Bexley is an outer London Borough with the best of both worlds, located between the hustle and bustle of London and the Garden of England, Kent. Within the borough we have award winning parks, open spaces and listed heritage sites.  

Bexley School Improvement Team is working with the Mayor’s Office on the Talk Matter’s project aimed at improving outcomes and future life chances of pupils by developing oracy in schools. 

This role consists of working on a project within the School Improvement Team. The service works with groups and individual pupils and is responsible for identifying and implementing successful strategies that enable progress and effective inclusion of pupils with SLCN. The Specialist Assistant will provide support to school’s by delivering interventions, modelling activities, providing training and sharing effective practice, as well as supervising key staff in schools, in order to support the outcomes of the Talk Matters project. 

Please refer to the Job Description attached for more information. 

This is a 2 year contract. 

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Marc Naylor, Local Education Systems Leader, 020 3045 4389 | ext 4389, marc.naylor@bexley.gov.uk 

We will offer you in return a package that includes a competitive salary, an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays. For more information on the benefits package on offer please refer to the Candidate Information document attached. 
We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date. 

The ideal candidate for the Specialist Support Assistant role in speech, language, and communication will hold a relevant qualification, such as an NNEB or LSA certificate, with experience in a mainstream school setting. They will have a proven track record of delivering speech and language interventions to school-aged children, along with a deep understanding of child development from pre-school to early secondary age.

The candidate will be knowledgeable about language development and the impact of delays in communication skills. They should possess strong listening and communication skills, be capable of maintaining accurate records, and preparing clear verbal and written reports. Additionally, the candidate will demonstrate adaptability, resourcefulness, and self-motivation, with the ability to learn new skills and follow professional guidance.

They will be confident in tailoring their communication to meet the needs of children and parents, using appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures, even in complex situations. Professionalism, sensitivity, and the ability to manage confidential information are essential qualities for this role. 

For the full list of essential and desirable criteria for this role then please refer to the Person Specification within the Job Description attached. 
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).  
This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. 

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.     

Use the ‘Apply for vacancy’ button. 

Please note that the system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised and have your CV and/or Supporting statement ready to upload. 

If any mandatory fields are missing, a pop-up box will appear at the top of the page advising which sections require completion. Please check your Junk email for any correspondence. 

 
Additional Information 

As a disability confident employer Bexley welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including hidden disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on recruitment@bexley.gov.uk. 

 
This role may be available as a development opportunity through secondment for the Council’s existing employees.  The Council’s Secondment Scheme can be found here. If this option is of interest, please contact the recruiting manager. 

Anticipated Interview Date: TBC