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Staffordshire County Council; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is recruiting a Virtual School Advisor based at Castle House, Newcastle. You will improve educational attainment, attendance and achievement for looked-after children and coordinate plans with the education team across the county.

The role requires experience with vulnerable children, a sound understanding of the education system and collaboration with social care and teaching professionals. Fixed term full-time until 31 July 2027, salary £31,015–£34,811.

Qualifications

• Experience working directly with vulnerable children in an education setting.
• Knowledge and understanding of the education system and services.
• Experience of strategies to motivate and engage vulnerable children and young people.
• Experience of supporting multi‑agency partnership working.
• Understanding of the effect of trauma and attachment on education.

Responsibilities

• Maintain effective monitoring and tracking systems for Looked After Children’s educational attainment.
• Implement the Virtual School new to care process.
• Attend and contribute to Personal Education Plans for C&YP and set SMART targets.
• Respond to identified areas of educational need within settings for young people in public care and care leavers.

Skills

Vulnerable children experience

Education system knowledge

Motivate and engage vulnerable youth

Multi-agency partnership

Trauma and attachment understanding

Job description

Do you have knowledge of the education and care systems, and how they impact on children's education?

You will be contributing to raising the standards of educational attainment, achievement and attendance of children looked after to Staffordshire.

You will be district based, at Castle House, ST5 1BL, with expected travel across the whole county with the potential to encompass country-wide travel on occasions

The role is Fixed Term full time until 31st July 2027.

Internal applicants: if you plan to apply for this role on a secondment basis please make sure you have followed the process

here for gaining approval from your current line manager. If you are offered the role and you do not have agreement this will cause significant delays to the process.

For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team’s ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

Main Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities

You will be contributing to raising the standards of educational attainment, achievement and attendance of children looked after to Staffordshire including:

• maintaining effective monitoring and tracking systems for Looked After Children’s educational attainment.
• responsibility for implementing the Virtual School new to care process.
• attend and contribute to Personal Education Plans for C&YP as directed by the education coordinator and ensure SMART aspirational target setting for looked after pupils.
• respond to identified areas of educational need within settings for young people in public care and care leavers under the direction of the education transition co‑coordinator e.g.:
  • Where there is danger of suspension/place withdrawal
  • Where the young person is not in education, employment or training
  • Where there is poor or non‑attendance.
  • Where the young person is under achieving educationally

The Ideal Candidate

You will need to be passionate about working with young people, with excellent communication, interpersonal and organisational skills and have experience of working with both teaching and social care professionals.

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• experience working directly with vulnerable children in an education setting.
• knowledge and understanding of the education system and services.
• experience of strategies to motivate and engage vulnerable children and young people.
• experience of supporting multi‑agency partnership working.
• an understanding of the effect of trauma and attachment on the education of looked after children.

If you would like an informal chat about the role please contact Helen Finn, Looked After Children Education Co-ordinator Post 16 at

[e-mail]

Interviews are expected to be held on Wednesday October 21st 2026

Our Recruitment Process:

We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to

Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a

a

Disability Confident employer

Gold Award Armed Forces

care leavers

- we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Virtual School Advisor

Salary: £31,015 to £34,811 a year

Hours: Full-time

Location: Castle House, Newcastle, ST5 1BL

Job type: Permanent

Company: Staffordshire County Council