Portage officer

Job Introduction

Role Purpose

Are you are passionate about making a difference in the lives of young children with SEND and have the skills and qualifications we are looking for, we would love to hear from you.  

The BCP Portage service is a small, dedicated team working with pre-school aged children (primarily aged 0-3 years) with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND). We put each child at the heart of everything we do, providing tailored educational support that empowers parents and carers whilst helping children thrive.

This is a 37-hour per week, all year round position based in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area.

Main Responsibilities

As a Portage officer, you'll be making a real difference by:

• working one-to-one with children and families through home visits
• leading Portage Stay and Play groups
• creating holistic profiles and personalised play and learning plans
• modelling effective play, learning and communication strategies for families to use at home
• facilitating  positive and successful transitions to early years settings or schools
• producing high quality written reports

You will be part of a collaborative and supportive early years team, working in partnership with parents and professionals from education, health, early help/social care and the voluntary sector.

The Ideal Candidate

We are seeking a skilled and knowledgeable early years practitioner who:

• has an early years qualification and  experience of working with children aged 0-4 years with SEND
• understands child development and how young children learn
• builds positive relationships with families quickly and sensitively
• is confident working independently and managing a varied caseload
• holds a full driving licence and has access to a car (essential, as you'll be visiting families across the BCP area, and transporting toys and equipment)

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people.  Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline.  We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package for further details see here

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We have been in a process of collective bargaining since 2019 and have positively worked forward to reach an agreed position with the unions for the new contractual offer. This has taken longer than we hoped and therefore we are having to consider all alternative avenues available to enable us to remove inequality in the organisation as a result of bringing together 3 councils. 

We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation, and all colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. We want to reassure everyone that whichever route is taken to reach the new terms and conditions, we can honour continuous service and there will not be any job reduction as a result of the implementation of Pay and Reward.  If you have any questions at all about this process, please feel free to raise this with the hiring manager.

DBS

BCP Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the community and expects all staff and volunteers to share the same commitment. Applicants to this post will be required to complete the appropriate level of Disclosure & Barring Service Check. Please refer to the Job Description or Role Profile for more details.

Applications closure date - 16th June 2025

Provisional interview date - Friday 11th July 2025

If you would like to discuss the position, please contact Helen Jones or Nicky Ealing via email at portage@bcpcouncil.gov.uk