Neurodivirsity Support Manager

Job Introduction

As the Neurodiversity Support Manager, you will develop and implement a system which will focus on supporting individuals to achieve and progress through Education, Skill and Work pathways throughout their sentence. The Neurodiversity Support Manager will liaise with the Learning and Skills Manager and the education providers to ensure prisoners are supported, whether engaged with education or not, and that they continue to be supported in the community, including by the probation teams. The post holder will provide support and guidance to ensure that all staff and stakeholders share the same vision and ethos of Neurodiversity.

The successful candidate will have experience of working in the Special Educational Needs/ Additional Learning Needs and Disabilities field and will have extensive knowledge on successfully implementing Neurodiverse programs.

As a working prison, we work towards the resettlement of residents upon their release into the community and their integration into society through the skills acquired while in our care. We are committed to supporting people to change their lives for the better and lead law-abiding lives. HMP Northumberland offers a variety of initiatives and programmes to help residents engage within the prison’s rehabilitative culture. This includes various educational and vocational qualifications, as well as a variety of opportunities for residents to learn new skills within our workshops and industries departments. We have textile, engineering and electrical workshops and can offer prisoners experience in horticulture, market gardens, cleaning, waste management and laundry services on site.

Being over 4 miles in circumference, the prison is a vast space with exceptionally kept plantation and currently houses over 1300 residents with a range of sentence terms.

For more information on Sodexo Careers please visit Sodexo Careers and Careers in Justice

Role Responsibility

• Focus on improving and ensuring that the quality of neurodiversity support and provision across ESW is at least good and moving towards outstanding. This is to include assessment of quality to inform the prison education, skills and work improvement plan which can be applied across various learning channels, e.g. classroom, industries, work areas, workshops, gym etc. 

• Develop and maintain Neurodiversity needs strategy for the prison, incorporating and working with key stakeholders. This should include as a minimum: Curriculum and Learning Progression lead, LSM, Head of Reducing Reoffending (HoRR), Provider education and/or curriculum managers (including regional leads), Employment lead, New Futures Network (NFN) broker, Prison Work Coach, Head of Offender Management Unit, libraries, Information Advice and Guidance (IAG), activities, gym, industries manager, key worker  

• Develop and maintain the systems and structures to ensure that delivery of all Education, Skills and Work activity is appropriate to all cohorts. Recommend and test related solutions leading into an improvement plan. Working with Senior Management Team (SMT) to implement, maintain, invest and update it as necessary.  

• Manage the collection and collating of Neurodivergent data at local level.  

Please see attached job description for further information regarding the role requirements.

The Ideal Candidate

Essential Qualifications:

•  PGCE, Cert Ed or Level 5 in Education and Training.
•  Level 4 Certificate in Supporting the learning of learners with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)/ Additional Learning Needs (ALN). Alternatively, extensive relevant work experience of working with Neurodiverse learners in a custodial setting.

Desirable Qualifications:

•  Level 4 TAQA qualifications in the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes or equivalent,
• Level 7 Diploma in Assessing and Teaching Learners with Dyslexia, Specific Learning Differences and Barriers to Literacy

This is a specialist, non-operational role thus, it is desirable for the candidate to have the following experience:

•  Experience of operating in a specialist neurodiversity role.
•  Experience of working within the Special Educational Needs / Additional Learning Needs and Disabilities field.
•  Detailed knowledge of OFSTED/Estyn’s EIF (Education Inspection Framework) and further education and skills criteria.
•  Substantial teaching experience that has developed a range of strategies for developing accessible and appropriate resources to match the specific learning needs of individuals / cohorts of learner.
•  History of developing highly effective partnerships with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
•  Worked in a complex multi-agency operational setting to achieve mutual outcomes
• Experience of setting goals and achieving targets

Package Description

£35,000 to £42,000

Monday to Friday 

We also offer Sodexo Discounts site promoting discounted mobile phone tariffs, savings across restaurant chains and days out, where you and your family can save money on everything from your weekly food shop to the latest cinema blockbuster and much more.

Post holders will be subjected to an advanced DBS check, a prison security check (level 2) prior to being employed.

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs around 30,000 people, and partners with clients in many sectors across business and industry; schools and universities; sports and leisure; energy and resources; government and agencies; healthcare; justice and defence.

Sodexo’s connected; people-centric approach brings together a diverse range of expertise. The breadth of services it offers ranges from food and hospitality; cleaning; reception; concierge (Circles); security; property management and technical services through to data driven workplace strategy and design (Wx); employee engagement and recognition services (Sodexo Engage) and personal home services through Prestige Nursing + Care and the Good Care Group.

Sodexo is committed to being an inclusive employer; we welcome and encourage applications from people with a diverse variety of experiences, backgrounds and identities.

We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations.

We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to  support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process

Sodexo and our clients are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults within a regulated activity. Certain roles will require applicants to undergo screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and/ or Disclosure Scotland.

Please note all roles within Sodexo Justice are subject to security and recruitment checks which may include a Social Media Check. You will also be asked to provide 5 years’ worth of references and request employment history details from the HMRC.