About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About The Role

There are some exciting opportunities to be part of the senior leadership team within the Access, Inclusion and Participation pillar in the London Borough of Hounslow.

Service Manager – Learning Support and Assessment

As the Service Manager, you will lead our DSENDos across Tribunal and Resolutions, Quality and Improvement, and Access and Progression, to drive operational and strategic improvements in our statutory SEND Service. Reporting to the Head of Service, you will:

1. Build and sustain influential partnerships with educational settings, schools, social care, and post 16 providers, ensuring high quality provision and oversight for children and young people with EHCPs across all placements.

2. Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Tribunal and Resolutions, Quality and Improvement, and Access and Progression teams, ensuring delivery of timely, compliant and high quality statutory functions under the Children and Families Act 2014.

3. Lead, coach and performance manage DSENDos and DSCO, offering professional direction, workload oversight and quality assurance.

4. Use data and performance intelligence to monitor service delivery, identify risks and implement targeted improvements to enhance service quality and compliance.

5. Act as a senior representative of the service at multi agency panels, strategic boards, and partnership forums, ensuring alignment with local inclusion priorities and contributing to borough wide SEND improvement.

6. Lead capability building within the workforce, identifying training needs and contributing to a skilled, resilient and future ready service through coaching, development opportunities and continuous improvement.

7. Shape and contribute to Access, Inclusion and Participation strategies, policies and service improvement plans, ensuring that operational practice aligns with wider strategic objectives and statutory responsibilities.

8. Support transformation and inspection readiness, working with the Head of Service to drive service redesign, strengthen compliance with Ofsted/CQC frameworks, and embed a culture of high standards and accountability.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

The Lifelong Learning, Skills & Employment division provides a range of statutory and community services, regulated and non-regulated.

Our vision is for a thriving community where all our residents can engage in and benefit from lifelong learning opportunities - for personal growth, health and wellbeing and economic success.  

The division, which sits within the Children’s & Adults Services Department, is organised into four operational service areas, each led by a Head of Services, and each contributing to achievement of the Borough’s ‘limitless’ Lifelong Learning Strategy.

As a Service Manager within the Access, Inclusion and Participation pillar, you will be a member of our extended Hounslow Leadership Team who play a key role in delivering high-quality, resident-focused services.

You will provide expert guidance, support, and leadership across Hounslow to set high standards for practice and service delivery, ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards. You will be required to work in a proactive and collaborative way with other Council services and partners to provide expertise to support the effective delivery of service for residents.

Through collaboration with your senior team, and other leaders and stakeholders, you will advise on best practice and offer strategic insights to support the efficient and effective delivery of services, and the development and implementation of critical initiatives. Your role involves training and mentoring staff in your area of expertise and succession planning for roles which require similar levels of expertise.

You will also provide regular updates on outcomes to your Head of Service and Director, and as an effective senior team member, promote a positive, inclusive culture, championing staff development and continuous improvement.

The Access, Inclusion and Participation pillar includes our Statutory SEND (Learning Support and Assessment) function, Specialist Practice & Advice (including the Educational Psychology service), Education Inclusion and Participation function, and the Virtual School.

This role reports to the Head of Service – Access, Inclusion and Participation.

About You

As a Service Manager, reporting to the Head of Service you will have:

1. A relevant degree-level qualification or equivalent senior professional experience, demonstrating the practical foundation required to lead a complex statutory service.

2. A strong record of continuous professional development in areas relevant to SEND, inclusive practice, leadership and system improvement.

3. Applied knowledge of the Children and Families Act 2014, the SEND Code of Practice (2015), and associated statutory guidance.
4. A comprehensive and operationally tested understanding of statutory EHC needs assessment and review processes.

5. A sophisticated understanding of inclusive education practice and the interdependent roles of schools, health partners, and social care in improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

If you’re an innovative, collaborative and knowledgeable senior leader, with a passion for inclusive practice and system improvement, we’d love to hear from you.

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

Essential for The Role

Enhanced DBS

When Interviews Will Be Held And Who To Contact

The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Email: Hannah.Clements@hounslow.gov.uk

Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing 27th April 2026.