SEND Relationships Officer

As the SEND Relationship Officer, you will play a key role in developing and maintaining positive, collaborative relationships with families, educational settings, and partner agencies involved in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in Wigan. Your focus will be on fostering trust, ensuring clear and empathetic communication, and supporting families through processes that are fair, transparent, and accessible.

You will act as a key point of contact for parents and carers, helping to navigate concerns and resolve issues in a way that promotes partnership and confidence in SEND services. Central to this role is ensuring that the complaints process is understandable and inclusive, while working proactively to prevent escalation through early engagement and constructive dialogue., The SEND team has an obligation to meet the statutory guidelines of the Special Educational Needs (SEN&D) Code of Practice. Our main responsibly is to focus on supporting families through the Education, Health and Care (EHC) process, writing EHC plans and attending review meetings with families. We work closely with a range of key partners and stakeholders' professionals, which results in effective multiagency working. We provide support to families, schools and colleges and other educational settings to ensure children and young people are educated appropriately in the right setting to meet their needs. We will provide you with a supportive working environment and give you the opportunity to learn and develop further within the organisation.

You will need strong communication skills to engage sensitively and professionally with parents, carers, young people, schools, and partner agencies.

You will be able to analyse complex information, including Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), professional reports, and correspondence, to reach fair, evidence-based conclusions. A clear understanding of SEND legislation, statutory timescales, and local authority duties is essential.

You will need empathy, resilience, and confidence when handling emotionally challenging complaints, while remaining impartial and objective. Strong organisation, attention to detail, and the ability to meet statutory and Ombudsman deadlines are critical to delivering effective, lawful complaint resolution., To be appointed to this role you must be able to prove your right to work in the UK, and you must maintain a valid (active) right to work. Please note, at present we are not a licenced sponsor. Please visit the link below to check you qualify to apply. Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Prove your right to work to an employer

At Wigan, we are always striving to improve what we do, and pivotal to this are our amazing staff. It's a really exciting time to be a part of Team Wigan in the education service and contribute to the transformation of our services and outcomes for children and families. Our culture supports staff to flourish, be skilled and motivated to make a positive impact on children's lives. We want our staff to be happy, healthy and confident in helping our children and families to fulfil their aspirations, Wigan Council prides itself on equality, inclusion and promoting diversity within the borough and aims to recruit a workforce that reflects our diverse communities. We invest in training and developing our staff, in a positive learning environment, and aim to be a consciously inclusive employer. We welcome applications from everybody in the community and would particularly encourage applicants from our underrepresented groups to apply. At Wigan, applicants demonstrating our Team Wigan behaviours, is really important to us, and we do all we can to make sure that everyone feels like they belong. We have guidance in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process.

The Progress with Unity plan is a place movement for change for the next decade, bringing a new era for Wigan Borough. It draws on the strengths of our individual organisations, recognising that together we can achieve much more for our communities by delivering on our 2 place missions; create fair opportunities for all children, families, residents and businesses and make our towns and neighbourhoods flourish for those who live and work in them.