Harmful Sexual Behaviours Senior Practitioner

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: Oakfield Short Stay School, Belle Vue Road, Earl Shilton LE9 7PA (travel will be necessary between sites)

Salary: £41,259 -£44,109 per annum (pro rata for part time)

Working Hours: 37 hours per week Term Time

Contract Type: Fixed term for two years

Closing Date: 18th November 2026

Interview Date(s): 3rd December 2026

Oakfield Short Stay School is Leicestershire’s provision for school aged children who have been permanently excluded from school or are at risk of permanent exclusion. We have undergone a programme of significant growth to meet the needs of schools in line with local trends as a result we are recruiting a Harmful Sexual Behaviours Senior Practitioner. This role's main base will be County Hall; however, the practitioner will work across all our Oakfield school sites in line with responding to need. This means that travel between sites will be a necessary requirement.

This is an exciting opportunity, and we look forward to welcoming you into a vibrant working environment that prioritises staff well-being and joy in the workplace, high-quality education, innovative practice, and a strong response to safeguarding our most vulnerable pupils within Oakfield and the wider schools community.

About the Role

This role is aimed at developing and providing a specialist service that supports children, young people, families and professionals where sexual harmful behaviour is a concern. This role has a county-wide remit across offering the opportunity to influence practice, policy and outcomes at both strategic and frontline levels and will require the post holder to build strong partnerships with schools, families, local authority services, voluntary sector organisations, and national organisations in support of promoting systems collaboration and a supportive climate within Leicestershire.

The practitioner will challenge, where necessary, educational settings, support services, and families in support of improving the outcomes for all learners, whilst ensuring de-escalation and stabilisation of all children and young people.

The role would suit a practitioner with excellent communication and interpersonal skills who can inspire others. Many of our young people present with challenging behaviour, and we are looking for someone who can demonstrate strong empathy and the ability to intrinsically connect with pupils with complex SEMH needs, their families and the wider professional multi-agency group we work alongside.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic direction for HSB work, including service planning, partnership priorities and policy development
• Coordinating and overseeing complex assessments and interventions, including AIM-based assessments and multi-agency decision-making
• Acting as a specialist advisor to professionals across Social Care, Youth Justice, Education, Police, Health, Family support, Learning Mentors and partner agencies
• Supporting and developing the workforce through training, practice leadership, supervision and consultation
• Identify opportunities for innovation and, where appropriate, contribute to income generation and cost-effective service delivery.
• Provide professional challenge, mediation and escalation where relationships between stakeholders become strained or where progress is limited.
• Maintain a strong understanding of local and national provision, using this knowledge to guide schools through consultation, forums and case discussions.
• Hold a caseload to model best practice in intervention, partnership working and inclusive approaches.
• Contribute to referral triage and decision-making processes, identifying appropriate pathways and coordinating multi-agency responses.

An enhanced DBS with barred list check is required for this post.

About You

To apply for this post, you must be able to evidence in your application how you meet the following criteria:

• Have a relevant professional qualification (e.g. social work, psychology, Nursing) and the current professional registration.
• Evidence of safeguarding knowledge and best practice in the delivery of quality services and dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
• Experience of working within a multi-agency safeguarding environment and experience of allocating work according to need, demand and priority to a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of identifying the training needs of staff and delivering input to support and develop staff and partner agencies.
• Experience of assessing needs and finding solutions to problems for vulnerable children.
• Experience of building successful collaborative working with partners and other agencies that command respect, trust and confidence.
• Some knowledge of SEN legislation, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 and county SEN policy and procedures.
• Experience of working within a performance framework which focuses on the outcomes achieved through activities and well-developed knowledge of the types of services, initiatives or programmes which may be useful in delivering early help to children, young people and their families.
• Able to work alongside colleagues from different agencies and services using a focus of improving outcomes for children and to work through any differences or conflicts between individuals or agencies.
• The ability to converse at ease with stakeholders and provide advice.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and to delivering accessible and inclusive services which meet the needs of all of our residents. You will be asked to demonstrate your understanding of these commitments as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability. We are a Disability Confident Employer.

Please note: If you are appointed to this role on a fixed-term or internal secondment basis, you may later be offered a permanent appointment to the role, should the opportunity become available. Any such arrangements will be subject to organisational requirements and the relevant policy conditions being met.

Interested in Flexible Working? We are open to discussions about flexible working, which may include part-time working, job sharing, term-time working, flexible start and finish times, and hybrid working, depending on the requirements of the role and the service. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Netsai Muzuva - SENCO/Inclusion Coordinator (Safeguarding Lead)

Telephone: 01163052545

Email: Muzuva@leics.gov.uk