Participation Officer - Virtual School

Human Resources & Development - Form 35 Version 16 - Issued May 2023 JOB DESCRIPTION AND PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT ▪ Title: Participation Support Officer (Virtual School) ▪ Post Number: TBC ▪ Grade and SCP: Grade 6, SCP 8 - 11 ▪ Permanent ▪ Function and Group: Learning & Skills - Virtual School Where your role fits at Shropshire Council As Shropshire Council we are rightly proud of our achievements and we have proven to be a resilient local authority in our response to the many challenges we overcome, particularly over recent years. We will be continuing this momentum with ambition and a focus on delivering our four key priorities outlined within the Shropshire Plan: Healthy People, Healthy Environment, Health Economy and Healthy Organisation. We are committed to achieving this by aligning everything we do to our vision 'Shropshire - living the best life'; to tell everyone that Shropshire Council is a great place to be. We will enable a skilled, happy, healthy, diverse, inclusive, empowered, and proud workforce that influences and leads change, addressing any inequalities. As a member of the Shropshire Virtual School team within Learning and Skills, you will support the achievement of these key priorities, making a real difference to the lives of people in Shropshire. The Shropshire Virtual School supports groups of vulnerable children and young people and the postholder will support the overall aims of the school. Overview of your role The primary focus of the post will be to work as part of the professional team to support meaningful participation and engagement for children and young people who the Virtual School has responsibility for. This includes Children in Care, Previously Looked After Children (PLAC) and Children in Need (CIN) /Children with a Social Worker. The role will involve working with young people delivering a range of participatory activities to encourage greater involvement and awareness of choices available that lead to positive outcomes - and to ensure they feel involved in the decisions made about them. To support the work of the Virtual School ensuring that young peoples' views are embedded in service design and delivery. Who will your manager be and what will you be responsible for? The post holder will be: ▪ responsible to Virtual School Headteacher, who is in turn responsible for the post holder's health and safety, training and development. ▪ expected to lead and/or contribute to a range of duties and build relations with both internal and external partners, in order to achieve specified outcomes but will not have direct authority over those involved. What will you be doing? 1. To plan and deliver a range of activities, events and council groups that encourage and engage young people who the Virtual School have responsibility for on an individual or group basis. 2. To develop the confidence of these young people in expressing their own views or opinions so that their voices can be heard effectively and can influence relevant service development from a young person's perspective. 3. To establish productive working relationships with partners of the Virtual School eg education settings, social workers and parents/carers in order to promote the achievements of young people who the Virtual School has responsibility for ; to deliver training and disseminate information to Shropshire County Council staff, foster carers and other partners. 4. Contribute to the overall work/aims of the Virtual School to achieve excellent service delivery, linking with local and national initiatives to promote participation, ensuring collation of and recording young peoples' views to inform management and future service delivery. 5. To improve communications by supporting the use of web-based applications and mechanisms to provide children and young people easier ways to tell us what they think about the services they receive. 6. Understand and comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection, equal opportunities, health, safety, security, confidentiality and data protection, reporting concerns to an appropriate person in order to maintain a safe and secure environment. 7. Participate in training and other learning activities as required and attend relevant meetings to ensure own continuing professional development. These duties are illustrative and not exhaustive. The post holder will be expected to become involved in a range of work to enable the service to respond effectively to the changing requirements of the Council and changes affecting the workforce. What we expect of you You will: ▪ adopt a customer focused approach when delivering your service, ensuring engagement with service users and maintenance of an appropriate personal profile, ▪ act as an advocate for your service and work collaboratively with colleagues across the whole Council to meet the needs of the people of Shropshire, ▪ meet individual, service and personal development targets agreed through the Personal Development Review Process, learn from experience and are committed to continuous improvement individually and as an employee of the Council, ▪ work with colleagues to meet your team's key performance indicators, support a culture of team working and ensure the team functions successfully in support of the Council's corporate and service objectives. ▪ meet the behaviours and competencies adopted by the Council in the way in which they achieve their objectives and carry out their work. What are your conditions of Service • The conditions of service are those laid down by Shropshire Council, which have been adopted and amended as necessary from those laid down by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services. • The post is based within the Virtual School Team at Shirehall. This post is subject to the following: ▪ The post is permanent, for 37 hours per week. ▪ The post is subject to the Council's Flexible Working Hours Scheme. • This post carries eligibility to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. Information about this will be sent with any formal offer of appointment. • The appointment is subject to one month's notice in writing on either side. • The appointment is subject to six months' satisfactory probationary service during which time the notice period will be one week on either side. • Smoking is not allowed in Council buildings, in Council vehicles or in any Council place of work. • It is a condition of your appointment that you provide a suitable vehicle for the performance of your duties and that this is readily available for use during normal working hours. You are entitled to claim for reimbursement of the costs of travel on council business at the HMRC rate of 45 pence per mile. Annual leave entitlement is a pro rata flat rate scheme of 207 hours (28 days) annual leave plus bank holidays, with five days extra awarded to those staff with five years local government service giving an entitlement of 244 hours (33 days). Two days of an employee's allowance (pro rota for part time staff) must be taken at Christmas for any potential Christmas closures. Employees who work in a building/service which is required to open over the Christmas period, the two days leave (pro rota) can be carried over into your next leave year but must be used by the end of March. What pre-employment checks will we undertake? The appointment is subject to receipt of the following pre-employment checks; 1. Satisfactory employment references, 2. Medical report, 3. Evidence of the qualifications required for the post/listed on your application form, This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such all applicants who are appointed to this post will be subject to an Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service before the appointment is confirmed. This check will include details of cautions, reprimands or warnings as well as convictions and non-conviction information. Once appointed, the successful applicant(s) will also be required to apply for an Enhanced Disclosure at pre-determined intervals during the course of their employment whilst in this post. Supplying false information or failing to disclose relevant information could be grounds for refusal and could amount to a criminal offence.