SEND Engagement Facilitator
Fixed Term, Part Time
£25,821 to £30,377 per annum (full time equivalent)
Location: North Essex
Working Style: Community-based worker
Closing Date: 17th September 2025
About Us:
Please note that this is a fixed term contract/secondment opportunity until 31st March 2027, working 22.2 hours per week. The pro-rata salary for this role is £15,493 to £18,226 per annum.
The Role:
Essex County Council has embarked upon a programme of change for provision and services with the ambition to profoundly improve the outcomes and life experience of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Our vision is for a SEND system which identifies and assesses need at an earlier stage and which provides appropriate and impactful support without such high dependence on Essex County Council's statutory services.
This SEND Engagement Facilitator (EF) role will have a focused EF caseload within the Education Otherwise than in School/College (EOTIS/C) workstream. Education otherwise than in school or college (EOTIS/C) | Essex Schools Infolink
Responsibilities will include collaborating with parent/carers, young people and professionals to organise and facilitate Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Annual Reviews and One Planning. One Planning | Essex Schools Infolink
The EOTIS/C EF will sit with the Engagement Facilitator team, line managed by the Senior Engagement Facilitator but will also work closely with the SEND Operations Team.
About You:
You will:
* Possesses a minimum of RQF Level 3, or equivalent by experience.
* Have the ability to work autonomously, with confidence to make key decisions regarding the appropriate next steps for a child/young person and their family.
* Have thorough knowledge and understanding of the SEND Code of Practice and how it impacts on assessment, planning, provision and review for CYP on a day to day basis.
* Have significant experience of working successfully with children with SEND in a school and/or home setting.
* Have significant experience of working effectively in partnership with families and professionals, including our partners, in a multi-agency environment.
* Demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills with an understanding of how to facilitate and mediate in situations which are perceived as challenging.
* Have evidence of ability to develop skills, knowledge and experience within role, including a willingness to chair/facilitate meetings and plan/deliver training to small groups of adults.
Essential Requirements for the role:
* As a SEND Engagement Facilitator, you are required to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, you will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means.
What will you be doing?
* As part of a multi-disciplinary team, provide targeted intervention to families and professionals at points of change, challenge and transition to support longer term resilience and the dialogue essential to the success of CYP educational placements and outcomes.
* Utilise and model enabling, collaborative and person centred ways of working to ensure pupil and family voices are captured, valued and held at the heart of the 0-25 planning for CYP.
* Identify and facilitate effective ways of gathering, recording and sharing information about a CYP, their family, setting or situation to inform the planning for them, through statutory or non-statutory plans.
* Support the partnership between educational setting staff, families and other stakeholders to promote shared understanding of the aspirations, needs, outcomes and required provision for CYP.
* Work directly with CYP and their families to develop their understanding of and participation in assessment, planning and decision making processes in order that their plans and implementation are fully coproduced and understood.
* Act as a model of good One Planning to LA colleagues, and as a conduit of information for targeted work with families and educational settings, allowing the Inclusion and SEND Operations teams in each quadrant to work cohesively as part of early intervention approaches.
* Plan, deliver and evaluate a range of development opportunities for staff in educational settings in relation to partnership and person centred practice and its application, enabling educators to embed this approach within their engagement with families.
* Build and maintain effective links across Education, including SENDIASS and the SEND Innovation and Strategy team, in order that good One Planning practice and its impact is identified, implemented and evaluated with appropriate input from families and the community.
* Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.