Attendance Specialist

Job summary and Responsibilities

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change.  ECC anticipated change was needed in the public sector and has worked to deliver better quality at lower cost.  We have an ambitious transformation agenda - one with the scope to reach every part of the council.  We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services.  We are committed to becoming a place where individuals, partners and communities feel proud to play their role and genuinely want to belong.  We’re immensely proud of our flexible working options.
 
ECC is transforming how it delivers education services across one of the largest counties in the country in order to continue to improve and to ensure the best possible outcomes for every single child and young person.  We are determined to build on our journey of improvement which has seen 94% of schools now being rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, and to focus more effectively on areas such as our more vulnerable children and young people to ensure Essex provides a wholly inclusive education which can meet the needs of all of our children and young people.
 
The Attendance Specialist is responsible for working with schools to improve attendance and encourage early intervention. Offering advice and support in presenting potential solutions to manage intervention effectively and ensure maximum potential opportunities for successful outcomes. In order to understand the underlying issues, investigations will need to be conducted to gain greater insight so that the best way forward for those who have not attended school can be identified.
 
The role requires knowledge and experience of delivering improvement in the level of attendance in schools. As a confident and assertive individual, this role will utilise individual experience to address concerns ensuring plans are developed to deliver improvements, recognising the risks and consequences of not initiating plans before they escalate.
 
This role supports the Senior Attendance Specialist to support individuals and groups of schools to develop strategies, initiatives and incentive programmes to raise attendance and support schools to achieve performance targets.

Key Accountabilities

• Contributes to the development of plans and initiatives to ensure schools are supported in seeking to improve pupil absence levels from school and agree relevant processes as to when escalation is the only option. 
• Contributes to exploring options to improve attendance to ensure positive outputs, ensuring best value for money. 
• Contributes to improving school attendance across Essex.
• Responsible for positively challenging education establishment’s policies and activity to improve attendance.
• Works collaboratively by engaging with appropriate stakeholders to define requirements and achieve quality and value for money services.
• Strategically investigates reasons for school absence and assesses appropriate action including legal action to protect children’s education.
• Works collaboratively with partners to ensure the best overall outcome for the people of Essex, whilst protecting ECC’s interests.
• Compile accurate written and computerised data of intervention in a timely manner to ensure comprehensive management reports for the service.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Educated to A level or equivalent by experience together with an LDSS qualification. 
• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area. 
• Significant experience within a school environment or enforcement environment.
• Evidence of resilience and prepared to challenge others to ensure progress.
• Experience of delivering public services in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Evidence of skills and experience in understanding and responding to different audiences and recognising the impact of actions on the rest of the organisation.
• Evidence of great communication and negotiation skills to persuade and influence others to accept recommendations, acting boldly in an agile environment.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service.  The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate.  This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.  For further information on the DBS update service please visit:  https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Benefits

For more information about the benefits of working for Essex County Council please go to our careers website

Closing: 31/08/18 

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
 
We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.
 
If you have any queries regarding this role, or require anything further, please contact the Essex Recruitment Team on 033 005 83330* 
*Calls to this number are charged in the same way as calls to numbers starting 01 or 02, please check with your service provider