Education Transport Officer

Grade E scp 11 £29,071 to scp 17 £32,046
Contract: Permanent
Age Restriction: 18+
Interview date: TBC
For further information about this role, contact: andy.colderley@bolton.gov.uk

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

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The Role
Do you want to make a difference to the lives of children and young people with special needs and disabilities, by supporting them to get an education? Are you enthusiastic about ensuring that ALL children and young people can access the right education to meet their needs?
If so, come and join our Integrated Transport Team. You’ll be a vital part of this new team, responsible for providing travel support assessments and solutions for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, ensuring they can travel to school/college safely.
We are responsible for the transportation of pupils to schools and colleges in Bolton and across the North West, including determining pupil eligibility for travel assistance and agreeing contracts with external providers for approximately 1450 pupils.
You’ll be responsible for associated casework, working in accordance with policy and legislation including the Education Act 1996 and Bolton Council’s Transport Policy for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SENDAS). This includes assessing applications for transport and also decision making, ensuring appropriate recording throughout. You’ll also be involved in supporting the appeals process, from the planning and preparation through to writing and presenting reports.
This is a busy service with competing demands and deadlines, so good organisation skills are essential.
We’d also love you to be an integral part of determining how we can support our children and young people further with new and innovative travel solutions.

About You
Can make a difference? Do you have a high standard of literacy, numeracy and good IT skills (Microsoft Office packages)? Are you a great communicator, both written and verbal, able to write letters and reports and also communicate with parents? If so we want to hear from you.
This is a challenging role involving working with the parents/Carers, School, senior officers and elected members, so some experience of dealing with challenge/conflict would be beneficial.
You’ll have a good understanding of the statutory requirements for home to school transport support for pupils with special educational needs, pupils eligibility for home to school transport and the challenges facing this service, with a passion to develop the service further. This includes the opportunity to influence policy and ways of working.

About Us
This is your opportunity to join us at an exciting time as we have strong ambitions for the borough.

Bolton is a great place to work. We are a welcoming organisation that wants to contribute to a place where people feel active, connected and prosperous. We are passionate about improving the outcomes and experience of Bolton people. We want Bolton to be a vibrant place built on strong cohesive communities, successful businesses and healthy, engaged residents.

As an employer we want to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment, by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits, including discounts and exclusive gym membership prices and salary sacrifice schemes. In addition, we offer a generous annual leave allowance, flexible work opportunities, access to a Pension Scheme, as well as a range of employee wellbeing and support services.

Our Values are really important to us, read all about them below, along with all our great staff benefits, the job description/person specification for the role and the important legal bits, and our Top Tips too.

Ready to apply? Then please click Apply and upload your anonymised CV and supporting statement discussing your relevant skills and experience and explain how you believe they make you a strong fit for this role. Amend this wording if there are specific questions requested for the supporting statement

Within Greater Manchester, local authorities have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel. Please see greater.jobs for further information before you apply.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) clearance - this post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (amended in 2013). Employment offers are conditional subject to satisfactory clearances. For roles where a criminal records check from the DBS is required, this includes satisfactory clearance of this check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily bar an individual from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of an individual’s offence/s. Information provided by you or the DBS will be dealt with in a confidential manner and in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice which can be viewed here. Bolton Council’s policy on the Employment of Ex-Offenders is available here.

This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English as per the person specification.

This organisation has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. That means we will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester local authority or NHS organisation that has signed the commitment, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority, giving you access to our service-related benefits. Please see the home page of greater.jobs for more information.

For more information about working for Bolton Council, please see greater.jobs; for advice and support with your application, contact recruitment@bolton.gov.uk