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We are recruiting to a PW1 post, at 28 hours per week which covers Warwickshire SENDIASS.

This is a permanent position, however the weekly hours will decrease to 21 hours a week from 01 July 2027.

Hours/days of work are usually Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.00 am – 4.30 pm though some flexibility may be agreed locally.

This post covers the whole of Warwickshire, though primarily the south of the county.

The service provides independent, impartial information, advice and support on matters relating to Special Educational needs and Disabilities. SENDIASS Caseworkers must be legally trained and able to provide accurate information relating to current legislation, to include the Children and Families Act 2014, SEN Code of Practice and Disability Discrimination Legislation. Please note - full training will be provided for this role.

The primary objectives of the PW1 post are to:

Work positively with the child/young person and parent/carer offering support, information and impartial advice by:

Promoting web-based support
Telephone/email support
Support preparing for meetings, writing letters and reports
Support at school, LA and other meetings both face to face and virtual
Support at Tribunal
Online/face to face delivery of 1 to 1 consultations/drop in sessions and facilitating groups for families and professionals

Understand and apply legislation and the SEN Code of Practice into everyday situations that children and young people are facing within and out of their educational setting.

Provide legally compliant clarity to children, young people, parents, carers and professionals relating to access to appropriate education provision.

Prepare young people and parents and carers for meetings involving the educational setting, attending where appropriate.

Actively promote the SENDIAS service to upskill professionals within educational, health and social care settings. This will be done by:

Delivering workshops,
Attending information and engagement events,
Online promotion,
Developing relationships with local statutory, community and voluntary organisations.

Ensure services delivered meet and ideally exceed IASS Minimum Standards.

You must have a car available for work with business use insurance.

Although this contract has a permanent status, please be aware that this post is subject to funding currently to 30 June 2027 and therefore should this funding not be extended further, you may be subject to a redundancy consultation or a TUPE arrangement.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values