Senior SEN Specialist Teacher & Early Years Team Lead
Job introduction
Would you like to lead a talented and established Early Years SEN team? Are you a qualified teacher with a specialism in SEND and early years? Are you able to build effective relationships with diverse stakeholders including colleagues from a variety of disciplines, parents and carers, children, and young people? Then please join us in Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Services (BHISS) as our Senior Specialist SEN Teacher for Early Years and lead our team of ten EY teachers and practitioners.
You will have the opportunity to lead and develop a highly skilled and passionate early years SEND team and contribute to LA developments in Early Help and SEND. We are looking for a strong and creative leader to work with our other heads of services in BHISS to provide our 0-5 years early identification and early intervention offer for children with SEND and their families. Opportunities to shape and innovate service design and practice are central to ensuring that this service meets the needs of our children in Brighton and Hove, and we hope you will join us.
Interview date: Thursday 13th October 2022
For an informal discussion, please contact Sue Franklin - sue.franklin@brighton-hove.gov.uk
About the role
Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Services (BHISS) is a 100+ strong multi-disciplinary team that support children & young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and their families, through its work in early years settings, schools and further education. You will be leading the Early Years SEN Service and working alongside heads of services who lead: the Educational Psychology Service, the Sensory Support Services, the Schools Wellbeing Service and Mental Health Support Teams, the SEMH Service, the Autism and Language Service, and the Literacy Support Service.
In BHISS, we work collaboratively together across our individual services and contribute to each other’s leadership and CPD. We have a strong Business Support Team who ensure our systems run smoothly. We also have lots of opportunity to continuously develop our own skills through cross-services support and the extensive training offer on Brighton and Hove’s Learning Gateway.
We offer a broad range of training to settings and your team would be responsible for providing the EY Area SENCO role of support and high quality CPD of our early years’ settings. Your role is to ensure that private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) pre-schools, and maintained nurseries, have excellent advice and support. You will be managing the additional support funding for pre-schools and ensuring that the impact of this fund is measured. You will be involved in identifying and supporting projects for the early years sector in collaboration with early years advisors in the Early Help team. This role requires close relationship with health colleagues, and you will attend multi-disciplinary meetings in the health sector to support the transfer of knowledge about a child’s SEND into the education sector and vice versa.
The benefit of working as part of the BHISS team, and, as part of our BHISS Senior Leadership Team, is the opportunity to develop Early Years practices across the city. In the city we are currently developing our Early Help offer through Family Hubs. You will be able to influence how our services feed into this model and ensure that families get the right support at the right time. You will be line managed by the Principal Educational Psychologist and supported to be a reflective practitioner as you step into this role and develop your team. Each team lead in BHISS is given responsibility for their area of specialism which is guided by our BHISS Team Plan that connects to the wider strategic plans in Families, Children and Learning division of BHCC. We have recently moved to new offices which will enable us to work more closely with our social care colleagues and to have productive spaces to meet and collaborate in.
Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to upload your CV and answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (CV guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) and Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Work Permits: We may be able to obtain a Work Permit for this post but this is subject to meeting the requirements of the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Points-based Immigration System. Please see Gov.uk for more information on the Skilled Worker Visa.
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk)
Company information
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).