Purpose of the post
•Ensure that the people of Gwynedd are at the heart of everything we do.
•To ensure that the children and young people of Gwynedd and Anglesey are central to everything we do.
•Act as an Additional Learning Needs and Inclusion Quality Officer within a specific area on behalf of Gwynedd and Anglesey’s Education Department, contributing to pupils’ development within and outside schools, and collaborating with related children’s Services to that end. Contribute significantly to the Authorities’ main aim of ensuring all our pupils achieve their full potential.
•The post holder will be well versed in and able to offer guidance on ALN and Inclusion fields, and will have a thorough understanding of current ALN and Inclusion Welsh Government legislation.
•The post holder will have significant experience in the ALN and Inclusion fields, together with monitoring educational quality and managing staff.
•The post holder will be responsible for fully implementing the outcomes of Gwynedd and Anglesey’s ALN and Inclusion Strategic Review
•They will also take part in formal reviews and are also reponsible for visiting schools as part of proactive procedures, reporting on strengths and areas that require attention by:
•Assisting schools to self evaluate themselves
•Develop and implement the role of the local authorities with regard to raising standards through challenging and supporting schools.
•Responsibility to operate within a specific area to:
•Ensure consistency and compliance by operating in accordance with the relevant legislations and Practice Code.
•Maintain and monitor the Individual Development Plans for a small number of pupils who have most acute needs in the area’s mainstream schools.
•Operate to ensure consistency on a specific area level, ensuring that the Area's Co-ordinator operates within the requirements of the Wales ALN and Inclusion Practice Code and the authority's ALN and Inclusion Criteria.
•Advise and supervise the ALN and Inclusion Co-ordinators to ensure consistency with matters relating to the day to day and strategic implementation in their role.
•Give input on good practice to schools to feed into the processes of self evaluation and school's development plan.
•Monitor effective use of the school's devolved ALN and Inclusion resources.
•Identify the training needs of a specific area
•Take part in the development and maintaining of a training programme in an ALN and Inclusion post in two counties and offer training as required by the Co-ordinators and schools in the field of Role, Good practice and the ALN and Inclusion Co-ordinator's Statutory Responsibility.
•Work as part of a team to ensure consistency across Gwynedd and Anglesey.
•Accept guidance under the ALN Senior Manager, the Inclusion Senior Manager and the Educational Psychology Service, and collaborate closely with the other ALN and Inclusion Services within the area.
•Receive guidance and work closely with the Education Officers (Gwynedd) / Senior School and Inclusion Standards Manager (Anglesey).
•Ensure that schools co-ordinate with the authority's statutory timetables and arrangements (e.g. for Forums or Panels) with providing the information needed to make decisions.
•Monitoring and reporting:
•The ALN&I provision within the schools
•Report on the quality of the teaching and learning for ALN pupils
•Monitor and offer guidance on data collection and outcomes of the findings
•Report on the quality of the Area Co-ordinators
•The support for parents
•The consistency in the service across the areas.
•That a school makes the appropriate use of the specialist services that are available.
Responsibility for functions
•Laptop and mobile phone
Main duties
Contact with Parents
•Promote and ensure consistency in the use of methods that focus on individuals to create Individual Development Plans - taking specific responsibility to ensure that parents receive the appropriate support in these reviews.
•Receive and deal with complaints are concerns according to the policy of the two Local Authorities
•Promote and share good practice of collaborating with parents and guardians.
Compliance
•Responsibility in ensuring guidance and support for the Additional Learning Needs and School Inclusion Co-ordinator to ensure compliance with the relevant legislations; the ALN Practice Code and any ALN policies and procedures by the Authority.
•Ensure that schools practice the correct use of registering and electronic methods of keeping ALN data - ensuring access to IT training as required.
•Contribute towards ensuring quality by monitoring the effects of provisions within schools on pupils' progress with ADN, as well as the cost of the provision, the frequency of the reviews and the use of methods that concentrate on an individual.
•Contribute to the strategic plans of individual schools in the field of additional learning needs, ensuring that every school conforms to the legislative requirements.
•Monitor and report on the use of assistants in catchment areas within the area.
School ALN Organisation
•Prepare reports on progress (individuals / the service) against agreed criteria.
•Ensure that the Criteria is known is all and is implemented consistently in our schools.
•Ensure records and database of the pupils who are receiving the service’s support.
•Analyse data according to requirements and submit reports.
•Receive referrals for additional support ensuring that the necessary evidence is presented to the ALN&I Area Forum promptly and complete.
•Co-ordinate feedback from the forums ensuring action is taken by relevant stakeholders
•Take part, as required, in processes that review, monitor and develop the ALN and Inclusion Service.
•Work alongside and receive guidance from the Area's Educational Psychologists.
•Ensure a central school overview in terms of quality, and include the Individual Development Plans and reconcile the use of methods that focus on individuals to create and review them.
•Responsibility for co-ordinating the ALN&I Area Forum / Moderation Panel Meetings that will discuss the provision within the criteria.
•Contribute towards the process of multi-agency joint-planning and co-operating and within the Integrated Team for meeting the needs of additional learning needs.
•Ensure that the provision of Additional Educational Needs is operative within schools, and ensure that the provision is of the highest standards for pupils with additional learning needs.
Multi-agency working.
•Ensure operative contact with educational establishments and other educational partners.
•Specific responsibility in the transitional periods for ensuring multi-agency collaboration, including post 16.
•Awareness of Social Services legislation
Managing Change and Planning
•Responsibility to respond to parents' initial enquiries, and to try to solve any dispute about the ALN provision within the region.
•Assist in the development of suitable consultation procedures that will ensure that the Additional Learning Needs and Inclusion Strategy meets the needs and aspirations of the users of the Service
•Contribute towards consulting and sharing information with all of the stakeholders.
•Contribute towards the understanding of the pupils' needs within the region in various Forums.
General
•Responsibility for self-development.
•Ensure compliance with Health and Safety rules in the workplace in accordance with the responsibilities noted in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Council’s Health and Safety Policy.
•Operate within the Council’s policies in relation to equal opportunities and equality.
•Responsible for managing information in accordance with the Council’s information management guidelines. Ensure that personal information is treated in accordance with Data Protection legislation.
•Commitment to reducing the Council’s carbon emissions in accordance with the Carbon Management Plan, and to encourage others to act positively towards reducing the Council’s Carbon Footprint.
•Undertake any other reasonable duty which corresponds to the salary level and responsibility level of the job.
•Responsibility to report any concern or suspicion that a child or vulnerable adult is being abused.
Special circumstances
•Some meetings could be outside normal working hours