PLEASE NOTE THIS POST IS ONLY OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTSOrganisation: Leicestershire County CouncilWork Location: County Hall Glenfield LE3 8RA Worker Category: Hybrid WorkerSalary: £27,717 - £30,066per annum (pro-rata for part-time)Working Hours: 37 hours a week -term time only Contract Type: PermanentClosing Date: 19th January 2025Interview Date(s): 23rd January 2025 About the RoleWe have an exciting opportunity for you to join our Early Years, Inclusion and Childcare service as Early Years SEND and Portage practitioner.
The post of Early Years SEND and Portage practitioner will allow you the opportunity to join a highly skilled, enthusiastic team.
We work with children from birth to school entry who have identified additional needs.
You will work with children both in their homes and in early years provision.
Alongside this you will have the opportunity to support training delivered to Early Years Providers and to parents too.
You will also organise and run messy play sessions and Portage groups for caseload families.You will be trained as a Portage Practitioner and will work with the youngest children with additional needs.
You will have the opportunity to develop your own skills and knowledge through training and working alongside experienced colleagues.Our main aim is to improve outcomes for children of Leicestershire.
If you are successful, you will be supported by Managers to be creative, and solution focused as well as having access to a variety of professional development opportunities.
People who work in our service say that we are a caring, approachable, friendly service who work well together and with other professionals.
Staff are made to feel valued and that they are making a difference.As Children and Family department we are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma informed responsive department.
We will strive to create a safe, compassionate environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy.
We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people.We have an Inclusion and Diversity working party that meets regularly and the local authority has other supportive groups where you will have the opportunity to learn and connect with others.We operate on a fully inclusive employment policy and therefore welcome without exceptions candidates who have protected characteristics.
Our one prerequisite is that you are the best at what you do.If you are passionate about supporting our youngest children with additional needs this is the perfect job for you..About the job To promote the education and development of early years' children under 5 years and have caseload responsibility for these children by modelling practice and sharing information and offering advice to the staff working in those settings.
To be instrumental in developing a collaborative working environment by maintaining and enhancing effective relationships and to work directly with children at home to model and support parents with strategies to enable and empower them to help their child develop To be willing to travel to various places of work which include settings and children's homes and work in collaboration with the Early Years SEND Advisors to implement developmental educational programmes for the young child To support children's transition into preschool and schools and support inclusion by modelling practice and sharing information with the staff working in those settings To take an active part in the planning, preparing and run Portage groups and messy play sessions across the county for caseload children and families To prepare resources and reports on the progress of children as requested and contribute to the assessment of children you work closely with To support the design and assist in the delivery of training to a variety of early years professionals, parents, school staff and staff from the voluntary sector.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our .About YouTo apply for this post, you must: Level 3 in childcare or equivalent Substantial experience with working families and children who have SEND Experience of collaborative working within a partnership context with external agencies to enhance SEND Knowledge of child development up to the age of 5 and knowledge of a range of special educational needs Knowledge of the SEND code of practice and the Early Years Foundation Stage The ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, coupled with good listening skills and able to relate to parents/carers who may be under considerable stress You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.In addition, we also expect you to share and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.Interested in Flexible Working?We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments.
Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council.
If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.
This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work.
The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert.
You can find out more about our worker categories in the page on our career site.For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:Ruth Melluish, Team Manager Email: section on our career site.We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.
Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: .
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