Education Engagement Practitioner WCC624345

Job Details:

Salary range: £42,912 - £52,269 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP 
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Temporary up to 24 months
Vetting requirements: DBS Enhanced Check
Closing date: 30 June 2026
Interview date: 9 July 2026

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF EMPOWERED FAMILIES

Children’s Services at Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories where compassionate people bring everything to their work, including their own experiences of parenting.

Take Melissa, a Senior Social Worker in our Assessment Team. She’s one of the first people families meet when accessing our services, so building rapport is critical. And that’s where Melissa’s life experience really counts. She had her first child as a young adult and knows just how judgmental others can be.

Melissa has something unique to offer, and it can’t be found in a textbook: her own experience of raising two children as a single parent. She’s committed to empowering others: giving them the skills, resources and confidence they need, from housing support to baby supplies. And if the family has older kids? Well, she’s been there too. Her youngest is now 15, and Melissa knows the challenges of helping young people navigate inner-city life.

Melissa first learnt her craft as a support worker, then completed her statutory training as social worker – all while raising her family single-handed. And she’s not done yet. Supported by her managers, she’s been training in systemic therapy and is already looking forward to her next development opportunity. 

Melissa’s more than a social worker; she’s a shining example to the families she works with every day.

The Role:

As a Secondary Education Engagement Practitioner, you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. You’ll work closely with schools to support attendance and inclusion, helping ensure they receive a consistent core offer from the Attendance & Inclusion Team and that vulnerable pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, are supported to improve attendance.

You’ll work with schools to identify children and families who may be at greater risk of poor outcomes and who are not currently accessing the right support. This will include managing a caseload of families where children have complex needs and multiple barriers to attendance, particularly where attendance is at 75% or below.

An important part of your role will be working directly with children, young people and their families, both individually and in groups where needed. You’ll take a systemic and trauma-informed approach, recognising that improving attendance is about understanding the whole picture – not relying on legal sanctions in isolation. Where appropriate, you’ll coordinate Team Around meetings, contribute to Family Plans and make planned referrals in consultation with families.

You’ll also support schools to make effective use of universal services, including health and voluntary sector partners, helping reduce demand on children’s services where appropriate. By enabling schools to take on the role of lead professional when needed, you’ll help build confidence and capacity within education settings to support children and families earlier.

Partnership working will be central to the role. You’ll liaise with professionals, local services and agencies within and outside the borough to co-create sustainable reintegration plans for pupils enrolled at Westminster schools. For pupils who live out of borough, you’ll help facilitate access to local services by mediating with other local authority representatives and partner agencies.

You’ll maintain a strong working knowledge of community resources and available support, signposting families and professionals clearly and appropriately. You’ll also keep up to date with legislation, new policies and best practice in education, child protection and children’s services, ensuring your work remains informed, safe and effective.

Safeguarding will run through everything you do. You’ll carry out comprehensive assessments, ensure effective risk management and develop outcome-focused plans for severely absent pupils. Where concerns arise, you’ll follow safeguarding procedures, make referrals and support safety planning when necessary.

And lastly, you’ll also represent the service in a range of forums, take part in training, and carry out other duties appropriate to the level as required by the Attendance Manager.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

You’ll bring experience of working directly with families of children with complex needs, with a good understanding of threshold management and the importance of getting the right support in place at the right time. You’ll also have experience in an educational context, working with school leaders and understanding the pressures, procedures and challenges that schools face.

You’ll be confident working as a key lead professional with a range of agencies, bringing people together through a Team Around approach. Building relationships will be a real strength – whether that’s with families in challenging circumstances, professionals across different services, or community partners who can help support children and young people more effectively.

A strong understanding of child development, wellbeing and the issues affecting families in diverse inner-city communities will guide your work. You’ll also bring knowledge of safeguarding, child protection, school attendance, admissions, exclusions and the wider education system, as well as the legislation, policies and procedures relating to statutory school attendance.

You’ll know how to work in a strengths-based and outcomes-focused way, using evidence-informed interventions and practice models to support children, young people and families. This might include approaches such as restorative practice, motivational interviewing, parenting approaches, counselling or solution-focused work – always choosing the right approach for the family and situation.

You’ll be confident using assessment frameworks and tools to produce clear, evidence-based assessments of needs, strengths and risk. From there, you’ll be able to develop outcome-focused support plans that are reviewed and updated as circumstances change, making sure work remains purposeful and centred on the child or young person.

Working with a high level of autonomy will suit you. You’ll be able to use your professional initiative, make sound decisions with low-level support and remain accountable for the quality of your work. Strong engagement, negotiation and brokerage skills will help you communicate clearly, collaborate well and build trust with both service users and colleagues.

You’ll also understand the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and the processes used to make sure they receive appropriate levels of support. In everything you do, you’ll bring clear communication, sound judgement and a practical, compassionate approach to helping families overcome barriers and improve attendance outcomes.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme will automatically be invited to interview, should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning, subject to the volume of suitable applicants.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this, visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/

As a forward-thinking Council, we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for an interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.