SENDIASS Advisor

What will you be doing?

Are you passionate about empowering families to understand their rights and help them navigate the Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) system? Do you want to help families improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND?

As a SENDIASS Adviser, you will be a key point of contact, offering high-quality advice and support to service users. Your work will help young people and their families understand complex SEND legislation and local processes, enabling them to participate confidently in decision-making and to achieve the best possible outcomes.

You will provide tailored information, advice and support to families across a range of SEND-related matters, including SEN support in schools, statutory assessments, Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), mediation, tribunals and local support services.

You will work closely with families and professionals, helping them to understand legislation, and feel confident in making decisions. If you are motivated, empathetic, and committed to inclusion, this is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference every day. You will manage a caseload of parents, carers and young people aged 0–25. You will attend and support families at meetings and hearings, while maintaining detailed and accurate records of all interactions on our database.

Working collaboratively, you will build strong relationships with local authorities, health services and voluntary sector organisations to provide effective, joined-up support. In addition, you will develop and deliver workshops and training on a range of SEND topics for parents, carers and professionals.

About you

The successful candidate will have outstanding interpersonal skills, with the ability to listen empathetically, communicate clearly and build positive relationships with families and a wide range of stakeholders. You will be resilient and adaptable, able to handle sensitive information, remain calm under pressure and respond flexibly to changing circumstances. A solid understanding of current SEND legislation and practice is essential, together with the professionalism and independence needed to work effectively both as part of a team and on your own initiative.

You will be confident in using Microsoft systems including outlook, teams, Excel and PowerPoint and willing to embrace new digital tools and ways of working. You will also be committed to completing the Information, Advice and Support Services Network training (Units 1-3) and to carrying out your role in accordance with the statutory duties and principles set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice.

Many meetings take place on-line, but the role also involves some travelling across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Rutland to attend meetings, events and engagement activities when in person attendance is required. Our office base is New Shire Hall, Alconbury Weald and in person attendance is required for some meetings. Therefore, the ability to travel throughout the service area is essential.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off.   We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.  We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers