Virtual School Education Support Officer Post-16

Northumberland County Council; Morpeth; On-site; GBP 12,000 - 16,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days annual leave + holidays

LGPS pension scheme

Flexi leave (pro rata)

Job summary

Northumberland Virtual School is recruiting an Education Support Officer to work with post-16 care experienced young people, helping them progress into education, training or employment and ensuring continuity for those in EET.

You will support a cohort of young people, including those with SEND, mental health needs, or unaccompanied asylum seeking backgrounds, to engage with opportunities and achieve strong academic progress.

Job description

Virtual School Education Support Officer Post-16

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - County Hall MORPETH

Job Reference ncc/TP/80/3384/NP

Number of Positions:

1

Contract Type:

Fixed Term

Working Hours:

18.5

Location:

County Hall MORPETH

Closing Date:

07/10/2026

Job Category:

Region / Division:

UK Region

Directorate:

Job Introduction

Northumberland Virtual School is a multi-disciplinary team of professionals who promote and support the educational attainment and progress of Northumberland's cared for children and care leavers to improve their outcomes. We are recruiting an enthusiastic and motivated Education Support Officer to join our Virtual School, Post 16 Pathways Team.

As an Education Support Officer, you will be responsible for working with a cohort of post 16 care experienced young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), exploring opportunities and supporting them to progress into and engage with education, training, and employment (EET) as well as a smaller caseload of young people who are in EET, and the designated teachers who support them, to ensure young people make strong academic progress and have stability in their EET placements.

Your role will include working with young people who may have complex behavioural difficulties, SEND or mental health issues, young people with high aspirations who have not yet achieved their goals, and young people who arrived as unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Your focus will be working directly with young people, removing barriers to EET and supporting them to access opportunities. The role will include lone working with young people in the community and within their homes. The ability to build relationships with young people quickly is essential.

You must be forward thinking and be able to proactively support education and training providers so that they can maintain the young person's place and provide professional challenge and training when needed.

As part of your role you will be expected to work with care teams to create high quality Personal Education Plans (PEPs) for 16-17 year olds, within statutory timescales, which support a return to EET and, to represent the Virtual School at multi agency meetings as and when required.

This role is 18.5 hours

Employment Location: Virtual School, County Hall, Morpeth

For an informal discussion, please contact Andrea Johnson 07786 191100

Why choose us?

We have some outstanding benefits and perks to offer you, including:

• 26 days annual leave plus public/bank holidays, rising to 31 days after 5 years of service (pro rata for part-time employees)
• Automatic enrolment into the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Flexi scheme (if applicable) - up to 2 days flexible leave available per month (pro rata for part-time employees)

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