Education Authority Northern Ireland
Wellbeing and Attendance Team Lead
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JOB DESCRIPTION
Reports To:
Head of Health, Wellbeing and Attendance
Responsible For:
- Leading a sub team of Wellbeing and Attendance Management Specialists throughout multiple locations to proactively support a health, wellbeing and attendance culture throughout EA schools and services.
- Scoping, initiating, and delivering support projects to improve service delivery to our children and young people.
- Regular travel throughout Northern Ireland.
Job Purpose
Under the leadership of the postholder, the sub team will work collectively to develop and deliver annual programmes of support, aligned with the HR and Corporate Business Plans, to continuously support EA schools and services to enhance overall education delivery to our children and young people. This will include providing additional support to School Leaders and other managers across EA, as a lead on supporting wellbeing and reducing employee absenteeism to enhance EA’s health, wellbeing, and attendance culture.
Working across all localities, the postholder will initiate, execute, and oversee allocated/approved wellbeing and attendance support projects with a clear focus on prioritising outcomes that will have the most direct, positive impact on children and young people, including targeting areas of high absenteeism where additional advice and guidance is required.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
- Develop and manage a range of Health and Wellbeing preventative strategies and tools.
- Ensure that Health and Wellbeing activity across EA services and schools is streamlined, customer and child-focused, effective, and efficient.
- Work closely with School Leaders and Managers to develop a clear understanding, appreciation, and solutions-focused approach to the wide-ranging and complex Attendance Management needs.
- Collaborate with the Head of Service and other HRCS colleagues to identify key priority areas to inform and develop the annual support projects portfolio.
- Collaborate with the Head of Service to identify, prioritise, scope, plan, and manage a range of targeted interventions to include both service improvement projects and projects to address specific attendance management trends.
- Develop and successfully use attendance management information to plan, track, and review improvements and savings in attendance management.
- Ensure the appropriate quality advice and support to managers and leaders on attendance management issues proportionate to the risks involved and, in a customer-focused and child-centered manner.
- Help ensure that any HR or contract performance management issues impacting on staff attendance are identified, escalated, and resolved efficiently and effectively.
- Oversee the project management of key complex Attendance Management projects within and across services/directorates.
- Identify, scope, plan, and manage the delivery of projects to continuously improve Attendance Management processes.
- Work collaboratively within the Health, Wellbeing, and Attendance Team and other specialists to inform, complement, and enhance service delivery and ensure that effective and efficient resolution is achieved for attendance management issues.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues from other Directorates and Services and externally on working groups, bringing specialist resourcing knowledge and experience to the group.
- Monitor, manage, and continuously improve attendance management practice and reporting, providing accurate and timely management reporting information such as savings from relevant contracts as required.
- Build internal and external relationships with key stakeholders to identify opportunities for joint working that might bring greater consistency across the sector, and/or improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.
- Continuously develop procedures and protocols in line with emerging best practice in the field of Attendance Management.
- Work collaboratively with EA Data Analytics to accurately record, analyse, and report information to develop, benchmark, and measure success of the team collectively and individual projects.
- Contribute to the development and delivery of programmes of training to support effective Attendance Management for corporate managers, school managers, and school governors.
- Be a role model for creative and innovative solutions to support attendance management and proactively share insights and learning within the team.
- Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with external agencies such as Health & Safety Executive; Public Health Agency NI; Employers for Disability, etc., to ensure best.
- Maintain appropriate communication within the Health, Wellbeing, and Attendance Team and relevant Directorates to ensure the needs of customers are being met.
- Raise awareness of the range of Health & Wellbeing support available to staff including those who are hard to reach.
- Ensure that Health & Wellbeing information on EA’s website and intranet is maintained and utilised fully.
- Manage the deployment of resources including staff and to plan work of others and will be responsible and accountable for service delivery in an assigned area.
- Review individually on a regular basis the performance of any direct reports, identifying individual/team training requirements and initiating further training.
- Deputise for the Head of Health, Wellbeing, and Attendance as required.
- Represent EA at Department of Education and other education partner forums/working groups focusing on improving employee health, wellbeing, and attendance.
