SEN Advisory Officer

Brent is a tremendously vibrant London borough where the iconic arch of Wembley Stadium dominates the skyline. Spanning both inner and outer London, it is a borough of huge contrasts in terms of its economic, environmental, ethnic and social make up. Brent's diversity is evident to all who visit our borough and our long history of ethnic and cultural diversity has created a place that is truly unique and valued by those who live and work here. The council is pursuing a far-reaching transformation agenda that better meets the needs of our community so it is an exciting time to join us. The Post Brent Virtual School for Looked after Children champions and supports children, who enter care, in Brent. This post is a new role and there will be various strands to it namely: working with SEND teams across boroughs; working with social care; providing information, advice and guidance to all parties supporting the education of children with a EHCP; education planning and annual reviews; data collection; working with school on consultations, and supporting children and their carers to consult with schools of their choice. You will be responsible for ensuring that the children and young people who you are working with are properly supported in education. You will, in consultation with other stakeholders, ensure appropriate support and access to resources for these children and young people and to ensure the delivery of a high quality, responsive and efficient service. The post requires flexibility, tremendous drive and an ambition to continuously assess and find creative ways to support children, and young people. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring the support offered is bespoke and person centred. The role also includes working closely with families and carers to enable individuals to better support their children and young person's attendance in school and develop social and life skills that will enable them to thrive in education, and to be aspirational. The Person Whilst we value experience, we need you to be committed to providing an outstanding service to children and young people with an EHCP. You will need to demonstrate flexibility, enthusiasm, empathy, initiative, tenacity and resilience, for what is likely to be a very demanding but hugely rewarding post. You will be required to demonstrate that you are able to perform in a vibrant and sometimes demanding environment whilst being able to identify issues and work either alone, or, with others, to find solutions to education issues linked to the cohort of children you will be working with. Knowledge and experience of supporting children and young people's with an EHCP is essential for this role. You will be responsible for providing good quality support to your cohort of children and young people and to ensure support is delivered in a safe, timely and appropriate manner. You will need to ensure all records and files are maintained to a high standard. The person in this post will be accountable for the use and safekeeping of data in accordance with GDPR regulations., We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances. The information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas and your data protection rights, can be found here. Brent has a positive approach to flexible working. As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including "non-visible" disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on recruitment@brent.gov.uk

As well as being a fair and supportive team member, you will need to demonstrate you are able to work flexibly in what is a diverse, vibrant and supportive multicultural team.

• Minimum Level 3 qualification in a relevant area of work, SEND, Social Work, Education.
• Ability to work flexibly in a vibrant and changing environment
• Significant proven experience of working with children and/or families
• You will be organised and resourceful
• Ability to conduct assessments, use the data to initiate programmes of support and to then be able to evaluate outcomes
• Willingness to be a team player
• Proactive and responsive as dictated by the circumstances
  
  Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community. We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.