Attendance Specialist

Permanent, Full Time

£28,514.00 to £33,545.00 per annum

Location: Harlow

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing Date:

The role:

Essex County Council are responsible for ensuring that children and young people at risk of missing out on education are supported in being able to access suitable high quality education provision.

This role works with individual and groups of schools to develop strategies, initiatives, and incentive programmes to raise attendance and supports schools to achieve performance targets.

Acting as a subject matter expert, this is a consultancy/advisory role helping schools to develop policies and work in a planned way to raise the positive image of high attendance.

This role is responsible for working with schools to improve attendance, providing advice and guidance on potential actions and ensuring that these are implemented. In understanding underlying issues further, investigation may be required to work with parents and schools to gain greater insight on individual cases and agree next steps whilst providing clarity on the legal consequences of non-compliance for all parties.

The role requires knowledge, experience and expertise in dealing with improving levels of attendance. As a confident and assertive individual, the role utilises expertise to address concerns on attendance issues ensuring plans are developed to deliver improvements on attendance levels, recognising the risks of not initiating plans before they escalate.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Education

Accountabilities

• Ensuring quality provision and positive outcomes, assisting schools and academies in developing effective programmes which reduce the number of persistent absentees and increases overall whole school attendance, raising the positive image of attendance

• Responsible for providing effective advice, challenge, and support to attendance teams and schools

• Responsible for organising and conducting attendance targeted support meetings; working with key parties to strategically mitigate poor attendance

• Ensuring all parties have a clear understanding of attendance, the safeguarding implications, and the impact of non-attendance, supporting them to develop positive attendance strategies

• Challenging current practices and policies, using data to identify areas for improvement, and setting targeted actions and following these up

• Responsible for building strong relationships and working collaboratively with multi-agency, key stakeholders across Essex

• Signposting effectively to other services, working collaboratively where required to ensure the best possible outcomes

• Providing expert advice on pupil level attendance and interventions, including where appropriate legal intervention to protect children’s education

• Working as part of a small team, sharing positive practice and outcomes, clearly demonstrating improvements across schools, effectively communicating barriers and concerns as well as bringing ideas to help counteract obstacles to support the wider objectives of improving attendance across Essex and delivering timely, quality, value for money services

• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to A level or equivalent by experience together with an LDSS qualification.

• Evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.

• Significant experience within a school environment or enforcement environment.

• Evidence of resilience and prepared to challenge others to ensure progress.

• Experience of delivering public services in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.

• Evidence of skills and experience in understanding and responding to different audiences and recognising the impact of actions on the rest of the organisation.

• Evidence of great communication and negotiation skills to persuade and influence others to accept recommendations, acting boldly in an agile environment.

Please note that the job role requires you to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, the post holder 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.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone’s Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR)) on our careers site

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email Sandra.middleton@essex.gov.uk

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