SEND Operations Assistant

The SEND Operations Assistant provides administration and support to deliver ECC's statutory duties for SEN assessment, monitoring and review.

Responsibilities

• Maintaining a specified allocation of children and young people (CYP) with existing Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This will include carrying out all statutory processes relevant to each child and young person and their EHCP (annual review, amendment to EHCP, cease EHCP), taking responsibility for the progression of all allocated statutory work such that statutory timescales are met.
• Coordinating and securing school placements for CYP at points of transition and liaising with relevant internal and external partners as appropriate. Ensuring ECC's Admissions Team are advised of decisions. Coordinating the amendments of the EHCP following change of placement.
• Recognising issues around individual CYP (attendance, safeguarding, lack of progress) and alerting senior managers, recommending and/or seeking advice on next steps.
• Prepare and present information relating to the EHCPs within their allocation for submission to various decision-making panels and undertaking any follow-up work identified by the panel meeting; sharing the decisions with parents and partner agencies.
• Communicating and explaining decisions which are not always positively received both verbally and in writing.
• Representing Essex SEND services by acting as a frontline contact for parents/carers, CYP, schools, settings, and other partner agencies. Recognising where issues need to be escalated. Recognising safeguarding concerns and acting accordingly. Signposting service users to relevant teams where appropriate and taking responsibility for responding directly to queries wherever possible.
• Liaising with other local authorities for CYP who have moved into or are leaving Essex. Ensuring correct paperwork is received and actioned accordingly. Consulting and arranging school placements and arranging appropriate information to enable the amendments of the EHCPs.
• Maintain tracking systems for all students who are at the point of phase transfer each year. Provide support to SEND Operations Partners and SEND Operations Co-ordinators to ensure that statutory processes and timescales are fully complied with and that, where appropriate, EHCPs are ceased in a timely manner.
• Preparing a chronology/summary about individual CYPs to support ECC's response to priority work: Members Enquiries, Local Government Ombudsman Enquiries, Corporate Complaints and SEND Tribunals. Involvement in any additional SEND Tribunal work arising; liaising with the Tribunal Teams and consulting and chasing responses from various provisions.
• Sending out the agreed final versions of EHCPs in the specified timescale.
• Organisation and constant prioritisation of workload to manage high volume of incoming work on a daily basis, alerting senior colleagues where statutory obligations are compromised.

Qualifications and skills

• Educated to RQF level 2 or equivalent by experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development relating to the LA's statutory duty relating to CYP with SEND.
• Thorough working knowledge of SEND Code of Practice 2015.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills, including an ability to engage positively within difficult conversations.
• Experience of working successfully as part of busy team in a business support or administrative environment.
• Effective time management and prioritisation skills with the ability to manage own workload under pressure and adapt quickly and effectively to changing circumstances/situations.