Portage Home Visitor

**Band 7: £22,495 - £25,862 **( £27,852 - £32,020 FTE)

**Hours**:Full time. Term Time only (42 working weeks), although you will be required to an additional days during school holidays due to business needs.

**The Portage Service**

Portage is a nationally and internationally recognised home visiting educational service for families and carers with pre-school children (0 - 4.5 years old) with SEND.

The Portage team based at the Civic Offices are an integral part of the Inclusion Service. Inclusion delivers a range of support services that aim to remove the barriers to achievement for all Portsmouth children and young people, in particular those with special educational needs or from vulnerable groups. This includes enabling children and young people to benefit from education or training, with support, if necessary, to ensure that they can make progress in their learning, build and maintain positive social and family relationships, develop emotional resilience and make successful transitions to employment, higher education and independent living.

As a service we take pride in our work by valuing others, focusing on what's important so that we make a real and positive difference. Our values are outlined in our Ways of Working and our Guiding Principles and if they reflect how you are and how you work then this could be the role that meets your expectations.

**The role**

To deliver Portage a specialist, individually tailored package of assessment, monitoring and early intervention using the Portage model for pre-school children 0- 3 yrs with SEND and their families.

To deliver Portage Plus, supporting neurodiverse needs such as social communication difficulties through an intensive specialist, educational service delivered at home and in early years setting,

**What you'll need**
- A minimum early year’s qualification of at least NVQ3 in Early Years or Education or other relevant qualifications with an underpinning knowledge of child development.
- Experience of working directly with pre-school children who have special/additional needs or developmental delay, including Neurodiversity or Autism Spectrum Disorder,
- Experience or awareness of working in partnership with families and early years settings.
- Evidence of completion of the Portage Workshop, delivered by accredited trainers of the National Portage Association, or willingness to undertake this training.
- Ideally acquired additional relevant training in the field of SEND such as using Makaton, PECS, Autism, PMLD, sensory needs.
- Completed training or extensive knowledge related to Neurodiversity / Autism and Social Communication needs or willingness to undertake this training.
- The ability to use your professional skills, knowledge, and experience of child development to assess, set targets, review and promote development
- Experience of working in partnership with parents/carers, early years practitioners and other relevant professionals.
- Proven skills to work as part of a team; supporting, sharing knowledge and skills as well as attending and contributing to regular supervision sessions
- An understanding of the diversity of the children's needs, their families and carers requiring you to be flexible, adaptable and understanding of their unique and differing needs whilst maintaining a sense of humour and professionalism
- The ability to build and maintain appropriate, trusting, supportive relationships and maintain personal and professional boundaries with all carers and children retaining empathy and yet the ability to challenge and influence.
- Resilience, humour and strength to manage emotionally laden situations, supporting families experiencing a range of anxieties, difficulties and challenges.
- The ability work in potentially difficult physical situations e.g on the floor in homes and nurseries, as well as carrying bags with heavy or awkward resources.
- A full driving licence and have the use of a car during working hours for home and nursery visits, transporting or carrying resources.

**What you'll get in return working for Portsmouth City Council**
- Term time only working hours to suit family life
- Local Government pension - one of the best available with the ability to pay in more for a greater reward or reduce your contributions if you wish
- Training and development opportunities such as progression planning or in house apprenticeships
- Travel discounts on bus, train and ferry
- Travel loans: Interest free loans to assist with season tickets for travel on bus, ferry, or train.
- Cycle to work scheme also allows successful applicants to loan the cost of a bike and pay this back by a salary sacrifice.
- Extensive wellbeing support including the Employee Assistant Programme and dedicated Wellbeing Champions across the organisation
- Finances - salary sacrifice loans and access to money & debt advice
- Benefits portal - local leisure discounts on gyms, theme parks, beauty treatments as well as online retailer discount