Virtual School Early Years Advisor

Staffordshire County Council; England; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Disability Confident employer

Gold Award Armed Forces employer

Guaranteed interview for care leavers

Job summary

Staffordshire Virtual School for Looked After Children is recruiting to champion the educational progression of very young children in care. The role focuses on monitoring attendance and Personal Education Plans for the 0–5 cohort, coordinating with nurseries and carers to ensure development targets are met, and enabling smooth transitions into statutory schooling with trauma‑informed support.

The successful candidate will work with early years leaders and social care professionals to remove

Qualifications

• Proven ability to communicate effectively with children, families and professionals.
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills to work with multi-agency teams.
• Strong organisational skills to manage attendance, PEPs and targets.
• Experience supporting early years settings and safeguarding policies.

Responsibilities

• Monitor attendance, achievement and Personal Education Plans for 0–5 Looked After children.
• Attend and contribute to Personal Education Plans; set SMART targets.
• Collaborate with early years leaders and professionals to remove barriers to education.
• Engage nurseries, pre-schools and carers to support individual children’s development.
• Support Learning in the home with foster carers to meet early development milestones.

Skills

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Organisational skills

Early years experience

Social care collaboration

Education

GCSEs including Maths & English

Job description

Staffordshire Virtual School for Looked After Children is responsible for promoting and driving the educational attainment and outcomes of children who are looked after from 0 – 25 years.

We are looking to appoint a new member of the team to champion and monitor the educational progress of very young children in care to ensure they are school ready and transition smoothly into statutory schooling with appropriate early intervention where necessary.

The successful candidate will be contributing to raising the standards of educational attainment, achievement and attendance of Looked After children placed in and outside of Staffordshire.

You will need to be passionate about working with our children, with excellent communication, interpersonal and organisational skills and have experience of working with both early years and social care professionals.

This post is fixed term, full time - 12 months from 4th January 2027.

Main Responsibilities

• Responsible for monitoring and tracking the attendance, achievement, and Personal Education Plans of the 0-5 cohort of Children in Care.
• Attend and contribute to Personal Education Plans as directed by the education coordinator and ensure SMART aspirational target setting for our children.
• Work with early years leaders and other professionals to remove barriers to accessing education.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with nurseries, pre-schools, childminders, and private/voluntary early years providers to support individual children.
• Working alongside foster carers to deliver packages of learning in the home to support age related expectations and work towards securing a good level of development for our children at the end of their Reception year.
• Working in partnership with the Early Years team, Educational Psychology service, School Admissions, etc, to support the educational outcomes for our 0-5 cohort as needed.
• To support Early Years settings and staff working with care experienced children to develop an attachment and trauma aware approach.
• This Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• This position is subject to a criminal records check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly CRB) which will require you to disclose details of all unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.

The Ideal Candidate

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

• Qualifications/Professional membership :5 GCSE Subjects or equivalent including Mathematics and English
• Knowledge and Experience working directly with vulnerable children in an education setting.
• Knowledge and understanding of the education system and services.
• Experience of supporting multi-agency partnership working.
• An understanding of the effect of trauma and attachment on the education of looked after children.
• Experience in the use of IT to both record information and inform data gathering, ensuring accurate communication of all information.
• Knowledge of safeguarding policies and procedures.
• This post is designated as a casual car user.

Interviews will be held on 30th November 2026.

For more information about the role please contact: Julie Roper-Thompson [e-mail]

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

• In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire
• 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.

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.

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

This Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

This position is subject to a criminal records check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly CRB) which will require you to disclose details of all unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.

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.