Senior SEND Delivery and Improvement Lead

Senior SEND Delivery and Improvement Lead

Job description

Full Time / 37 Hours Per Week / Fixed Term for 3 years due to funding.

Are you an experienced SEND professional with a passion for inclusion, partnership working and improving outcomes for children and young people?

Leicester City Council is seeking four exceptional Senior SEND Delivery and improvement Leads to join our SEND Delivery and Improvement Team. These are exciting strategic leadership roles that will help coordinate, align and strengthen SEND provision across Leicester, ensuring children, young people and families receive the right support at the right time. The roles form a key part of Leicester's move towards locality-based working and will play a central role in shaping how support is coordinated and delivered across the city.

Working across education settings, services and partner organisations, you will bring together existing expertise, resources and provision within a designated locality. Acting as a key connector across the SEND system, you will help ensure services work effectively together, strengthen inclusive practice and support the delivery of Leicester's Ordinarily Available Offer and graduated response and the Experts at Hand offer.

Available Positions

Senior SEND Delivery and Improvement Leads (Schools)

2 Posts

Working across mainstream and specialist school-age provision, you will coordinate locality SEND activity and support schools and partners to deliver inclusive practice.

Senior SEND Delivery and improvement Leads (Early Years)

1 Post

Working across nurseries, pre-schools, childminders and family services, you will coordinate support for children with emerging SEND and strengthen early intervention pathways.

Senior SEND Delivery and improvement Leads (Post-16)

1 Post

Working across colleges, training providers and wider services, you will help coordinate support and opportunities for young people as they prepare for adulthood.

About the Role

These influential leadership positions will play a central role in coordinating and shaping Leicester's emerging locality SEND model.

Working across Leicester's six locality clusters, you will bring together schools, early years settings, colleges, council services, health partners and SEND professionals to ensure support is coordinated, responsive and driven by local need. Rather than delivering services directly, you will help align existing resources, expertise and provision around the children, young people and families who need them most.

A key aspect of the role will be coordinating Leicester's Experts at Hand Offer, ensuring schools, early years providers and post-16 settings can access specialist advice, intervention and support at the earliest opportunity. You will work alongside specialist practitioners and partner services to ensure expertise is available where and when it is needed, strengthening inclusion, building local capacity and reducing the need for escalation to statutory processes wherever possible.

Using local intelligence, performance information, community insight and stakeholder feedback, you will help identify the strengths, challenges and emerging needs of your locality. This intelligence will be used to shape and coordinate a bespoke locality offer that reflects the unique needs of local schools, settings, families and communities, whilst contributing to Leicester's wider SEND priorities.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate SEND priorities across one of Leicester's six locality clusters.

• Develop and embed locality-based working across education, health and social care partners.

• Coordinate and oversee the effective deployment of the Experts at Hand Offer within the locality

• Strengthen implementation of the Ordinarily Available Offer and graduated response.

• Bring together existing services, resources and expertise around shared locality priorities.

• Use data, local intelligence and stakeholder insight to identify needs, gaps and opportunities.

• Facilitate collaborative working between schools, providers, partner agencies and council services.

• Provide strategic oversight, challenge and support to ensure resources are used effectively and improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

• Support the delivery of Leicester's SEND and Inclusion Strategy and wider transformation priorities.

About You

We are looking for professionals who can demonstrate:

• Significant experience working with children and young people with SEND.

• Strong knowledge of inclusive practice and the SEND Code of Practice.

• Experience of coordinating services, partnerships or improvement activity across education, health or social care.

• Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills.

• The ability to bring together multiple stakeholders around a shared purpose.

• Experience of using information, evidence and local intelligence to inform decision making.

• Confidence in providing constructive challenge, support and professional leadership.

• A commitment to inclusion and improving outcomes for children, young people and families.

Qualified Teacher Status and relevant specialist SEND expertise are welcomed. Please state which role you are applying for in your applciation.

Why Join Us?

This is a unique opportunity to help design and shape Leicester's developing locality approach to SEND.

You will join an ambitious and innovative service committed to:

• Inclusion and equity.

• Early intervention.

• Strengthening the Ordinarily Available Offer.

• Developing the Experts at Hand model.

• Building capacity within schools and settings.

• Collaborative system leadership.

• Locality-based working.

• Continuous improvement and innovation.

• Better outcomes for children, young people and families.

Together we are creating a more connected, collaborative and inclusive SEND system where children and young people can thrive.

Leicester is embarking on an exciting shift towards locality-based SEND working across six clusters of the city.

These roles will sit at the centre of that development. As a Senior SEND Delivery and Improvement Lead you will help coordinate the expertise, services and relationships that already exist within your locality, ensuring support is joined up, responsive and shaped by local need.

A significant part of your role will be coordinating the Experts at Hand Offer, helping schools, early years settings and post-16 providers access specialist expertise when they need it, strengthening inclusion and building confidence within mainstream provision.

We are looking for people who understand that sustainable change comes not from creating new services, but from helping existing services work better together. If you can build relationships, influence partners, interpret local intelligence and bring people together around a shared vision for inclusion, this is an opportunity to help shape a new way of working across Leicester's SEND system.

You will have the opportunity to shape what locality working looks like from the ground up, ensuring each of Leicester's six clusters develops an offer that reflects the unique needs, strengths and aspirations of its communities whilst contributing to a city-wide vision for inclusion.

For an informal chat about this role please contact Jessica at Jessica.Nicholls@leicester.gov.uk

Assessments / Interviews will take place on week commencing 12th of October