Portage Practitioner

Role Responsibility

Portage is a Pre-School Educational Service offering Pre-School Learning Groups and Home Learning Sessions for families with very young children (0-5 yrs) who have additional support needs and disabilities.

We are looking to recruit a full time, 37 hours per week, Portage Practitioner to work across Thanet, Canterbury and Dover, based at the Thanet Mash.

This is an exciting opportunity to play an active and central role in supporting children’s development through the Portage Home Learning Sessions and the Portage Pre-School Learning Groups.

The core elements of the role include;

• Developing play activities based on the child’s level and interests,
• Working in partnership with families and other agencies,
• Using the small steps approach to plan learning experiences,
• Working closely with other professionals to support the transitions,
• Delivering Pre-School Learning Groups and Home Learning Sessions.

You will need to demonstrate experience of working with very young children with additional needs and their families and evidence how you can respond and extend play opportunities based around the child’s development.

In addition, good interpersonal, organisation, IT and communication skills are essential, these roles are coordinated and supported by the Portage Area Lead.

Successful candidates will need to attend the Accredited Portage three day Training Workshop with the opportunity to then complete the National Portage Association Level 3 in Portage Practice.

The ability to travel across a wide geographical area in a timely and flexible manner at various times of the day is essential with a range of heavy and/or bulky equipment. The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area around the county of Kent to ensure attendance at disparate meeting locations that are not readily serviced by the public transport system.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service. 

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.  

Contact Details

Tracy Harvey | Portage County Manager | Kent Portage Service | Children, Young People and Education  | SEN Assesment and Placement | Dolphin Centre for Children | Abbey Court 7-15 St John's Road | Tunbridge Wells | Kent TN4 9TF | 07595088060