Virtual School Education Advisor

Wmjobs; Lichfield; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is seeking an education professional to raise attainment for looked after children across Lichfield, Cannock, Tamworth and East Staffordshire, with travel across the county and occasional nationwide trips. This fixed-term full-time role runs until 31 July 2027.

You will monitor attainment, implement Virtual School processes, contribute to Personal Education Plans, and set SMART targets for looked-after pupils, working within multi-agency teams.

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 the effect of trauma and attachment on the education of looked after children.

Responsibilities

• Maintain monitoring and tracking of Looked After Children’s educational attainment.
• Implement the Virtual School new to care process.
• Attend Personal Education Plans and set SMART aspirational targets.
• Address identified educational needs and attendance issues for looked after children.

Skills

Vulnerable children experience

Education system knowledge

Engagement strategies

Multi-agency collaboration

Trauma & 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 work across the districts of Lichfield, Cannock, Tamworth and East Staffordshire 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.

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

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 as directed by the education coordinator and ensure SMART aspirational target setting for looked after pupils.
• respond to identified areas of educational need for children in care such as

1. Where there is risk of suspension
2. Where there is poor or non-attendance.
3. Where the young person is under achieving educationally
4. When a child has no school place

The Ideal Candidate

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.

Interviews are expected to be held on Friday 23rd October 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.

Please note: The minimum criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

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 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.

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.