Education Adviser

The Opportunity

Salary: Soulbury EIP 15 – 18: £65,509 to £69,861 per annum

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday

Location: This will be agreed with you on a successful appointment. A significant proportion of the role is in schools across West Sussex.

Closing date: 2nd October 2026 at 23:59

Interview date: 20th October 2026

An opportunity has arisen for you to join West Sussex County Council as an Education Adviser.

This is a unique and exciting opportunity to play a central role in shaping the future of SEND across West Sussex. As we deliver our ambitious SEND Reform and Transformation Programme, we are redesigning how support is provided to children, young people and families through our developing Experts at Hand (locality inclusion networks) model. This approach brings together expertise from across education, health and care to create a system that is proactive, preventative and rooted in strong relationships with children, young people and their families.

WSCC are looking for Education Advisers to join the school effectiveness team in West Sussex. We would welcome applications from school leaders with a primary or a secondary background. However, please note that due to the larger amount of maintained primary schools in West Sussex compared to maintained secondary schools, all education advisers will have some allocated primary schools.

As an Education Adviser, you will take a leading role in supporting, guiding and challenging senior leaders, practitioners, schools and/or settings on their performance and outcomes.

You will lead with credibility and may also be required to undertake line management responsibilities where required.

You will have the opportunity to grow and develop your learning and skills in a range of areas within education by working across different age ranges, with support from your colleagues and manager.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Inspiring confidence and credibility with schools.
• Contributing to statutory and traded services.
• Leading teams on projects and initiatives.
• Being a key point of contact and expertise for schools, settings and senior leaders.
• Producing action or support plans, reports, and impact reports.
• Promoting inclusive and effective practice in schools and settings (in the context of WSCC SEND strategy 2026- 2030).
• Collaborating with schools, settings and practitioners in your areas of expertise to ensure value is placed on engagement, guidance, support and responsiveness.

What you need to succeed

We are looking for someone who has a passion to champion the rights of children, young people, and parents, so that they have access to high quality education and services.

You will need to work flexibly and adapt your approaches to tasks and situations in hand, keeping up to date on your continuing professional development and personal learning.

If you hold a teaching qualification and you have experience in leading sustained improvement, we would love to hear from you.

Key Skills:

1. Excellent communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, including presentation skills with ability to engage audiences face to face and virtually. Ability to persuade, negotiate and influence.
2. Highly organised with strong time management skills maximising the use of IT wherever possible. Able to work flexibly and on own initiative under pressure, and to deadlines without direct supervision.
3. Ability to develop and maintain collaborative working relationships.
4. Ability to inspire and provide vision, direction and support individuals and teams in the areas of particular expertise you hold.
5. Able to analyse, interpret and use data of varying complexity and bring challenge to deliver improvement in outcomes for children and young people.
6. Business acumen and proven commercial skills.

For more information on the key skills, qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the job description attached. Please refer to the key skills in your cover letter as these will be used for shortlisting criteria.

About Us

The Standards and Effectiveness Service is a key service driving a cultural change towards a school- and sector-led improvement programme that provides a sustainable capacity within the sector for continuous improvement.

Schools in local or national categories of concern are given a range of enhanced, traded and brokered support to enable them to improve rapidly.

It has oversight of provision from early years through to primary and secondary schools and into post 16 and further education and skills. It has the power to ensure continuity and quality of provision through transition points and to tackle inequalities and underperformance across the county in relation to the quality of providers and outcomes for children and young people.

The service also provides an increasing range of CPD courses, focused on school improvement and on children achieving good or better outcomes.

For more information, please visit our dedicated website.

Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

• Annual leave: 31 days holiday + Bank Holidays = 39 days
• Access to a generous, defined benefit pension scheme
• A range of flexible working options

Further information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06571.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Stephen Bush (Senior Education Adviser) at Stephen.Bush@westsussex.gov.uk or Ian Rogers (Senior Education Adviser) at Ian.Rogers@westsussex.gov.uk

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact kerry.joad@westsussex.gov.uk

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter.

In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to QTS check, an enhanced DBS check, five years referencing, and an occupational health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contactkerry.joad@westsussex.gov.uk.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.