Portage Worker/Early Years Home Visitor

Coventry City Council; Coventry; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Coventry City Council is recruiting a Portage Worker to deliver home-based Portage to a designated caseload across Coventry. You will work closely with families and early years settings, upholding Portage principles and ensuring an inclusive, supportive approach for children with diverse needs.

The role requires experience in Early Years, excellent organisational and communication skills, and the ability to work independently while building strong partnerships with professionals, families and

Qualifications

• Experience in Early Years.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively.
• Ability to work on own initiative.
• Be creative, dynamic and a good communicator.
• Experience of working with children who have SEND needs.
• Ability to develop strong partnerships with professionals, families and colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Deliver home-based Portage to an allocated caseload, upholding Portage principles.
• Work in partnership with families and settings.

Skills

Early Years experience

Excellent organisational skills

Effective communication

Work on own initiative

Proactive and positive

Creative and dynamic

SEND experience

Partnership development

Job description

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 remains 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.

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and strive to create an inclusive workplace culture that accepts everyone and is free from discrimination and bias.

The Coventry Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) Support Service exists to deliver the aspirational challenge set to us by young people with SEND and their families: ‘To Lift the Cloud of Limitation and enable them to enjoy an ordinary life’.

We are a creative, connected and forward-thinking service. Together with our families and partners in schools, settings, the NHS and third sector, we have driven change that has pushed us to the cutting edge of SEND. This includes embedding co-production across all areas of service delivery, investing in our SEND workforce, and pioneering new initiatives such as the award-nominated ‘Together We Can’ partnership group to engage Early Years children and their families and ‘My Support Plan’, a family-centred approach to understanding children's strengths and needs and tailoring their support.

When Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) completed a Local Area inspection of Coventry in October 2019, they commended our “genuine passion and commitment to get things right for children and young people with SEND and their families”; our respect for the “lived experiences of children and young people with SEND and their parents” and the “strong partnership between school settings and education service providers, with a high level of buy-back of specialist services”.

The SEND Early Years Team consists of specialist teachers, portage workers and complex communication specialists who provide intervention and support for children with complex special educational needs in early years from birth to 5 both in the home and early years settings.

What is the job role?

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, highly motivated person to join a dedicated Portage team working across Coventry.

You will be delivering home-based Portage to an allocated caseload, ensuring the principles of Portage are upheld. You will be working in partnership with families and settings.

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

All candidates must have the Right to Work in the UK. We are currently not offering sponsorship for this role.

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).

For further information/informal discussion, please call Debs Schindler 07885 252021

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for an applicant with:

• Experience in Early Years.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively
• Ability to work on own initiative
• A proactive and positive approach.
• Be creative, dynamic and a good communicator.
• Experience of working with children who have SEND needs
• The ability to develop strong partnerships with professionals, families and colleagues
• Skills and expertise to develop inclusive practice for children with SEND.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people.

• 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

Interview date: 10 & 11 December 2026

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 5100 staff from a range of different 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

Coventry City Council

Attached documents

• JD&PS Portage Home Visits (1).pdf
• Coventry City Council Application Process.pdf