Senior Learning Mentor: Elective Home Education Service

We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled individual to join the Elective Home Education (EHE) Service to support our commitment to safeguarding and general wellbeing.

The successful candidate will work with home educators to support children’s access to a suitable education in line with the Department for Education’s EHE Guidelines and other key policy documents.

This role will involve engaging home educators, building positive relations, assessing parental provision and providing curriculum advice and guidance.

Experience of working with families, delivering information, providing support, signposting and assessing needs are key.

This post will involve multi-agency working; you will work alongside schools and other professionals to support the best possible educational outcomes for children educated at home.

This is a hybrid full-time permanent post and will involve travelling around Sheffield alongside working from the office, home and other locations.

Specific duties will include:

Supporting the Local Authority to deliver its statutory functions in relation to children educated at home by assessing parental provision.
Providing information, advice and signposting to parents electing to provide an education at home.
Employing specialist knowledge of curriculum levels, progress, attainment and special education needs to complete holistic educational assessments of initial curriculum plans alongside annual reviews of ongoing educational provision.
Using specialist knowledge to provide personalised curriculum guidance to minimise unsuitable education, taking appropriate actions and completing next steps where necessary.
Providing specialist knowledge regarding expectations and criteria of parental provision. Implementing contextualised professional judgement in parental and professional meetings. Contributing to statutory assessment such as SEN reviews and panel meetings to inform other professionals and identify appropriate provision. Liaise with, and offer advice to, schools and other professionals regarding EHE policy and practice.
Providing clear guidance and advice to families working towards suitable provision.
Forming positive relationships with families and offering a range of information, advice and guidance. Delivering curriculum advice sessions to families requiring support with the planning and delivery of their home education.
Conducting home visits, meetings, telephone appointments and drop-in sessions.
Holding and managing a caseload of complex and non-complex children, prioritising work in accordance with service priorities, policies and relevant legislation.
Identifying barriers to learning and developing strategies to resolve educational issues.
Developing and maintaining knowledge of all relevant policy including EHE guidance, relevant case law, CME policy, admissions procedures, safeguarding, etc
Multi-agency working.
Contributing to the collection of child-led data and pupil mapping, utilising signs of safety and EHE expectations.
Maintaining records, assessments, reports and providing data as and when required.

You must have GCSE’s in Maths and English (grade 9-4) or equivalent, be educated to degree level and have a teaching qualification. Applicants must also have significant experience of working with vulnerable children and their families, promoting engagement and be skilled at understanding family dynamics and assessing risk.

Please refer to the specific duties listed in the job advert, alongside the person specification, when completing your application.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.