Transition Officer (Post 16)

Medway's Education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Division is committed to support all children and young people to learn and grow and to achieve their potential in education. The Education and SEND Division covers a wide scope of services, including school admissions, place planning, Medway Test, school transport, capital developments, high-needs funding and support for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans, early years funding and sufficiency, school improvement and effectiveness, inclusion and attendance. The Government's ambitions for the provision of quality education and improvement plans for the SEND and Alternative Provision system are important strategic drivers for our vision for these services. The Education and SEND Division is seeking highly driven and experienced professionals to join these teams at an exciting time of change within this sector. Successful candidates will join a supportive network of professionals within the Division and across the wider People Directorate and Council. They will have the opportunity to contribute our journey of improvement and shape our service delivery to children, young people and families and Medway. They will gain knowledge and experience from highly skilled team members but will also be given the opportunity to showcase their own skills and knowledge. They will be expected to work in partnership with providers, other agencies and strategic networks. As Transition Officer, you will act as the named officer for specific schools, children/young people and parent/carers, providing advice about the statutory procedures, including Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessments and the Medway framework for applying these. You will coordinate the professional input to the EHCP assessments, including supporting organisation of multiagency advice. This role requires you to work closely with the EHCP Writer to produce high-quality EHC Plans and to hold effective coproduction meetings with parents and carers, young people and partner agencies. You will work in partnership with various providers and stakeholders (internal and external), including parents and carers, to maintain positive and effective relationships to ensure high-quality service delivery to clients. You will be expected to utilise your skills and knowledge in relation to partnership working, caseload management, understanding of SEND and Education practice, business planning, and evaluation of data to provide excellent inclusive education practice within your area.

Please visit http://www.mindfulemployer.net/ for information on how Medway Council put good practices in place to ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support.

In return we offer you:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Generous local government pension scheme package
• Access to wider training and development qualifications
• Flexible working scheme
• Travel plan discounts
• Car Benefit Scheme from Tusker
• Access to CAREFIRST advice & counselling service
• Employee discount scheme for national and local retailers
• The Government has introduced new ways of supporting parents with childcare costs. Further details are available here: - https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
We're committed to making Medway carbon neutral by 2050. We have developed an action plan to ensure we play our part in addressing the climate emergency. Our declaration fits into our Council Plan priority of making Medway a place to be proud of. The main outcome being a 'clean and green environment'. All Medway Council staff can access an additional day's paid leave to undertake a volunteering activity which supports climate change. Our organisation: Medway is a unitary authority in the South East of England, made up of the towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham and more rural areas, including the Hoo Peninsula. Situated in Kent in the South-East of England, the area has plenty of green spaces, excellent facilities and easy access to the national motorway and rail networks, facilitating superb transport links to London. We provide all local Government services for a quarter of a million people, looking after education, environment, social care, housing, planning, business and much more - everything from frontline services such as rubbish collection and events like the Dickens Festival to work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure services in Medway run smoothly and cost effectively. Working at Medway Council means that you get to be part of this journey working alongside talented, professional colleagues to drive forward change to transform the lives of our residents and the communities they live in.