assessment is matched to an outcome in the plan. The plan will be agreed with young people and their families

Co-ordinate and facilitate a joint Education, Health and Care Needs assessment process and single holistic person centred plan, for the more complex cases, that focuses on the child or young persons educational, health and social care needs in line with the Education Act 2011 and when appropriate the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and other legislation and organisational policy and reviews.

Ensure that each need identified in the assessment is matched to an outcome in the plan. The plan will be agreed with young people and their families.

Responsible for drafting and finalizing single plans, including those with statutory protections. Ensure that the plan is reviewed as agreed.

Enable customers to identify and agree outcomes and how they can be achieved. It will be necessary at all times to work to the key operating principles of the service to ensure that the customer has choice and control, that the services provided are cost effective, and that any risks are clearly identified.

The Senior SEND lead worker will apply criteria and when appropriate, the Fair Access to Care Criteria in relation to the provision of services. The Senior SEND lead worker will operate within and across the legislative frameworks for childrens services and adult social care.

Support children and young people to move between non-statutory and statutory support as required. When moving into statutory support they will be responsible for monitoring work progress to ensure that national indicators and legislative deadlines are met. CA11-2195 Senior Pathway for Adulthood SEND Lead Worker (March 22) Page 6 of 9

To take a lead on the quality and effectiveness of inclusive practice - to develop and deliver training in response to government initiatives and identified needs, for example in key working, working in partnership and person centred thinking.

Understand, and deliver on, departmental priorities for high quality services, aiming for good results in Key Performance Indicators.

Be responsible for collecting and recording relevant data that will inform strategic planning and commissioning, as requested.

Management of own caseload- prioritising work and tasks appropriately and using effective time management skills. Working within guidelines and using own discretion

To fully support the implementation of the Wiltshires Multi Agency Preparation for Adulthood and Transition policy and procedure.

The Pathway for Adulthood Senior SEND Lead worker will ensure the appropriate arrangement of services and advice, support, and guidance in relation to transitioning to adulthood including higher or further education, training and/or employment; independent living, participating in society and being as healthy as possible and having positive well-being.

To work in close partnership with settings/services securing best outcomes for children and young people with SEND as they transition to adulthood.

Overseeing caseload of PfA/Post 16 SEND lead workers

The Senior SEND lead worker will take a responsibility to lead on pathway for adulthood (PfA) and post 16 learners ensuring best practice is followed and ensuring the SEND lead workers are supported in that area

Statutory Responsibilities (ensuring that for statutory My Plans legislation is followed in terms of process and timeframe. The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers on this when a statutory My Plan is being considered)

Preparation for adulthood (ensuring that young people aged 14 and over have holistic plans in place that prepares for adulthood/life so for example ensure that plans are under discussion and in place in relation to housing, employment, health, and independence). The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers to ensure these holistic plans are in place.

To carry out all tasks and responsibilities in accordance with legal requirements across education, health, and social care.

Identify and support development opportunities for Pathway to Adulthood SEND lead workers.

To contribute to the development of the SEND service, to respond to operational needs by initiating, developing, and implementing innovate solutions. E.g., SEND and Inclusion Strategy.

To work within the Pathway to Adulthood Community area, attending meetings and sharing information.

May deputise for a PfA/Post 16 SEND team Manager, or other senior SEND lead workers, as and when required

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Knowledge
• Knowledge of current & developing national policy in relation to childrens services and
• preparation for adulthood e.g., Children & Families Bill, Working Together 2013 and the
• Preparation for adulthood policy
• Evidence of continuous professional development and/or training.
• Recognised qualification in early years, social care, health, or education to a minimum of level
• 4 or prepared to work towards one in the near future.
• Working knowledge of at least one of the three key areas (Statutory SEN, Inclusion for early
• years and primary settings, or Preparation for Adulthood)
• Skills
• Experience of supporting complex children/young people/families with SEND
• Experience of coordinating multi professional meetings.
• Extensive experience of working in partnership with children, young people, and their families,
• particularly those with complex SEND.
• Ability to establish a successful and trusting relationship with the child or young person and
• family
• Ability to empower the child or young person and family to make decisions
• Extensive experience of supporting and advising settings/other practitioners
• Experience of offering advice/guidance and establishing best practice in relation to either
• Statutory SEN, Inclusion for early years and primary settings or preparing for adulthood
• Experience of managing a team or directing the work of others.
• 3 years previous experience working in health, social care, or education environment
• Enhancing capabilities
• Good team player who can also work on own initiative with ability to prioritise tasks.
• Good negotiator
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of all relevant current legislation and frameworks
• Good IT skills, Word, databases, internet, email etc

Experience

Essential

• Some relevant professional experience post qualification in a similar work environment.
• Expert knowledge of relevant policy, systems, work practices, professional guidelines, legislation in
• the area of specialism.
• Excellent ICT skills including use of Microsoft applications and specialist systems.
• Experience of multi-disciplinary and partnership working and awareness of the issues involved.
• Planning and workload management skills.
• Proven assessment and investigation skills appropriate to the scope of the role. Ability to carry out
• complex client assessments.
• Experience of using professional knowledge to work within referral systems according to
• established criteria.
• Proven ability to work with challenging client groups and situations.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven ability to deliver training.
• Accurate record keeping and report writing.
• Good presentational skills.
• Knowledge of financial assessment processes

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Wiltshire Council

Address

County Hall

Bythesea Rd

Trowbridge

Wiltshire

BA14 8JN

Employer's website

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)