SEND Specialist Practitioner in Ely

We are looking for a dedicated SEND Specialist Practitioner to join our Children’s Services team. In this role, you’ll provide targeted support to children, families, schools, and settings, helping to promote inclusion and positive outcomes. You’ll deliver evidence-based interventions, model best practice, and support transitions across key stages. Working collaboratively with parents, carers, and multi-agency professionals, you’ll play a vital part in building capacity and understanding of SEND needs.

We’re seeking someone with:

• Practical experience supporting children and families across a range of settings
• Strong knowledge of child development and complex SEND
• Excellent communication and organisational skills
• Ability to deliver training and work independently

If you’re committed to improving outcomes for children and young people and have the skills to make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you.

What will you be doing?

• To be part of the delivery team around the Family Support Plan where appropriate, sharing information with other professionals, to ensure positive outcomes for children, young people and families and promote parental understanding of their child’s needs.
• To liaise regularly with parent/carers and other relevant professionals to fulfil the SEND Code of Practice (2015) requirements in working with parents/carers effectively, adopting a think family approach to partnership working.
• To monitor, track and evaluate a child or young person’s progress.
• To work in partnership with parents/carers and other professionals, to plan, prepare and deliver SEND specialist groups for children and young people.
• To use your knowledge and understanding of the child or young person’s needs to make an informed contribution to the wider assessment of their progress and development.
• To contribute to the development of the Family Support Plans, therapeutic plans, pastoral support plans and any other appropriate individual documentation for children and young people with SEND.
• To update and maintain own knowledge and awareness of SEND legislation and best practice through continuous professional development, engaging with recent research and publications on good practice for children and young people with SEND.
• To be part of a virtual team of multidisciplinary practitioners within SEND Service 0-25, focusing on a key area of service priority, supporting the development of specialist project work, training and service development, and sharing latest practice with colleagues.
• To use individual and peer supervision to reflect on personal learning from casework and CPD.
• To record involvements and write/contribute to reports on specific children as required by the service.
• To champion the use of the Early Help Assessment (EHA) and Family Support Plans for information sharing, multiagency assessment, and joint working.
• To maintain casework information as per service specifications.
• To ensure an electronic calendar is maintained up to date at all times.
• To follow relevant County Council policies and procedures in relation to safeguarding, lone working, HR and travel as directed by line manager.

About you

Qualifications

• Essential: English and Maths at GCSE A-C or equivalent, NNEB/BTEC/CACHE/level 3 certificate or equivalent skills and experience in EYFS and/or Teaching Assistant practice
• Desirable: HLTA certificate, Level 4 Advanced Skills for TA (SEND Focus) certificate, Foundation degree in subject relevant to EYFS, Child Development, Education, or a SEND field, Bachelor’s degree in a subject relevant to EYFS, Child Development, Education, or a SEND field, Training in the use of augmentative and alternative communication strategies

Knowledge and Experience

• Essential: Knowledge of child development and complex SEND, Evidence of practical experience of working with children/young people and their families in a variety of settings, Knowledge of best practice across autism and communication, SEMH and cognition and learning to support children and young people, Knowledge and ability to contribute to assessments of children and young people, Knowledge and understanding of equality and diversity issues, Proven recent and successful experience in working with pupils with a range of complex SEND, Knowledge and experience multidisciplinary working, Experience of working collaboratively with multiagency professionals, children and young people and their families, Knowledge and good understanding of safeguarding
• Desirable: Previous experience of work in more than one type of setting and across more than one key stage, Experience of working with children and parents/carers in the home environment, Experience of working and/or leading parent/child groups, Experience of working with other professionals across directorates and from Children’s Services, Health, Social Care and education settings, Evidence of undertaking further training or experience of supporting children with complex and severe needs, Knowledge and experience of Cambridgeshire Therapeutic Thinking/therapeutic approaches

Skills and attributes

• Essential: Proven ability to have excellent verbal and written communication skills, Knowledge of IT including email, word, PowerPoint, excel and relevant databases as necessary to fulfil the requirements of the post, Proven ability to keep written and online records and produce clear, concise reports and contribute to ongoing assessments and reviews to service specifications, Proven ability to work independently on agreed programmes and to plan, liaise and communicate with parents/carers on agreed programmes, Ability to organise and run training sessions, A positive attitude to change and continuous improvement, Proven ability to work well with other professionals, Proven ability to show empathy with parents/carers, Proven ability to be flexible and adaptable, Good time management and organisational skills, Ability to travel within and across the county of Cambridgeshire to meet requirements of the post, using own transport, The ability to monitor and evaluate interventions and report this back to others.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes. Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.