School Liaison Officer - PRU, Inclusion and Attendance Service (PIAS)

Role Responsibility

Term Time Only – 40 weeks

This role is only open to those staff directly employed by KCC and temporary agency staff undertaking KCC work.

Fixed Term or Secondment until 31st March 2025

An exciting opportunity has emerged to recruit a School Liaison Officer to join the PRU, Inclusion and Attendance Service (PIAS) situated within the Children, Young People and Education directorate.

The subject of school attendance has never been higher profile at a national and local level following the Covid-19 pandemic, and the service has been working robustly to ensure the expectations for local authorities in the Department for Education’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance published last summer are successfully delivered.  

You will be the link for a group of allocated primary, secondary and special schools, working in partnership with staff, families, and a range of services within and external to Kent County Council with the key objective to reduce levels of persistent and severe absence.

You will already have knowledge and experience in the education field, working in or alongside schools. Being highly motivated, willing to learn quickly and self-sufficient are key qualities being sought. You will be a confident team player, showing resilience when challenging situations arise and ultimately represent our organisation’s values with the highest level of professionalism.

Representing the local authority and contributing within a wide range of forums such as Attendance Improvement Meetings, District Contextual Safeguarding Meetings and Child Protection Conferences is key. You will be skilful in balancing advice and guidance with professional challenge where necessary to ensure statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education is followed.

There will be occasions you will conduct investigations where parents fail to secure their children’s regular school attendance in accordance with statutory legislation which may lead to legal intervention being pursued by the Local Authority in the Magistrates Court to try to improve a pupil’s attendance. Therefore, attention to detail and the ability to meet deadlines are essential requirements. 

This role will require very regular visiting of schools and family homes, therefore there will be an expectation to travel across a wide geographical area at various times of the day, and on occasion, outside of core business hours.

Please be aware that although there will be face to face communication with children and families, this role is mainly advisory and does not involve intensive work with families.   

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. KCC 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 outlined in the Job Description / Person Specification.

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

Contact Details

For more information, please contact: 

Lee Kennedy

Area Education Lead (South Kent)

PRU, Inclusion & Attendance Service

03000 418658 

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and faiths, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.