About Us

Early Years SEND Play and Family Senior
£40,854 - £49,503 per annum
Permanent
Full time (36 hours)
Wandsworth
The role will require outreach work and some home visiting.

Are you a motivated Senior Play Worker with the experience of leading the delivery of high-quality play sessions for children with emerging and complex needs? The Early Years Inclusion team provides support to both children, parents and Early Years settings to enable children with emerging SEND to access their Early Years entitlement. You will be joining Wandsworth as an Early Years SEND Play and Family Senior to lead a team of workers who will provide targeted play sessions for children with Special Educational Needs and support their parents / carers. Can you demonstrate inspiring leadership and management to the team to help these young children and their families and make a difference to their everyday lives?  

About the role 

You will line manage the Centre staff (4 team members) and provide day to day leadership and management of the Centre including safety and safeguarding, planning and promoting sessions, and evaluating the work of the Centre. You will work alongside other leaders within the Early Years Inclusion team around processes for the identification of children and to deliver a training programme for staff in Children’s Centres and Early Years settings. 

To fulfil this role, you will have substantial knowledge of: 

• The National Portage Association Principles and Models related to service delivery.
• Safeguarding and child protection policy and practice.
• Early Years Foundation Stage attainment levels and age-related expectations.
• Legislative and statutory requirements relating to children resulting from the SEND Code of Practice (2015) and relevant Regulations linked to the Children and Families Act (2014), including Ofsted requirements.

This is a public facing role therefore, home working is not appropriate. You will have the opportunity to start the role as soon as possible upon successful completion of your onboarding checks.  

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• A successful track record of experience as a senior / lead in a service for Early Years children with special educational needs and disabilities.
• An ability to motivate, challenge and support team members to ensure the best possible services are provided to meet the needs of Early Years children with SEND.
• Substantial experience and evidence-based practice in the pedagogy linked to Early Childhood Education and the ability to integrate this into practice, service delivery and partnership working.
• Experience of ensuring work is recorded and evidenced to demonstrate impact for children, young people, and their families.
• A professional qualification in a related field: A range of specific qualifications could be appropriate such as Qualified Teacher Status, Early Childhood Education or recognized / substantial SEND qualifications.

For more information or an informal conversation about the role please contact Andy Fish at andy.fish@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

If you are an experienced leader who meets the above criteria and want to develop your career by joining a team of experienced and knowledgeable Early Years professionals, we welcome you to apply for this opportunity. 

Closing Date: 11:59pm on Thursday 2nd May 2024
Shortlisting Date: Friday 3rd May 2024
Interview Date: Friday 10th May 2024
Test / Presentation: You will be expected to complete a written task and present your vision as part of the interview process.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. 

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. 

We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We offer a wide range of benefits designed to attract, develop, and reward our employees such as 40 days annual leave (including Bank Holidays), flexible working and a generous pension plan.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils