SEND Assessment Officer
About the job
Salary: £42,839 - £46,142 a year plus £963 essential car user allowance (subject to criteria)
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Permanent
As a SEND Assessment Officer for Luton Council, you will play a pivotal role in supporting children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) by fostering strong, collaborative relationships with schools, agencies, and families. You will be responsible for influencing and delivering creative, interagency solutions that meet the unique needs of each pupil, while ensuring that the Council’s policies on SEN are upheld.
You will work closely with allocated SEND EHCP Coordinators, attending reviews, case conferences, and other key meetings in response to service users' concerns. Your role will involve analysing and evaluating a variety of reports—including educational, medical, social care, and psychological—gathered during the Statutory Assessment process. Based on this, you will write and delegate detailed Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plans or note-in-lieu for submission to the Provision Panel, and ensure that these plans are updated after annual reviews or upon receiving additional information.
A key responsibility will be to implement decisions made by relevant Local Authority Panels, particularly the Provision Panel, ensuring that the educational provision outlined in EHC plans is arranged and that non-educational services are provided as required. You will also work to influence schools and other partners to meet the needs of pupils with SEN, helping them to maximise their use of SEN funding.
You will be an integral part of the SEND team, contributing to the development and implementation of policies and working practices that comply with legislative changes, improve service quality, and make better use of resources. Additionally, you will help shape the Council's school improvement plans and efforts to raise the educational standards of children with SEN.
In this role, you will provide expert advice and training to schools, families, and other professionals on statutory processes, and represent the Local Authority at Special Educational Needs Tribunals when necessary. You will also support the Authority in minimizing parental appeals through effective disagreement resolution, working closely with the SENDIAS Officer to ensure parents are informed of their rights under relevant legislation, including the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005.
Your work will also involve leading and chairing the SEND Assessment Service at key meetings, such as the multi-agency moderation group and audit meetings, providing written reports and recommendations for the Provision Panel. You will offer advice on the Code of Practice, SEN legislation, and procedures to local services, schools, and external agencies, ensuring consistent and effective service delivery.
Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.
About you
To thrive in this role, you will bring in-depth experience and knowledge of statutory assessment systems, particularly under the Education Act 1996 and the Children and Families Act 2014. You will have demonstrated success working collaboratively on an inter-agency basis to respond effectively to complex child development issues, ensuring the needs of children and young people are met.
You will have a strong background in working within a school setting or within a local authority (or equivalent), with the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively with a wide range of stakeholders. You will be adept at advising, influencing, empathising, and asserting yourself as appropriate, and will be skilled in chairing multi-agency meetings, reviews, and case conferences. Your ability to guide discussions, secure positive outcomes, and optimise the use of resources will be key in ensuring the success of these meetings.
Your approach will be relationship-driven, and you will excel in building and nurturing strong working relationships with colleagues and external agencies. You will be proactive in resolving conflict, finding creative solutions, and ensuring that the needs of children and young people are met in a collaborative and holistic way.
You will also have the ability to manage a complex caseload and meet statutory timescales efficiently, leveraging your ICT skills for office tasks such as word processing, Excel, and PowerPoint. Your ability to make informed, evidence-based recommendations and produce accurate, well-structured EHC plans, case reports, and tribunal documentation will be essential to your role.
With a thorough understanding of equality issues and a deep knowledge of SEN legislation, including the SEN Code of Practice and the Children and Families Act 2014, you will be equipped to advise and support others on these matters. You will also hold a relevant professional qualification in education or an equivalent qualification, with a willingness to work outside of normal office hours when required.
You will be flexible and able to travel daily within Luton and occasionally outside the Borough to schools and other sites as needed.
This is a public facing role so you’ll need to show off your fluency in speaking and writing English
About us
Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.
The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?
We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough
Application Process
Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.
On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.
Benefits
We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:
- From 25 to 32 days’ annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
- Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
- Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
- Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
- Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
- Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
- Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
- Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
- Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
- Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel
How to apply
We understand that job applications take time and effort, but a high-quality application shows that you are professional with a good attention to detail. The recruiting manager may receive a number of applications for each job advertised so you want yours to stand out!
Our ‘How to apply' page has more tips to help with your application: How to apply
Available documents
Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.Salary range
- £42,839 - £46,142 per year