About This Role
This role involves providing proactive, responsive, and customer-focused casework management for children, young people, and their families with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). The caseworker coordinates and facilitates the statutory Education Health and Care (EHC) process, ensuring multi-agency working and appropriate support, resources, and placements in educational settings to achieve positive learning outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people, coordinating support throughout the SEND process to ensure good outcomes and progressing safeguarding concerns in line with policy and procedure
- Manage a defined EHC caseload, facilitating and coordinating the EHC assessment and review process for children and young people (0–25-year-olds) within statutory timescales, including planning for transition to adult life for young people
- Work in partnership with children, young people, families, and professional agencies from education, health, social care, and the third sector, constructing initial drafts to producing final EHCPs led by the child or young person’s needs to achieve stated objectives and aspirations
- Agree amendments to plans against evidenced changes as part of the review process and, where indicated, identify if a plan should be discontinued
- Alert management to any issues that could impact on the service or personal performance through supervision processes
- Work in partnership with parents and ensure that children, young people, and their families are fully involved in the assessment and decision-making process, and ensure that information, advice, and support on EHCP and short break procedures, assessments, and provisions is available
- Oversee the allocation of children and young people to suitable educational placements or provision, including admissions into early years settings, mainstream, special, and Independent Schools and Colleges as deemed appropriate
- Undertake complex negotiations with parents, Head teachers, and agencies where cases are complex in nature
- Be responsible for the actions arising from EHC plan meetings and from the Authority’s Decision-Making Panel’s, ensuring the appropriate completion of case records and that actions are carried out in a timely manner
- Chair and attend identified meetings as required, such as Annual Reviews, Vulnerable Placement Meetings, Next Steps Meetings, and multi-agency meetings
- Challenge organisations and senior staff in school, health, and social care settings about the provision and quality of services
- Attend and support mediation meetings as required
- Engage in partnership working to find ways of meeting the needs of children and young people in a creative, outcome-focused way whilst ensuring the principles of value for money
- Remain well informed and knowledgeable regarding services available on the Local Offer to support families to make informed decisions
