Transition Team Senior Personal Coach

The starting salary for this position is £34,356 per annum based on a 36 hour working week.

This is a 24-month fixed term contract or secondment opportunity.

We are excited to be hiring a new Senior Personal Coach to join our fantastic Transition - post 16 Team. This is a hybrid role with the assigned office base near the centre of Surrey at the Mansion in Leatherhead.

Rewards and benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service.
• Annual leave allowance
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave.
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing.
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependants leave.
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more.
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the team

Working as part of the Year 11/12 Transition Service you will support young people at risk of becoming NEET (not in employment, education or training) to identify progress to an appropriate post-16 destination. This will involve liaising with parents/carers, schools, further education and training providers, employers and other relevant professionals. You will be responsible for managing a caseload of young people, recording interventions and reporting on progress.

The role will contribute to the local authority's statutory duty to enable, assist and encourage young people to participate in education and training up to the age of 18. This will be achieved through supporting personal development, including helping young people through challenging issues related to relationships, home life and academic stress.

Due to the recognition of post 16 looked after children requiring additional support, funding from DFE has been provided to expand our provision. As the current team is expanding, we now require a more senior position available to help provide the support across the team members.

About the role

The role will involve working with young people looked after by Surrey County Council and their guardians to secure a sustained post-16 education or training destination. You will also line-manage Personal Coaches.

This role will involve building positive and professional relationship with young people to enable support with careers education, information, advice and guidance and work-related learning, using action plans to support progress towards goals. Engagement will involve meeting young people at their homes or in the community as necessary to offer support through one-to-one or small group sessions, using appropriate aptitude tests, skills assessment tools, psychometric testing and personal inventories.

In this role you will support young people to identify and progress towards a suitable education or training destination in line with their duty to participate until the age of 18.

This will involve researching careers options and support to meet young people's needs and keeping up-to-date with labour market, legislation, and professional and academic developments. Where relevant this will include visiting employers, further education and training providers and attending events run by educational and professional bodies. This extends to accompanying young people to engage and attend essential activities to support and being present and/or available on exam results day.

The role will include the supervision, performance conversations and overview of Personal Coaches. You will lead by example and maintain accurate case records and assessments and action plans, ensuring reviews are undertaken to a high quality and in a timely manner on all cases.

Shortlisting criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• A good standard of education and excellent communication skills, both verbal and written as you will need to be comfortable and confident communicating with parents and carers, young people and professionals
• Relevant experience in this area and evidence of recent career development
• Experience of delivering careers information, advice and guidance, with a good knowledge of Raising Participation Age legislation
• Experience of working with parents and carers, young people and families
• Experience of line managing or supervising staff
• You will be required to visit schools, further education and training settings and homes, therefore you must be willing and able to travel extensively around the county

Contact us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 26/05/2024 with interviews to follow.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

An enhanced DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children's and Adults' Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Our commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.