Inclusion Lead, Permanent in Gloucester

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

Job Location: Shire Hall

Salary: £53,937-£57,844 per annum (pro rata)

Hours per Week: 22.20

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 25/02/2026

This post is not open to job share.

About the team and role:

An opportunity has arisen for a part time (3 days – Weds, Thurs, Fri) permanent Inclusion Lead within the Education Inclusion Service. The primary focus for this role is to ensure children and young people achieve positive outcomes by accessing an education which is appropriate to meet their needs: the right support in the right place at the right time. Inclusion Leads achieve this by supporting families and education settings to develop inclusive practice and environments; by influencing strategic and operational developments at both system and whole school level; and confidently supporting children and young people with additional needs – taking early action to address emerging issues, and meeting statutory duties for attendance, exclusion, home education and child entertainment / employment.

The role of Inclusion Lead includes:

• Supporting Head Teachers, staff and Governors of schools and academies to deliver inclusive practice and meet statutory duties in relation to attendance and exclusions through sharing of good practice, network meetings, and focused strategic & operational development opportunities.
• Supporting and challenging education settings to make effective use of resources and funding, especially to ensure the needs of more vulnerable children and young people are understood and met.
• Having strong strategic and operational responsibility for key areas of statutory oversight, areas of system development, and core partnership working across the service and beyond. This includes leading and influencing managers, senior leaders, teams across GCC, and with wider partners.
• Undertaking lead and key roles in the development, implementation and delivery of key transformation and change programmes in the education service, ensuring that we deliver against statutory responsibilities and council objectives. This includes strategic and operational influence with and across multi-agency partners.
• Ensuring effective, appropriate and suitable provision is in place for children and young people who are home educated and those excluded from school.
• Effectively leading and managing a locality team to ensure that children and young people, their families and other professionals receive the support they need to achieve the best outcomes – and matrix manage across the whole service, ensuring matrix management arrangements are consistent and effective.

Please refer to the job profile for more detail.

Please note: This post is subject to enhanced DBS clearance and safeguarding references, as well as usual references. There will be some evening and weekend working. You will need to be a car owner/driver, with access to a vehicle within working hours, and hold a current full driving licence valid for driving in the UK due to the significant travel across the county, including in evenings and weekends, that this role requires.

About you:

To be successful, you will need to demonstrate the experience, knowledge, skills and understanding; and behavioural attributes outlined in the job profile. You will also need to meet the essential education & qualifications criteria.

About us:

• Flexible and agile working opportunities.
• 30 days Annual Leave (pro-rata for part time staff).
• An option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro-rata for part time staff).
• Family friendly employer offering benefits to support you and your family.
• Career development and qualification opportunities.
• Supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision.
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day online or by telephone.
• An in-house Occupational Health service.
• Employee discount scheme.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car scheme (T&Cs apply).
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network, dNet (disability and mental health network), and the Young Employees Network.

How to apply:

If you feel you have the skills, desire, and experience required to make a positive difference in this role, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your application and personal statement today by clicking the 'Apply Now' button. You are welcome to also submit a CV but please be aware this will not form part of the shortlisting as we follow Safer Recruitment.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role prior to application, please email Lisa Meggs, Strategic Lead for Education Inclusion, in the first instance with a contact telephone number; she will then be available to ring interested candidates back for an informal discussion.

The closing date is 11.59pm on Wednesday 25th February. Short-listed candidates will be contacted by email before Friday 6th March.

Additional Information:

This Position is subject to a DBS check. The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months' employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

If you are an Internal applicant and consider yourself to have a disability as per the Equality Act (2010), please declare this in an email, as this is NOT currently covered in the application due to a technical error.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.