Send Operational Support Co-ordinator

We are looking for a SEND Operational Support Co-ordinator to join our SEND Team in Islington. We are responsible for managing the statutory Education, Health and Care needs assessment, review and placement processes.

The role is one that will be of interest to experienced Local Authority professionals who have knowledge and experience of using management information systems and overseeing IT related projects, as well as managing statutory processes within Children’s Services.

You will need to demonstrate an excellent knowledge and experience of using systems to drive workflow, along with highly refined interpersonal skills and be a team player who is able to motivate and mentor a team of SEN Keywork and Tribunal Coordinators whilst monitoring key performance indicators. The role requires you to develop and maintain mutually productive relationships with colleagues and partner agencies to support the delivery of services for children with SEND and their families.

**As SEND Operational Support Co-ordinator you will**:

- Be responsible for process improvement across SEN Operational Support, contributing to business change that will give the right results first time, with mínimal cost and maximum benefit to end users.
- Modify, enhance or adapt existing operational and business process and procedures across SEN Operational Support to ensure a safe and positive client experience and full compliance with all statutory requirements.
- Undertake project work to support process and system development within SEN Operational Support (e.g. training, drafting help guides, quality assurance, data cleansing).
- Provide training to support the SEN Operational Support staff, and to diagnose and resolve problems in processes and systems.
- Manage a small team of SEN Operational Support staff including: - Allocating and prioritising their workload and target setting.
- Providing regular check ins and opportunities to improve their professional practice.
- Manage of incoming communications including triaging queries to allow the appropriate SEN Keywork and Tribunal Coordinator, Keyworker, or team to answer.
- Respond to general enquiries from schools and families on behalf of the SEN team.
- Contribute to the work of the Local Authority relating to the statutory assessment and review of children and young people with complex Education, Health, and Care needs.
- Act as a central point of reference/contact for SEN Keyworkers and partners to identify contributions toward assessments where appropriate, and advice for parents/carers, schools and agencies about progress with the assessment process.
- Support Keyworkers in the collation, scheduling and management of the statutory assessment process by: - Receipt and acknowledgement of new EHC assessments and notifying relevant parties.
- Allocation of assessments to Keyworkers.
- Actioning the outcomes from relevant Boards and Panels.
- Initiating new EHC assessments and seeking statutory advice from education, health, and care partners.
- Consultations with school placement following the direction from keyworkers.
- Alerting Keyworkers / providers to overdue advice in good time, escalating to relevant Deputy Managers where there is a risk of breach of statutory timeframes.
- Issuing of final and final amended EHCP’s to families, schools, and partner agencies.
- Responsibility for the collation and allocation of information associated with the annual review process including: - Liaison with Business Support in respect to annual reviews.
- Reviewing annual review paperwork to confirm the actions to be recorded on the SharePoint system.
- Allocation of annual review to Keyworkers.
- Consultations with school placements following the direction from Keyworkers.
- Actioning under the direction of Keyworkers the outcomes from annual reviews on whether to maintain, amend or cease to maintain an EHCP.
- Responsible for up-to-date maintenance of SEND pupil data so that all equalities information (ethnicity and disability), placement fields, addresses and assessment timelines are complete and accurate.
- Run regular management reports for the SEN Operations and Deputy Operations Managers and Policy and Communications Officer (responsible for quality assurance) to assist them with their duties.
- Develop operational links with other partners including Health and Social Care to enable effective inter-agency exchange of information.
- Liaise with other local authorities, schools and Early Years providers including the Virtual School regarding children and young people with EHCPs including ensuring the pupil files for young people are received and processed or sent to other authorities promptly and tracking of out of borough consultations.
- Take responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people with whom you come into contact, and to undertake regular Child Protection training at a level commensurate with the role.
- Manage administrative tasks assoc