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Other Responsibilities
- Lead and add value to the success of the overall Health and Wellbeing Centre of Excellence. Providing a best practice service in an assigned specialized functional area of work.
- Promote a culture of supportive attendance management.
- Hold budgetary approval at an appropriate level and ensure resources are managed within the agreed budget for the Service.
- Ensure that the Authority’s policy on Data Protection (in particular processing sensitive personal information) is properly complied with.
- Ensure that the Authority’s Equal Opportunities Policy, relevant Codes of Employment and Practice, and other relevant legislation are adhered to.
- Participate as required in the selection and appointment of staff in accordance with the policy and procedures laid down by the Authority.
- Undertake other related duties within the grade and competence of the post-holder as required.
- The post holder may also be required to work outside normal office hours on occasions.
This job description will be subject to review in light of changing circumstances and is not intended to be rigid and inflexible but should be regarded as providing guidelines within which the individual works. Other duties of a similar nature and appropriate to the grade may be assigned from time to time.
In accordance with Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998), the post-holder is expected to promote good relations, equality of opportunity, and pay due regard for equality legislation at all times.
To view the summary of terms and conditions for this post, click here.
Person Specification
Notes to Job Applicants
- You must clearly demonstrate on your application form under each question, how, and to what extent you meet the required criteria as failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted. You should clearly demonstrate this for both the essential and desirable criteria, where relevant.
- You must demonstrate how you meet the criteria by the closing date for applications, unless the criteria state otherwise.
- The stage in the process when the criteria will be measured is outlined in the table below.
- Shortlisting will be carried out on the basis of the essential criteria set out in Section 1 below, using the information provided by you on your application form.
- Please note that the Selection Panel reserves the right to shortlist only those applicants that it believes most strongly meet the criteria for the role.
- In the event of an excessive number of applications, the Selection Panel also reserves the right to apply any desirable criteria as outlined in Section 3 at shortlisting, in which case these will be applied in the order listed. It is important therefore that you also clearly demonstrate on your application form on how you meet any desirable criteria.
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Section 1 - Essential Criteria
The following are essential criteria which will initially be measured at the shortlisting stage and which may also be further explored during the interview/selection stage. You should therefore make it clear on your application form how, and to what extent you meet these criteria. Failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted.
| Factor | Essential Criteria | Method of Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifications/Experience | Hold a bachelor’s degree (UK Qualifications and Credit Framework Level 6) or an equivalent or higher qualification AND within a large service delivery organisation have three years’ demonstrable experience of providing specialist attendance management advice and support to a range of managers within education on a range of non-routine, complex attendance management cases; OR Within a large service delivery organisation have five years’ demonstrable experience of providing specialist attendance management advice and support to a range of managers within education on a range of non-routine, complex attendance management cases. Have experience of providing advice, guidance, and support to senior managers to support their staff health, wellbeing, and attendance. Have experience of successfully leading a range of absence projects resulting in tangible attendance, policy, and process improvements. Have experience managing staff including experience of proactively addressing performance management concerns. | Shortlisting by Application Form |
| Knowledge | Knowledge of relevant HR policies and procedures. Knowledge of relevant employment law relating to Attendance Management. | Shortlisting by Application Form |
| Other | Willingness to undertake some evening work to support Board of Governor training and selection panels. The successful candidate will be required: to have access to a suitable vehicle (appropriately maintained and insured for Education Authority business) that will enable them to carry out the mobility requirements of the post in an efficient and effective manner and thus meet this essential criterion; OR be able to provide sufficient information on the application form that will satisfy the employer that he/she has access to an appropriate alternative form of transport that will enable them to carry out the mobility requirements of the post in an efficient and effective manner and thus meet this essential criterion. | Shortlisting by Application Form |
Section 2 - Essential Criteria
The following are additional essential criteria which will be measured during the interview/selection stage in line with EA’s Game Changing People Model.
| Factor | Essential Criteria | Method of Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Experience | Experience of collaborating and contributing within a team environment to achieve team goals. | Interview |
| Skills/Abilities | In line with EA’s Game Changing People Model we will look for evidence of: |
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