Early Years Pathway Navigator

Job description

Job responsibilities

Early Years Pathway Navigator will challenge and support Foundation Stage settings across the county, to respond and meet the diverse needs of all children. This will be achieved by enabling the provision of timely, coordinated support in partnership with Early Years settings, children and their families.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

To provide a high quality, coordinated child and family-centered pathway which responds to needs and adopts a preventative and early help approach. Whenever and wherever possible services will be provided at a mainstream universal level (within communities) and barriers to this will be removed.

To challenge, support and monitor the effectiveness of early years settings inclusive practice and liaise with the early Years Inclusion Advisors where this is not working well.

To provide advice and support to early years settings in their implementation of the graduated response within the SEN code of practice

To provide advice, and support to early years settings when applying for statutory assessment (EHCNA) when appropriate

Support children to move between non statutory pathways and statutory support pathways as required.

To identify alternative pathways for children with SEND that do not always require an EHCP.

To work alongside the EYIA team to support pathways for individual children that are allocated to the EYIA caseload.

To attend and participate in panels which discuss decision making in relation to an Early Years childs pathway.

To keep informed of current research and how it affects current professional practice and to disseminate as appropriate.

To be proactive in promoting multi-agency partnership working as best practice, through integrated shared processes such as Early Support Assessment (ESA), Team Around the Child (TAC) and transition into school (TISM).

To develop and deliver training in response to needs and to raise the quality and effectiveness of inclusive practice.

Work in partnership with colleagues in education, health and social care to secure a holistic service for children and families.

To plan and lead training sessions and meetings in local Network Clusters for all those practitioners and teachers who work in early years settings.

To work in close partnership with specialist local services such as District Specialist Centers (DSCs), Portage and Family Hubs to help secure the best outcomes for children and families.

To promote the early identification of children with additional needs and co-ordinate services to address unmet needs through the co-ordination and chairing of Team Around the setting (TAS) meetings, Team Around the Child (TAC) meetings.

To evaluate and develop multi agency initiatives with parents and members of the local community in supporting the education and care of the young child.

To work collaboratively with early years settings and schools to enable smooth transitions for children with SEND.

To be responsible for collecting and recording relevant data and information as requested that will help to inform strategic planning.

To contribute to the development of the early Years service, to respond to operational needs by initiating, developing and implementing innovative solutions.

To undertake other duties appropriate to the grade and nature of the post.

Specific requirements for this post:

The post will involve outreach Advisory support to settings and deliver training across the county.

Occasional evening and weekend training duties may be required.

Travel will be necessary on a regular basis around the county.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree or a professional qualification in a relevant field e.g. Early Years or have the ability to demonstrate equivalent experience and skills.
• Recent experience of working with children aged 0-5 years with difficulties/disabilities in Early Years.
• Experience of multi-agency working.
• Ability to motivate, support, advise and empathise with Early Years practitioners across all sectors.
• Ability to apply a sound working knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Ability to apply sound knowledge of the DDA/Code of Practice/Early Support Assessment/local processes.
• Sound knowledge of how young children learn and develop.
• Enthusiasm and commitment about childrens entitlement to an inclusive, high quality early years education with an ability to promote this to others.
• Knowledge of current National legislation relating to Early Years
• Knowledge of the Early Support Assessment and working experience of implementing the ESA.
• Experience of writing and implementing My Support Plans (MSP) or SEN Support Plans.
• Knowledge and working experience of the EHCNA/EHCP process and thresholds.
• Knowledge of the graduated response (GRSS).
• Evidence of continuous professional development.
• Ability to make effective use of Word, PowerPoint, Managing e-mails, Outlook Calendar.
• Proven ability to set targets and meet deadlines.
• Evidence of reflecting and learning from own practice.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Good planning and organisational skills.
• Effective ability to prioritise, organize and manage workloads in response to change.
• Ability to work as part of a team but also to act independently and use initiative when appropriate.
• Ability to think creatively and the initiative to develop projects.
• Fluent in English.

Desirable

• Experience of working in specialist provision.
• Experience of facilitating parenting groups.
• Experience of delivering training.
• Previous experience of working as a SENCO.
• Experience of acting as a lead professional.
• Five to Thrive trained.
• Completion of Dingleys Promise Inclusion Program training.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Wiltshire Council

Address

County Hall

Bythesea Rd

Trowbridge

Wiltshire

BA14 8JN

Employer's website

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)