Sutton Virtual School Extended Duties Education Advisor

Job responsibilities

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 all requests for educational advice and guidance for children previously looked after and with formal kinship arrangements. This will involve liaising with other Cognus services, social workers, schools and families and following up to ensure actions have taken place as agreed.

2. To work in an advisory role to schools around supporting the educational needs of children previously looked after, with formal kinship arrangements and with a social worker. This will involve regularly visiting schools to build partnerships.

3. To work with schools on the Building Stronger Foundations programme to ensure they have the support they need to continually develop their trauma informed practice to provide increasing levels of support for all vulnerable children.

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 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.

6. To lead on audit activities with Sutton schools and social care to drive up standards and to assist the Headteacher in self-evaluation and service improvement in line with the Sutton Virtual School service development plan.

7. To be responsible for monitoring attendance and progress of children previously looked after, with formal kinship arrangements and children with a social worker 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.

8. All other reasonable requests as required/made by your line manager. Some tasks listed in this job description are subject to change.

9. Carry out any other duties as reasonably required.

Qualifications

Desirable

• Qualified Teacher status is desirable and / or a level four qualification in education appropriate to the phase (Secondary, Post-16)

Experience

Essential

• a. An awareness of the needs of disadvantaged children and young people
• b. Experience and knowledge of working in education settings
• c. A willingness to undertake training and development
• d. Ability to use data and technology efficiently and effectively; experience of electronic assessment database for data collection and analysis
• e. Experience of planning, monitoring and evaluation of work

Desirable

• a. 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
• b. Experience in delivering training to schools and settings
• c. Experience in self-evaluation and formulating development plans

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• a. Use data analysis to track progress of vulnerable groups of children in Sutton schools
• b. Analyse attendance data, identifying trends and suggesting appropriate actions in the best interests of the child
• c. Demonstrate strong partnership working with parents, carers, children and young people, educational professionals and other agencies, ensuring a multi-agency approach
• d. Demonstrate strong organisational skills and superb with deadlines
• e. Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills
• f. Remain objective and act confidentiality
• g. Be professional, courteous and strong customer service skills
• h. Work as part of a team, sharing working knowledge and skills
• i. Work flexibly, with the ability to travel to Sutton schools regularly in person, be able to re-arrange work in relation to changing priorities and to meet the needs of the business
• j. 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
• k. 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 (opens in a new window).