HLTA Link Tutor

About the Role

We are looking for a highly experienced Link Tutor to join our pastoral support team, working alongside our existing Link Tutors to support students in Key Stages 3 and 4.

The Link Tutor role is varied and hugely rewarding. You will join a highly motivated, creative and experienced team committed to ensuring that children and young people are able to access education despite the health barriers they may be facing.

The role has a strong pastoral focus. Link Tutors provide individualised support to help students engage with their education while they are with us and, wherever possible, successfully transition back to their mainstream school, an alternative provision or their post-16 destination.

Regular contact with students, including visits to their homes, is a fundamental part of the role. These visits enable Link Tutors to build strong relationships with students, identify barriers to learning, recognise key milestones, develop strategies and skills, and support aspects of our wellbeing curriculum. Student voice is central to this work and to the decisions made about the support each young person needs.

Link Tutors work closely with parents and carers, mainstream schools, GHES teaching staff and the wider network of professionals supporting each young person. This includes liaison with Social Care and medical professionals, as well as attendance at meetings such as TAF, Child in Need (CIN), Child Protection (CP), PEP and Graduated Pathway meetings.

As GHES is a short-term service, transition and reintegration are key features of the role. Link Tutors have an important part to play in facilitating carefully planned and supported transitions, working collaboratively with the student, family, school and other professionals to achieve the best possible outcome.

We are looking for candidates who have experience of working with children and young people with additional needs and who understand the importance of effective multi-agency working.

The successful candidates will:

• understand the Graduated Pathway and the importance of a student-centred approach;
• have experience of, or a good working knowledge of, the professional agencies that support school-age children and young people;
• place a high value on safeguarding and understand their responsibility for keeping children and young people safe;
• be well organised, able to work independently and manage their time effectively;
• be flexible, creative and solution-focused in order to achieve positive outcomes for students; and
• have excellent communication skills and the ability to build strong, professional relationships with students, families, colleagues and other professionals.

Above all, you will share our firm belief that a medical condition should not prevent a child or young person from reaching their full potential.

About You

We are looking for people who:

• take pride in their work and thrive in a busy and varied environment;
• can organise themselves effectively and plan and prioritise their working week;
• ensure that student voice is at the heart of decision-making;
• understand how to provide the right balance of support and challenge to enable students to access education;
• are flexible and adaptable and able to respond positively when circumstances or priorities change;
• can communicate confidently and professionally with students, parents and carers, schools across Gloucestershire, NHS colleagues and other professionals;
• are confident working independently while also contributing fully as part of a wider team;
• have good ICT skills, particularly in the use of Microsoft applications and SIMS; and
• are comfortable travelling regularly as part of their working week.

You will need to be able to establish positive relationships with young people who may have experienced significant barriers to education, while maintaining high expectations and supporting them to take their next steps.

About Us

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the team at Gloucestershire Hospital Education Service.

You will be joining a professional, passionate, supportive and highly experienced team of teaching, pastoral and administrative staff who work together to secure the best possible outcomes for children and young people whose health needs are affecting their access to education.

Our students' circumstances and needs are varied, so no two days are necessarily the same. We place great importance on understanding each young person as an individual, working collaboratively with families, schools and professionals, and helping students remain connected with education during what can be a challenging period in their lives.

Working Arrangements

The role is term-time only, 36 hours per week (39 weeks plus 5.55 weeks' paid holiday), at Grade 6, which equates to approximately 0.87 FTE.

This is a peripatetic, county-wide role, combining home working with regular visits to students' homes and main schools, alongside working from our county office space in Cheltenham.

We welcome applications from candidates living anywhere in Gloucestershire. As visiting students in their homes is a fundamental part of the Link Tutor role, successful candidates will need to be comfortable with regular travel across the county.  Being based in or around Cheltenham or Gloucester may provide a particularly convenient base and reduce overall travelling time, although this is not a requirement of the role.

GHES is a school and a service within GCC and as such employees are entitled to many benefits within GCC:

• Membership of a Local Government Pension Scheme
• Discounts at a number of major supermarket chains and high street retailers
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car Scheme (T&C's apply)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network and the Young Employees Network
• Access to Reflectiev Supervision
• Excellent continuous professional development

Applying

We would strongly recommend an informal discussion or visit prior to submitting an application.  Please contact ghes@gloucestershire.gov.uk  or phone 01242 532363 to arrange this.

Please write in your application with consideration for the criteria in the Job Profile.  This should include examples of why you should be considered and evidence of the experience, skills and knowledge that you would bring to the post

More details of GHES in general can be found on our website:

www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/ghes

Further details about the Link Tutor role, can be found in the information pack along with the job description.  Please do not complete the application form on schoolsnet.

Safeguarding

Positions are subject to an enhanced and barred (children) DBS check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.