Senior Education Welfare Officer

Job Category : Social & Health Care Non-Qualified

Location : Southwark Council

Hours Per Week :36.00

Start Date : Immediate Start

Start Time :09:00

End Time :17:00
Salary: £22.99

To provide an effective and targeted education inclusion service in a specialist team within Southwark’s Family Early Help service and delivering upon the Council’s Fairer Future promises in supporting children, young people and their families. To work in partnership with parents, young people and schools to ensure that all children of compulsory school age access education. To ensure at all times that maximum effort is given to keeping young people in education with particular attention given to promoting full-time attendance (for those of compulsory school age) and preventing exclusion through educational achievement, positive behaviour and constructive activity for the children and young people of Southwark. To promote and support schools, families and young people with steps to prevent permanent exclusion including the use of managed moves where appropriate, supporting the development of multi-agency agency plans to keep children and young people in school. To provide a timely and effective service to schools, families and other stakeholders in relation to the discharge of Southwark Council’s statutory responsibilities in relation to attendance and inclusion, including delivering on the full range of parental responsibility measures up to and including prosecution for persistent non-attendance. To provide timely and effective screening and assessment for young people assessed as being at risk of exclusion, ensuring that appropriate support and intervention is secured at the earliest opportunity using a Team Around the Family approach. To conduct attendance investigations where necessary and provide expert advice and consultation to schools, Family Early Help practitioners and social workers where the threshold for enforcement action is met and in preparing cases for the education legal planning process. To lead on education legal planning meetings, education supervision orders, parenting orders and interviews under caution in order to progress and present cases at magistrates court and family court under the Education Act (1996) where appropriate. To contribute to the screening and locating of children missing education (CME) on behalf of the Family Early Help Service via attendance at the CME panel in liaison with schools and parents, to ensure those children access education as soon as possible in accordance with Southwark’s CME protocol. To proactively provide oversight and consultation to Family Early Help practitioners and managers to ensure that all cases meeting the threshold for enforcement action for persistent non-attendance are identified screened and that timely and appropriate decisions are made and recorded in relation to the need for escalation to education legal planning.