Relational and Restorative Practice in Schools Implementation Lead

Job details:

Salary: Band 11 - £44,428 to £48,474 Per annum (Pro rata for part time hours)

Full time - 37 hours a week, however, we would consider part-time or term-time working (minimum 4 days per week) for the right candidate.

Fixed term contract / Secondment from ASAP to 31 st December 2025

Closing date:4 th January 2024

Interviews: 10th January 2024

What is the role?

The overall purpose of this job is to facilitate environments where schools can understand their needs more accurately, develop programs of support including consultation, action learning sets, training, reflective spaces and focus groups to ensure relational practice is embedded within the fabric of the school community. This role will act as a conduit to enable practice to be shared across the City, it will enable the translation of research into practice and be an expert guide to schools on their relational journey. Ultimately this role will work effectively with schools to enable best practice ensuring positive outcomes for the whole school community.

You will:

Communicate in a way which is inclusive, accessible and engages all those involved. Influencing key stakeholders to ’buy into’ RP and how by working in this way can have long lasting positive effects on children’s outcomes. Facilitating environments which enable open and honest conversations, using consultation skills to work with senior leaders to explore their current situation and make realistic plans for moving forward.

Build and maintain good and effective relationships across education and other agencies to harness expertise and share practice. Project managing to co-ordinate and organise all things needed to ensure the experience for schools is seamless, efficient and meaningful.

Work at the pace of the Leadership Team in School so that they are driving their improvements in line with competing priorities. Carefully balancing the need for support and challenge. Act as an expert advisor, translating the research into practice, and supporting schools to see how they can use the research to drive improvement.

What you’ll need to succeed

You will have/be:

• A recognised qualification that is transferable to this role e.g., Teaching, Health & Social Care, education (including Social Work and Occupational Therapy), Careers Guidance, Human Resources, Teaching in Further Education, CIPD.
• An expert knowledge and understanding of relational practice and how this can be applied to the education sector.
• An understanding of the National Standards for Restorative Practice and how to apply these in a variety of contexts and settings and an understanding of both Restorative Justice and Restorative Practice and how they interface.
• An expert understanding of the needs of children within the City and an ability to be responsive to understanding specific needs within specific settings, with the ability to facilitate restorative meetings between schools and partners agencies.
Be an assertive person who is able to act upon their own initiative and work autonomously making informed decisions, knowing when to escalate issues. Be creative and innovative in commissioning / developing / delivering learning and development programmes that have a currency and engage learners.

Experience of:

• Working in complex, sensitive and challenging situations with external partner organisations. Knowing how to manage sensitive situations which pose difficulty and complexity while maintaining good and effective relationships. The ability to Challenge others, both those who are deemed higher and lower within the professional hierarchy. Being able to do this with kindness, care, understanding and also keeping high expectations and challenge.
• The impact language can have on others, how this reflects our values and how through language we can bring others on a journey towards more understanding. Bringing people together to value experience and learn from one another.
• Working within environments where relational practice is embedded / being embedded and having an influential role in this. Working with people, prioritising their needs and organisational needs to drive improvement and change. Working in environments which are pressured and understanding how this can impact.

What you’ll get in return

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave .
• A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
• Flexible working hours.
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
• Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
• Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
• Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.

Additional Information:

The full job profile is attached here

Contact Details for an Informal Discussion:

If you have any questions, or would like an informal discussion about the role, please call Sarah Christopher 07825 420519 or Sam Nesbit 07814131216

A commitment to our values

We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours .

Application process:

Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points described in the ’Who is the Person’ points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.

Please ensure you provide your full education history from secondary school, include name/address of establishment, details of relevant qualifications & awarding body.

Please explain any gaps - this is essential for all safeguarding children’s roles.

You may wish to attach an additional letter or document to supplement you application.

If applying as a secondment you will need permission from your current line manager to release you for this secondment. Please state you have this on your application form.

Portsmouth City Councilis committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. It is also committed to promoting quality childcare across the city that works to improve outcomes for children.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.