1721 - Education Improvement Team ALN lead

The Welsh Government is changing the way that it engages with local authorities and schools, in the context of the Strategic Review of Education Partners, to provide more active support to enable a self-improving system which improves educational standards for learners in Wales.
We are establishing a new Education Improvement Team within Welsh Government, to lead more regular strategic engagement with local authorities to share national priorities, develop cross-sector understanding, and provide national support as appropriate. The Team will look to build up over time if and as needed. It actively seeks to represent WG education priorities in an integrated way so will represent key education policy areas.
We are recruiting two secondees to work closely with local authorities and schools to ensure national priorities are clear, build a better understanding of local challenges and experiences to inform national policy, and to facilitate connection and join up across Wales to support delivery of national priorities. They will contribute to the overall understanding of the progress of the school-to-school collaboration model set out in the recent guidance (attached), and will be responsible for ensuring that their area of focus enables improvement in educational standards.
The Additional Learning Needs secondee will ensure that the Education Improvement Team has expertise on inclusive education and the ALN system specifically. They will not replace the existing direct relationships between local authorities and the Welsh Government ALN Division, but ensure that EIT engagement on national priorities has full understanding of ALN, and national responses embed inclusive education thinking.
The Team also includes an equity and a professional learning secondee who will provide these lenses and experience in the engagement the team has with local authorities.
Welsh language is desirable for this post and the postholder will need to be prepared to travel across Wales at times over the period.
The appointment will be as a secondment. A part-time arrangement will be considered. There will be no possibility of extending the agreement as the policy is to ensure that expertise and knowledge is shared across the system and that these posts provide a learning opportunity for partners across the sector., The Welsh Government is changing the way that it engages with local authorities and schools, in the context of the Strategic Review of Education Partners, to provide more active support to enable a self-improving system which improves educational standards for learners in Wales.
We are establishing a new Education Improvement Team within Welsh Government, to lead more regular strategic engagement with local authorities to share national priorities, develop cross-sector understanding, and provide national support as appropriate. The Team will look to build up over time if and as needed. It actively seeks to represent WG education priorities in an integrated way so will represent key education policy areas.
We are recruiting two secondees to work closely with local authorities and schools to ensure national priorities are clear, build a better understanding of local challenges and experiences to inform national policy, and to facilitate connection and join up across Wales to support delivery of national priorities. They will contribute to the overall understanding of the progress of the school-to-school collaboration model set out in the recent guidance (attached), and will be responsible for ensuring that their area of focus enables improvement in educational standards.
The Additional Learning Needs secondee will ensure that the Education Improvement Team has expertise on inclusive education and the ALN system specifically. They will not replace the existing direct relationships between local authorities and the Welsh Government ALN Division, but ensure that EIT engagement on national priorities has full understanding of ALN, and national responses embed inclusive education thinking.
The Team also includes an equity and a professional learning secondee who will provide these lenses and experience in the engagement the team has with local authorities.
Welsh language is desirable for this post and the postholder will need to be prepared to travel across Wales at times over the period.
The appointment will be as a secondment. A part-time arrangement will be considered. There will be no possibility of extending the contract as the policy is to ensure that expertise and knowledge is shared across the system and that these posts provide a learning opportunity for partners across the sector., + As part of the new Education Improvement Team, provide a clear set of national priorities for schools and to support learning in the context of the National Improvement Framework, based on information and evidence, and with support for inclusion and more equitable attainment underpinning these. Keep these priorities under review on an annual basis.
+ Set out an approach to a national information-sharing cycle which includes schools, local authorities and national government, to ensure agile ongoing information-sharing on successes and opportunities as well as issues and challenges, to enable success to be shared across, up and down and help the system to respond to challenges. The ALN secondee will work to ensure close alignment between school improvement and ALN to enable the provision of valuable and impactful support, and wider learning across different policy areas.
+ Welsh Government will discuss with local authorities their local improvement priorities, effective practice, challenges and the quality of learning for all learners on a bi-annual basis (once at least in person). School improvement is a process which enables our national priorities to be achieved in an integrated and coherent way. As information becomes available through school improvement discussions with local authorities, Welsh Government will act on this promptly and appropriately to support schools and local authorities. The ALN secondee will be responsible for ensuring that information is collected, and analysed working with the ALN team to develop policy and practice that responds to national issues. The ALN secondee will also play a key role to embed inclusive and equitable approaches across the education improvement programme.

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Leadership
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Changing and Improving
+ Working Together, This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.
The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1 Application Form
Stage 2 Interview
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

+ Learning and development tailored to your role
+ An environment with flexible working options
+ A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
+ A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%