Senior SEND Lead Worker

at  Wiltshire Council

To act as the key point of contact for the young person and family with complex cases, and to coordinate any activities that are required to meet the outcomes, ensuring the provision of holistic care and support. There will be a requirement to coordinate the Education, Health and Care Needs assessment process, working with the customer, to identify outcomes and how these can be met. The Senior SEND lead worker will liaise with other professionals to ensure that the child/young person and their family has an organised and coordinated approach in order to meet their outcomes. The children, young people and families with more complex needs will be supported through this process by a Senior SEND lead worker.
The Senior SEND lead worker will take on the responsibility to lead on one of three particular areas ensuring that best practice is followed and SEND lead workers are supported in relation to these areas. These areas are: Statutory Responsibilities, Inclusion practice in early years and primary settings, Preparation for adulthood. These three areas are of particular importance and are often related to the key stages/transitions of a child or young persons life therefore that lead the Senior SEND lead worker will take on this is crucial. The Senior SEND Lead worker will provide supervision and day to day support to the SEND lead workers in relation to case load management Specific duties and responsibilities include: Act as a single point of regular and consistent contact for children, young people with SEND and their families with complex cases, when being supported with a My Plan.
Advise colleagues on how to increase inclusion support within mainstream and universal settings. To provide advice and support for settings/services and families on SEND related matters, including when applying for statutory assessment for individual children. To work in close partnership with settings/services, securing best outcomes for children and young people with SEND. To promote the early identification of children and young people with SEND additional needs.
Coordinate practitioners and services around the child, young person and their family. A key role of the Senior SEND lead worker will be to identify when specialist (Social workers, Educational Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, other professionals etc.) involvement is required, make the appropriate contacts and ensure effective liaison with the specialists. Arrange person centred Team Around the Child meetings (Multidisciplinary and/or multiagency) as required. CA11-2043 Senior SEND Lead Worker Page 5 of 10 Be proactive in promoting multi agency partnership working as best practice.
To be instrumental in developing pathways for joint working- including Every Child Matters and the National Service Framework. Co-ordinate and facilitate a joint Education, Health and Care Needs assessment process and single holistic person centred plan, for the more complex cases, that focuses on the child or young persons educational, health and social care needs in line with the Education Act 2011 and when appropriate the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and other legislation and organisational policy and reviews. Ensure that each need identified in the assessment is matched to an outcome in the plan. The plan will be agreed with young people and their families.
Responsible for drafting and finalising single plans, including those with statutory protections. Ensure that the plan is reviewed as agreed. Enable customers to identify and agree outcomes and how they can be achieved. It will be necessary at all times to work to the key operating principles of the service to ensure that the customer has choice and control, that the services provided are cost effective, and that any risks are clearly identified.
The Senior SEND lead worker will apply criteria and when appropriate, the Fair Access to Care Criteria in relation to the provision of services. The Senior SEND lead worker will operate within and across the legislative frameworks for childrens services and adult social care. Support children and young people to move between non statutory and statutory support as required. When moving into statutory support they will be responsible for monitoring work progress to ensure that national indicators and legislative deadlines are met.
To take a lead on the quality and effectiveness of inclusive practice - to develop and deliver training in response to government initiatives and identified needs, for example in keyworking, working in partnership and person centred thinking. Understand, and deliver on, departmental priorities for high quality services, aiming for good results in Key Performance Indicators. Be responsible for collecting and recording relevant data that will inform strategic planning and commissioning, as requested. Management of own caseload.

Overseeing caseload of SEND lead workers - The Senior SEND lead worker will take a responsibility to lead on a particular area, ensuring best practice is followed and ensuring the SEND lead workers are supported in that area. These key areas are: - - Statutory Responsibilities (ensuring that for statutory My Plans legislation is followed in terms of process and timeframe. The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers on this when a statutory My Plan is being considered) - Inclusion practice in early years and primary setting (ensuring that in early years and primary settings the concept of inclusion is widely understood, and to ensure that the transition from early years into primary settings is seamless. The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers to ensure this practice is consistent).

• Preparation for adulthood (ensuring that young people approaching 16 have holistic plans in place that prepares for adulthood/life so for example ensure that plans are under CA11-2043 Senior SEND Lead Worker Page 6 of 10 discussion and in place in relation to housing, employment etc). The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers to ensure these holistic plans are in place. To carry out all tasks and responsibilities in accordance with legal requirements across education, health and social care. Identify and support development opportunities for SEND lead workers.

To contribute to the development of the SEND service, to respond to operational needs by initiating, developing and implementing innovate solutions. Eg SEND and Inclusion Strategy. May deputise for a SEND team Manager, or other senior SEND lead workers, as and when required

• Preparation for adulthood (ensuring that young people approaching 16 have holistic plans in place that prepares for adulthood/life so for example ensure that plans are under CA11-2043 Senior SEND Lead Worker Page 6 of 10 discussion and in place in relation to housing, employment etc). The lead will be required to support SEND lead workers to ensure these holistic plans are in place. To carry out all tasks and responsibilities in accordance with legal requirements across education, health and social care. Identify and support development opportunities for SEND lead workers