SEND Customer Services & Complaints Officer
Step into a role that truly makes a difference!
As a SEND Customer Services & Complaints Officer, this position is at the heart of ensuring fairness, transparency, and quality within Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services. It’s an opportunity to champion positive outcomes for children and families by managing complex complaints with professionalism and care, driving service improvements, and shaping best practice across the council. If making a meaningful impact and influencing change appeals, this is the role for you.
About us
At Cheshire East Council we are resident, and partner focused with a vision to enable prosperity and wellbeing for all. People really are at the heart of everything we do and that starts with our incredible workforce. We promote a culture of high performance where people can aspire, thrive and flourish, where we strive to deliver best value in everything we do.
For us, success isn’t just about what we achieve, but how we achieve it together. We promote curiosity, excellence, innovation and continuous improvement.
We are values led and committed to wellbeing and inclusion for all, where our employees co-created our values of drive, integrity, respect and collaboration which inform all that we do.
We are proud to work for Cheshire East Council and believe you would be too!
Join us on a meaningful journey in Children’s Social Care at Cheshire East Council
We’re on a meaningful journey in Children’s Social Care and we’d love for you to be part of it. Joining us means becoming part of a supportive, forward-thinking team that’s passionate about making a real difference in the lives of children and young people. Everything we do is about putting them first, helping them grow, thrive and reach their full potential so they can build brighter futures.
If this sounds like the kind of impact you want to make, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Come and join us in shaping positive change for our young people.
About the role:
1. Investigate, co-ordinate, manage and collate responses to SEND complaints, compliments, and comments in line with statutory guidance.
2. Prepare and deliver performance reports for senior leadership, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.
3. Review and enhance complaints processes to reflect best practice and legislative changes.
4. Manage external investigations, including appointing independent investigators and quality-checking reports.
5. Co-ordinate freedom of information and access to records requests, ensuring compliance with statutory timescales.
6. Provide training and guidance to staff and partners on complaint handling and SEND processes.
7. Contribute to multi-agency working and service development initiatives.
8. Prepare evidence for Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman when a complaint is received in co-ordination with the Senior SEND Manager ensuring appropriate and timely responses.
This is just a snapshot of some of the exciting things you’ll be doing in the role, to find out more about the other key responsibilities of the role please view the attached job description.
About you:
9. You’ll have a strong understanding of SEND legislation and statutory frameworks.
10. You’ll demonstrate proven ability to manage SEND complaints with empathy, professionalism, and attention to detail.
11. You’ll bring excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to present reports to senior audiences.
12. You’ll be highly organised, resilient, and capable of handling sensitive and challenging situations.
13. You’ll have experience working in a statutory environment and collaborating with multi-agency teams.
14. You’ll be confident using ICT systems and managing data securely.
15. You’ll show commitment to continuous improvement and delivering outstanding customer service.