Job description

Post title: Virtual School Advisory and Support Teacher

Service area: Children Looked After,

Grade: PO 3

Reports to: Virtual School Head

Your team: Virtual School

Number of supervisees: 0

Our ambition

We’re determined to make Islington fairer. To create a place where everyone, whatever their background, has the opportunity to reach their potential and enjoy a good quality of life.

We also have an ambitious goal – to be the best council in the country– with every employee clear about the part they play and inspired, focused and supported to give their very best.

We want to build an organisation where employees feel valued, inspired and empowered to help us achieve our goals and provide the best services possible to our residents.

Our values and behaviours

‘Be Islington’ is about setting a clear challenge about what it means to be an Islington employee and sets the standard for every new recruit.

We ask our employees to ‘Be Islington’ – playing their part in working together for a fairer borough and to always be collaborative, be ambitious, be resourceful, and be empowering (‘CARE’).

Our commitment to challenging inequality

We are committed to tackling inequality, racism and injustice and creating a fairer borough for all. In order to do this, we need to set the example by being a fair employer and creating a workplace environment, which is free from discrimination, racism and inequality. Our approach needs to be proactive, consistently learning to create a fairer workplace and foster a culture, which empowers all staff to challenge inequality.

Fairness is at the heart of what we do. We want to celebrate and embrace our differences by:

  • Ensuring our workforce is representative of the people we work on behalf of, our residents
  • Creating equitable working environments and diverse teams
  • Understanding our residents in order to design and deliver services that help tackle inequality and improve life chances for our residents
  • Getting to know people and their differences
  • Interpreting issues and concerns from a cultural perspective and address situations or problems from the points-of-view of multiple cultures
  • Supporting people with long-term health conditions and/or disabilities
  • Recognising the value of flexible working to support staff where possible

Key responsibilities

  1. To take responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young persons / vulnerable adults in your care and those who you come into contact with.
  1. Be responsible for a pupil caseload and ensuring the continued educational improvement of Islington’s children in public care.  This would include making arrangements for the monitoring and support of children in care and take the lead in making decisions to ensure their needs are met and that the pupils follow an appropriate educational programme.
  1. To lead on the development of policies, procedures and good practive to ensure that children in public care have an effective and up to date Personal Education Plans (PEPs) in line with statutory obligations.
  1. Effectively monitor, and where appropriate challenge, the use of Pupil Premium Grant  for individual pupils and cohorts of Islington children in public care.
  1.  Ensure aspirational targets are in place for all Islington children in public care and that professionals and carers support and encourage children to achieve, to enjoy learning and to celebrate their achievements.
  1. Provide high quality advice and support for social workers, carers and teachers involved in the education of children in public care to ensure their needs are met and they are provided with appropriate support to achieve their potential.
  1. Where necessary effectively and appropriately challenge schools and other professionals where there is evidence that children in public care education needs are not be addressed.
  1. To monitor and support Islington’s children in public care who do not have access to an education placement.  Lead, devise and pursue plans in liaison with key professionals to ensure all such children gain access to education with minimum delay. 
  1. Develop effective working relationships with key personnel in Children’s Services and schools in order support and challenge professionals and overcome situations where children are not receiving appropriate education for unnecessary periods of time. 
  1. Analyse qualitative and quantitative information and data on all schools and educational placements attended by Islington’s children in public care in order to  effectively meet the needs and requirements of the service.
  1. As part of the Virtual School lead and support with the organisation and administration of events such as training sessions, enrichment activities and celebration events
  1. Implement and monitor with the Head of the Virtual School a strategy to oversee school attendance levels of children in public care to allow prompt action to be taken should any young person miss significant amounts of schooling.
  1. To undertake other duties commensurate to the grade of the post.

ADDITIONAL: 

  • To take an holistic approach to the needs of children and young people at all times
  • Work in partnership with other agencies to deliver effective services as part of a multi-agency approach
  • To use and assist others in the use of information technology systems to carry out duties in the most efficient and effective manner.
  • To achieve agreed service outcomes and outputs, and personal appraisal targets, as agreed by the line manager.
  • To undertake training and constructively take part in meetings, supervision, seminars and other events designed to improve communication and assist with the effective development of the post and post holder.
  • To carry out duties and responsibilities in accordance with the council’s commitment to customer service excellence and ensure compliance with the customer care standards.
  • To be committed to the Council’s core values of public service, quality, equality and empowerment and to demonstrate this commitment in the way duties are carried out.
  • To ensure that duties are undertaken with due regard and compliance with the Data Protection Act and other legislation.
  • To carry out duties and responsibilities in accordance with the Council’s Health and Safety Policy and relevant Health and Safety legislation.
  • At all times to carry out responsibilities/duties within the framework of the Council’s Dignity for all Policy. (Equal Opportunities Policy).

Compliance

Ensure legal, regulatory and policy compliance under GDPR, Health and Safety and in area of your specialism identifying opportunities and risks and escalating where appropriate.

Budget responsibilities

None

Work style

Flexible Frontline Role

 

Person specification

You should demonstrate on your application form how you meet the essential criteria.  Please ensure that you address each of the criteria as this will be assessed to determine your suitability for the post.

Essential criteria

Qualifications

Essential criteria
Criteria description
 Assessed by

1

Qualified Teacher Status or related field working with children and young people in an education setting.

Application

2

Degree level 2.2 or above

Application

Experience

Essential criteria
Criteria description
Assessed by

3

Demonstrable evidence of high performance and achievement within education or children’s services.

Application/Interview

4

Experience of working with children and young people across the statutory school age and post 16  range, including those with Special and Additional Educational Needs and additional needs.

Application/Interview

5

Successful experience of formulating strategies that cross service and professional boundaries and lead to an improvement in children and young people’s outcomes.

Application/Interview

Skills

Essential criteria
Criteria description
Assessed by

6

Ability to give quality professional advice and challenge on all aspects of relevant legislation and policy development and their implications for improvement the outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.

Application/Interview

7

Ability to initiate pupil level change to effect improved outcomes for vulnerable children and young people, presenting a degree of challenge to individuals and institutions as appropriate.

Application/Interview

8

Ability to keep effective records of contact with children, schools and parent and carers and to use these to monitor, review and plan for vulnerable children and young people.

Application/Interview

9

Ability to plan using a range of strategies, giving advice and consultation to promote positive and effective high quality education support to vulnerable children.

Application/Interview

Special requirements of the post

(Insert any special requirements of the post. Delete if this does not apply.)

Essential criteria
Criteria description
Assessed by

10

This role will require you to obtain an Enhanced/Standard satisfactory clearance from the Disclosure and Barring Service

Application

11

This post needs to meet the requirement of the Baseline Personal Security Standard

Application

12

This post is subject to the council’s policy on pecuniary and personal interest

Application

Our accreditations

Our accreditations include: the Healthy Workplace award, Timewise, London Living Wage Employer, Disability Confident Committed, The Mayor’s Good Work Standard, Stonewall Diversity Champion, and Time to Change.