Attendance Support Worker

Based within the Education Access and Support Team the Attendance Support Worker will work as part of the team to support the service to carry out the Local Authority's statutory responsibilities to enforce regular school attendance, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The Attendance Support Officer will work closely with schools, families and children to help support school attendance across the Borough. The role involves working closely with partner agencies to help reduce barriers for children in accessing their education.,

• Implement robust safeguarding procedures and apply local threshold of need to cases of pupil welfare concerns, making appropriate safeguarding referrals as necessary.


• Build and maintain relationships with key and senior staff members at allocated schools to monitor attendance.


• Using a Therapeutic Thinking approach, plan with schools appropriate interventions to address attendance/welfare issues to support children.


• Lead on identified projects to improve whole school attendance.


• To provide advice, guidance and support to schools to contribute towards their efforts to improve school attendance.


• Maintain accurate up to date case files/records on our data base to evidence planned interventions that can be used to support legal proceedings.


• Lead Attendance Panel meetings with schools and families to develop a supportive plan to identify and reduce barriers to accessing education.


• To build strong professional relationships with children, young people and families of concern, which may include a range of interventions, e.g. outreach, home visits, school meetings, with occasional lone working.


• To write professional letters and reports to support the Local Authority to meet statutory responsibilities, e.g. Court, Statutory Assessments, Child Protection, multi-professional meetings.


• To work with Reading Borough Council's legal team to support successful prosecutions, including giving evidence in the Magistrates and Family Proceedings Court on behalf of the Local Authority as required.


• To work in partnership with schools and partner organisations (e.g. Children Missing Education, Special Education Needs and Disabilities Team, Elevate, Health).


• To contribute to the development of the Reading policy, procedures and practice through review, monitoring and self-evaluation.
  
  Educated to an A-Level standard or equivalent.


• Good GCSE or equivalent passes, especially in English and Maths


• Knowledge of current Education legislation including School Attendance and Safeguarding


• Good working knowledge of child protection and safeguarding processes, procedures and thresholds


• Relevant professional qualification (e.g. Qualified teacher status, social work) with membership of appropriate professional body where relevant (e.g. GTC, HCPC) or NVQ level 4 in relevant field (e.g. Education Welfare, Learning Mentor or substantial experience as an Learning Support Assistant desirable, Disability Confident

About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Brighter Futures for Children is an independent, not-for-profit-company, wholly owned by Reading Borough Council. Our responsibility is to deliver quality children's services, early help, education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services to children and families in Reading.

We offer a supportive environment to grow and develop your career with the opportunity to put your ideas across. Innovation and ambition are strongly encouraged, and you'll get a great feel for that working in our friendly and collaborative environment.

A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:

• Local Government Pension Scheme


• Discounted Childcare (on site nursery).


• Cycle to work scheme.


• Season ticket loans.


• A range of local discounts.


Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.

Asking for Adjustments
Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.