Leicester City Council
Virtual School Officer
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Reference: REQ7917
Description:
Full Time / 37 Hours Per Week / Permanent
The Virtual School for Looked After Children oversees the learning and progress of Leicester's looked after children and young people, wherever they are placed. Looked after children and young people tend to do less well at school than their non-looked after peers and therefore, we aim to close the attainment gap and remove any barriers to learning.
The Virtual School Team has 20 members of staff in a range of roles to oversee the education of looked after children and young people. We ensure our young people all have access to full-time education, all whilst supporting the delivery of the key priorities of the Virtual School for Looked After Children.
This is a full-time, permanent role working 37 hours per week from Monday to Friday. Occasionally you may need to attend events outside usual office hours.
Appointment to this role is subject to an Enhanced Children DBS.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Working closely with the Virtual School Head Teacher and Senior Leadership Team you’ll act as the link officer and be responsible for the promotion of the educational achievement of a case load of looked after children and young people.
- Some of your time will be spent in the office, in schools or meeting with carers, young people, Social Workers, school staff or other professionals and some time working from home.
- Each day might be different, depending on what needs to be done, and you’ll be expected to manage your own diary.
- You’ll attend meetings with members of the Local Authority, with your own team and with schools, carers and learners as required.
- You’ll develop strong working relationships with schools and other professionals to identify and respond to queries in relation to the education of children and young people.
- You’ll organise and oversee the running of Personal Education Plan meetings for the young people on your case load.
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What You’ll Need
- Experience of working with professionals to support looked after children and improve their educational attainment.
- The confidence to provide support and challenge in schools or settings.
- Experience of making complex decisions which had a profound impact in relation to services for children and young people.
- Ability to effectively promote a range of interventions designed to address the complex needs of these young people.
- Proficient IT skills, including the use of applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.
- Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to present complex issues and clear and well-reasoned reports.
- Ability to evidence effective partnership working with a range of agencies including working with multi-agency teams.
What We Can Offer You
- The satisfaction of helping to improve lives across Leicester.
- A work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance.
- Generous annual leave.
- Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
- The option of flexible working.
- A variety of training and development opportunities.
- Several flexible benefits, including discounts on city buses and trains.
- For an illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at our benefits calculator.
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Join us
We’re committed to recruiting a diverse and highly-talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we’ve designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. We’ll do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To help you with your application, take a look at the ‘our approach to recruitment’ page.
For an informal discussion about this post, please contact either Kevin Kinsella, Virtual School Deputy Head via email to kevin.kinsella@leicester.gov.uk or Mandy Cannon Lead Officer mandy.cannon@leicester.gov.uk
Region: Central
Location: New Parks House
Salary: GBP35,412- GBP38,220 Per Year
Package: Total benefit value (includes pension contribution and full holiday entitlement): GBP52,115.74
Contractual hours: 37
Basis: Full time,
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