Education Welfare Officer

The successful candidate will have proven experience in attendance and direct exposure to educational welfare or specialist pastoral casework. You will possess a strong working knowledge of statutory attendance legislation—alongside practical experience working within an educational setting with direct attendance responsibilities.

You will demonstrate excellent communication and interpersonal skills, enabling you to build trusting partnerships with pupils and families, uncover complex barriers to learning, and engage confidently with multi-agency partners and the Local Authority.

The successful candidate will also have a full, clean UK driving licence and regular access to their own reliable motor vehicle. As day-to-day duties involve travelling across the Borough of Havering to conduct home visits and work across our Trust school sites, holding valid business use motor insurance is an essential requirement of the post.

Main Responsibilities and Operational Duties

Whole-School Culture: Support school leadership and pastoral teams across SFAET schools to embed attendance policies, meet targets, and promote positive attendance cultures.

Statutory Advice, Guidance & Training: Provide expert advice, practical guidance, and targeted training on attendance legislation and Trust procedures to teachers, pastoral teams, and families, holding school teams accountable for following up on persistently and severely absent pupils.

Register Audits & Compliance: Perform regular register and punctuality audits across assigned schools, ensuring strict compliance with the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and national attendance codes.

Data Tracking & Analysis: Use Management Information Systems (MIS) to track daily absence patterns, persistent/severe absence and punctuality.

Executive Reporting & Returns: Produce concise attendance reports for Senior Leadership Teams, Local Governing Bodies, and the Trust Attendance Lead, completing all mandatory DfE and Local Authority returns.

Record Keeping: Maintain meticulous and audit-ready records of all attendance actions, family contacts, home visits, and interventions on Trust management systems.

Family Collaboration & Home Visits: Work collaboratively with pupils and parents to identify root causes of absence, conducting unsupervised home visits and welfare checks.

Attendance & Legal Decision Meetings: Lead formal attendance and legal decision meetings with parents, establishing structured action plans and voluntary early help arrangements when attendance falls below trust thresholds.

Vulnerable Cohorts & CLA: Rigorously track attendance for all vulnerable pupil cohorts—including Children Looked After (CLA), Children in Need (CiN), and pupils with social workers—actively providing attendance information at review meetings.

Medical/Mental Health Absence Management: Support and manage health-related absences in line with DfE guidance and school policy.

Alternative Provision (AP) Oversight: Work with dedicated school staff to monitor off-site AP placements and review daily/weekly attendance.

Safeguarding & Statutory Compliance: Adhere strictly to SFAET Child Protection policies and DfE guidance (Keeping Children Safe in Education), reporting disclosures, welfare concerns, and suspected Children Missing Education (CME) immediately to Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs).

Fieldwork Safeguarding & Emergency Interventions: Conduct lone home visits and emergency welfare checks, taking immediate protective action—including contacting Police or Children’s Social Care—when a child safety or wellbeing is compromised.

Multi-Agency Collaboration: Submit high-quality Multi-Agency Referral Forms (MARFs) and collaborate with statutory partners—including Social Care, Police, CAMHS, School Nursing, MASH, and the Local Authority Support Meetings to ensure joined-up support for our most vulnerable families.

As an employee, you will be covered by our excellent well-being support and medical cover programmes provided through the Spark and Medicash organisations. This includes access 24 hours a day to a GP helpline, physiotherapy, optical support, dental treatment, and access to a counselling service.

The Success for All Educational Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (with children's barred list check).

The Success for All Educational Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (with children's barred list check)

The Success for All Educational Trust is an equal opportunities employer including blind recruitment.

"We welcome enquiries from everyone and value diversity in our workforce. Applications are welcome from all sections of the community regardless of gender, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, disability, religion or belief, age or sex and sexual orientation.” The Trust is a Disability Confident Committed employer and we welcome applications from the whole community. All applications for flexible working will be accommodated if operationally feasible.

At SFAET, we are deeply committed to the wellbeing and professional development of our staff. We foster a collaborative and inclusive environment where every team member is valued, supported, and rewarded for their contributions. If you are looking to advance your career in a supportive and dynamic setting and are committed to providing the very best experience for our staff and students, we would love to meet you. If you would like an informal discussion about the role, or arrange a visit to the school site, please contact the SFAET Attendance Lead, Mrs J Willis, via jwillis@sfaet.co.uk.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient suitable applications for the role. If you are interested in the role, please submit your application as early as possible.

The use of AI is strictly forbidden during the application/interview process