Education Support Practitioner

Education Support Practitioner (ESP)

HBC6 | 37 hours per week | Full-time | Fixed-term for 2 years

Our Story:

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’.

Our Team:

This is an exciting opportunity to join Halton Virtual School as we develop the next phase of our Education Support Practitioner (ESP) service and extend its remit across education and Family Help.

Our ESPs work closely with schools, Family Help, Children’s Social Care and wider partner agencies to ensure that the educational needs of vulnerable children and young people are identified and addressed. The role provides an important link between education, families and services, bringing educational expertise into multi-agency assessment and planning and helping children and families to access the right support at the right time.

We are looking to recruit two Education Support Practitioners on a two-year fixed-term basis. This is a varied role involving work across schools, services and the wider community, with regular travel across Halton and, where required, further afield.

This posts also offers an Essential Monthly Car User Allowance.

Your Contributions:

As an Education Support Practitioner, you will:

• Work closely with schools, Family Help and partner agencies to ensure the educational needs of children and young people are identified and reflected within assessment and support planning.
• Provide targeted, solution-focused and strengths-based support to children, young people and families to improve attendance, engagement and educational outcomes, including support for children who are out of education or accessing Alternative Provision.
• Undertake joint work and visits with Family Help, providing educational expertise and contributing to assessments of need, planning and intervention.
• Support parents and carers to engage with education and relevant services, identifying and mobilising appropriate support and helping to prevent needs from escalating wherever possible.
• Contribute to safeguarding and quality assurance activity across the Local Authority, including educational screening, safeguarding enquiries, partnership audits, training and improving the quality of information shared between schools and services.

Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites
• Flexible working arrangements
• Car leasing schemes

Next Steps:

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Dan Taylor, Email: Dan.Taylor@halton.gov.uk

Mobile: 07768053556

Interviews will take place on 25th September 2026

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcing@halton.gov.uk

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!