Inclusion Development Officer

About the role

You will work closely with other services to ensure that children and young people are receiving the right level of support and reduce the community’s reliance on specialist social care interventions by expanding the availability of high-quality targeted Short Breaks within the local community. This role operates within an ' invest to save’ objective; by building capacity in mainstream settings and assessing barriers to inclusion, you will help create a sustainable service model that prevents the escalation of needs into costlier statutory interventions.

• Build strong partnerships with activity providers to increase opportunities for children and young people with disabilities to participate in mainstream provisions. 
• Champion children and young people with disabilities inclusion and promote the Short Breaks service to providers.
• Support mainstream activity providers in carrying out their reasonable adjustment duties under the Equality Act 2010, identify and signpost providers to relevant training and resources, carry out visits to support general inclusion and individual plans for a child or a young person.
• Assess mainstream activity providers’ inclusion practice in the borough to understand barriers to engagement, barriers to inclusion and identify providers who have good inclusive practice.
• Establish and promote inclusion standards for mainstream activity providers.
• Create a database and monitoring system or inclusive providers that can be utilised for signposting across social care services.

For further information about this role, please contact Suki Hayes-Lapham by email suki.hayes-lapham@achievingforchildren.org.uk for an informal discussion.

About you

Qualifications 

• Educated to A level, pass or above (or equivalent) in English and Mathematics or an equivalent level of experience.
• Proven evidence of continuing professional development.

Skills and experience 

• Experience working directly with children and young people with disabilities. 
• Experience of developing risk assessments and individual plans for children and young people with SEND. 
• Ability to build relationships with colleagues and partners to champion inclusion and the development of the universal short breaks offer. 
• Ability to manage your own workload and adapt to changes with minimal supervision. 
• Sufficient technical skills to use digital tools effectively (e.g. Google Suite or Microsoft 365). 
• Ability to travel to different locations across the borough.
• Good analytical skills to assess inclusion barriers, monitor service impact and inform future short breaks development strategy. 
• Good understanding of what makes a setting inclusive and what a provider needs to implement to be inclusive. 
• Good understanding and working knowledge of the legislation and registration surrounding short breaks and SEND.
• Good understanding of safeguarding procedures and compliance requirements to ensure that activity providers are keeping children and young people safe. 

About our benefits

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
• Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of staff benefits and discounts
• An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway

To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children click here. For our social work offer click here. For our Recruitment Journey, click here.

Important Information

Start dates: Achieving for Children have set start dates meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.

Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.

Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children 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 and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.