Wiltshire Parent Carer Council CIC (WPCC)
Job Vacancies Information Pack
PINS Project Lead
March 2024
The Wiltshire Parent Carer Council CIC (WPCC) is an independent organisation which is managed and run by parent carers*, for parent carers, seeking to enable the voice and experiences of parent carers to positively influence the services that their children and families use. The WPCC is Wiltshire’s recognised parent carer forum.
Representing over 5,000 parent carers of children and young people in Wiltshire with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), the WPCC provides a specialist consultation and participation service which enables parent carers to have a voice about the services and support their children and families use. This service offers real opportunities to influence and shape provision across the local area, and work in partnership with the people who commission and deliver services in Wiltshire.
The WPCC also provides its specialist information and signposting service called SENDIS, to support parent carers of children and young people with SEND, and those working with them. WPCC’s SENDIS service is a ‘one-stop shop’ that provides a wealth of specialist information as well as signposting to specialist services which support families raising a child or young person with SEND. This service is enhanced by our Outreach Service and Telephone Triage Team.
* The WPCC uses the term parent carer to describe anyone over the age of 18 with parental responsibility for a child or young person with SEND; this does not have to be a parent and could include foster parents, adoptive parents, special guardians, grandparents etc.
Improving local services for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities
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PINS stands for Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools. This is a is a programme that is being funded by the Shared Outcomes Fund, and delivered between the Department for Education (DfE), NHS England (NHSE) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The focus of the programme is about supporting neurodivergent pupils, who represent a fast-growing group among the children most likely to benefit from a more inclusive mainstream environment.
The PINS project will cover 40 primary schools across Wiltshire, Swindon and B&NES; it is anticipated that 20 Wiltshire schools will be supported within this project and the WPCC will play a key role in the delivery.
The aim is to bring health and education specialists, and expert parent carers into mainstream primary settings to: -
• help shape whole school SEND provision
• provide early interventions at a school level
• upskill school staff
• support and strengthen partnerships between schools and parent carers
• support and strengthen partnerships between parent carer forums and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
The aim is that this programme will leave a sustainable impact, building a legacy of closer collaboration between schools, parent carers, education and health and help to shift the focus of specialist input to how a supportive learning environment and well -equipped school can improve the outcomes for neurodivergent children.
This is a one year project with an end date of 31st March 2025
PINS is a very new and evolving programme. The WPCC will expect the Project Lead to flex and evolve with the programme as not everything is fully formalised yet.
The project lead will be expected to: -
• Represent the WPCC in all strategic meetings relating to and linking with this programme, including where close links exist with other strategic pieces of work
• Be the WPCC lead for this project; this will include: -
Taking responsibility for leading the WPCC element of the project
Recruiting volunteers to support the delivery of the project - you will take a lead in the recruitment, training and mentoring of volunteers to ensure they are appropriately matched and trained for their role
Liaising with schools within the project
Meeting with school leaders within the project
Coordinating delivery of relevant/appropriate parent carer support to schools within the project, based on the support offers within the prescribed project Menu of Support
Take a lead in building strong collaboration between parent carer groups and schools
Facilitate a termly meeting of the parent carer group in each school (for opportunities for peer support and information sharing) and a termly meeting between representatives of that group and the school’s leadership team
The support given should focus on a whole school approach. The funding cannot be used to commission direct support for individual children or groups of children. Instead, delivery of the support may include training for all school staff, smaller group or 1:1 sessions with relevant professionals tailored to develop capacity in the school setting, considering the local resources available.
Our current understanding is that there is an expectation to hold an engagement session with parent carers once per term in each school.
The WPCC is advertising this vacancy to ensure capacity for delivering the parent carer forum element of this project in Wiltshire. The WPCC has agreed one-off funding to enable us to recruit to this role. This pack has been designed to give as much information about this vacancy as possible.
The WPCC represents and supports parent carers across the whole of Wiltshire, excluding Swindon.
The WPCC office is based in central Trowbridge, near to the Odeon cinema leisure complex.
Closing date for all applications is 11am on Thursday 21st March 2024.
Interviews for successful shortlisted candidates will take place on Thursday 28th March 2024 at the WPCC office.
Given the short timeframe of this project, we need to be mobilised and ready to begin delivering as soon as possible; this is reflected in the application window.
It is hoped the successful candidates will start as soon as possible after the interview, subject to necessary checks. You will need an enhanced DBS; the WPCC will arrange this if you do not have a valid certificate.
This is a fixed term, full-time position, term time only, up to 31st March 2025.
You will be contracted to work Monday to Friday for 7 hours a day for 39 weeks per annum. A salary of £18,466 (including holiday allowance) per year will be paid and you will be entitled to a workplace pension. The annual salary will be paid in 12 equal instalments throughout the year.
As an employee on a term time contract of employment, you will be contracted to work for a total of 39 weeks per annum. It therefore enables the employee not to work during the school holidays. All annual leave is to be taken school holidays. Although the WPCC preference is for a full-time position, we will consider a jobshare dependent on the right candidates. If you would like us to consider this option, please include in your application and we will discuss at interview.
You will report to the WPCC’s Strategic Director. You will be provided with a laptop, mobile phone, and a WPCC email account. You will be entitled to claim reasonable mileage expenses when visiting settings, payable at 0.45p/mile.
You will need to be a car driver/owner and will need to arrange appropriate business-use car insurance.
You will be largely community based and will be able to work from home when not working within the community. You are welcome to work from the WPCC office but it is not a requirement. The WPCC holds weekly staff meetings at the Trowbridge office which you would be required to attend on most occasions.
Appointment to this post is subject to background checks.
• you will need to possess excellent people skills
• you must have experience of neurodiversity, preferable lived experience as a parent carer
• you will have a professional manner and be able to communicate with a range of audiences appropriately
• you will have basic ICT skills
• you are reliable, punctual, friendly and demonstrate a positive professional attitude
• you take pride in your own work and that of your colleagues
• you are extremely meticulous in attention to detail and accuracy
• you are able to produce project reports and updates
• you must be literate
• you work well as part of team and you are able to show initiative
• you manage your own workload without direction or close supervision
• You are trustworthy, honest and show integrity
• you will need to be a team player, able to fit into a small, friendly and supportive team, and be able to work on your own
• you seek to learn from and support your colleagues
• you review your own performance and ask for feedback to learn and improve
• you work safely to maintain the health of both yourself and others
• you understand and respect the need for confidentiality and data protection
• you are flexible, quick to learn and able to adapt to change
• you are skilled in working positively with colleagues and partners, and build effective, positive and rational working relationships
• you acknowledge when you make mistakes and take responsibility for addressing and correcting them
Thank you for taking the time to read this pack.
If after having read the information in this pack, you have any further queries about this role and would like to talk to someone before deciding whether you would like to apply, please contact the WPCC’s Strategic Director, Stuart Hall on 01225 764647 or email: director@wiltspcc.co.uk.
If you would like to be considered for the position advertised, please proceed by completing our online application form: www.jotform.com/Stuartwork/wiltshireparent-carer-council-pins
Please note, CVs or covering letters will not be considered.