Lead Key Specialist Practitioner

Coventry City Council; Mole Valley, Rotherham; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity to join the SEMHL team as a Lead Outreach Key Specialist Practitioner. You will lead outreach specialists supporting primary pupils with diverse needs, ensuring a smooth transition for those facing challenges. The role emphasizes teamwork, empathy, and effective communication to make a positive impact on children's lives.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Supportive team environment

Opportunity to make a difference

Qualifications

• Experience in a primary school or service setting.
• Experience in supporting primary-aged children with SEND.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of outreach specialists in primary schools.
• Support pupils placed through the Fair Access Protocol.
• Provide quality intervention to improve behaviour and attendance.

Skills

Resilience

Empathy

Communication

Team Player

Solution-focused

Education

Experience in primary school

Experience in supporting SEND

Job description

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, accepting of all, and free from discrimination and bias.

Our Values

In line with our One Coventry Values, we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic, LGBT+, disabled, and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equity and respect remain at the heart of everything we do.

• Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
• Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
• Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
• Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
• Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
• Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.

What is the job role?

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the well-respected SEMHL team in Coventry as a Lead Outreach Key Specialist Practitioner (KSP).

You will lead a team of outreach specialists who work within the Key settings and in primary schools across the city.

We can offer you:

• A supportive and friendly team of colleagues
• Excellent professional development opportunities
• An opportunity to make a difference to children and families
• The chance to have a role in creatively shaping provision within an established and well-respected service

The main function of the role is to support primary pupils who are placed through the Fair Access Protocol (FAP) panel or have been permanently excluded. The aim is to support a successful transition into their next setting either by delivering this direct work yourself or supervising the work of other KSPs in the team, offering supervision, guidance, and monitoring the effectiveness of the offer.

Working with identified pupils to provide quality intervention that improves their behaviour, attendance, wellbeing, and achievement through our traded outreach service.

You will be expected to work with children who may have a range of SEND needs, including cognitive, physical, SEMH, and communication difficulties. You will need to be able to work on your own initiative with families, schools, management, staff, relevant professionals, and other agencies.

You will also be expected to vary the support offered to pupils, to meet their individual needs and the needs of the provider. This could include setting up and attending meetings, writing plans, delivering intervention, mentoring, and modelling strategies.

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).

Who are we looking for?

To be successful in this role, we are looking for someone:

• Who is personally resilient
• Able to manage a small team of colleagues
• Can assign caseloads to the relevant practitioner
• Can build relationships quickly and not take behaviour personally
• To be empathetic and patient
• To be positive and affirming
• To be solution-focused
• To be a good team player
• To be a good communicator
• To have experience in a primary school or service setting
• To have experience in supporting primary-aged children in all four areas of SEND

Discussions are warmly welcomed. Please contact Dawn Neale ([e-mail]) or Marie Rowley ([e-mail]) at the Key.

For full details on the application process, please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'.

Interview date: Observation, task, and panel interview on Tuesday 3rd June 2025.

Following recommendations from Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) for an additional pre-employment check with effect from 1 Sept 2022, please note, an online search may form part of this recruitment process.

If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

For full details on the application process, please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'. If there is any evidence of a candidate using AI to complete their application, then the application will be rejected unless the candidate can provide a justification which the Council considers to be reasonable.

About Coventry

Coventry has a proud, innovative, and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant, and diverse.

At Coventry, we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5,100 staff from a range of backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together, and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package. To find out more, please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies