School Attendance Liaison Practitioner

Do you want to make a difference to children and young people by helping them to access their education? If you have a passion for supporting schools, families, children and young people, you could be our next School Attendance Liaison Practitioner (SALP) to join the Team Around the School and Setting (TASS), part of the innovative Education Division of Children’s Services.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to support schools with their work on improving attendance, and being a liaison between school and home.

As part of a team of experienced staff, you will work alongside professionals to draw up and deliver bespoke packages of support. Your primary focus will be to work directly with our schools and settings, children and families to support improved attendance and outcomes for children and young people with additional needs. The practitioner will provide a point of contact for parents to increase parental confidence, reduce anxiety, and support successful inclusion in mainstream settings.

The role of the School Attendance Liaison Practitioner will provide a link between home and school that ensures good, consistent, and effective communication between the two. They will develop strong partnerships with outside agencies and form positive working relationships with families to enable effective support for pupils, and their families to ensure regular attendance at school by working to alleviate barriers to learning and improving communication and links between school and home.

We are looking for a skilled practitioner with a genuine interest in this area, who is experienced in working within an educational setting, to bring about change by supporting attendance and engagement with learning. You will have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to engage with children, young people, families and school staff.

Further to this, we are looking for candidates with

1. Self-motivation and a passion for inclusion and outcomes for children and young people and ability to communicate effectively with others and provide advice in accurate spoken and written English
2. Interpersonal and communication skills and ability to engage with children, families and setting staff and ability to deal with difficult situations.
3. Ability to carry out person-centred, outcomes based planning and confidently and accurately demonstrate specific strategies when working with individuals, groups or cohorts.
4. Ability to build and maintain good productive working relationships with colleagues within the team, in settings and across services.
5. Organisational skills with the ability to effectively manage own workload and balance using own initiative against need to seek management guidance.
6. Experience of successfully supporting and demonstrating an understanding of the main approaches to working with children with protected characteristics and vulnerabilities

We have two posts available - 1 based at County Hall, Lewes and 1 based at Cavendish House, Hastings

Both roles are permanent roles, with some flexibility for some home working as part of a hybrid working model in the office and in schools. The ability to travel is essential. You will be supported through regular line management supervisions, and peer support.

Please download the Job Description and Person Specification for more information.

To apply for this role, please follow the ‘Apply Now’ button above and upload your CV and a Supporting Statement. We will be using your Supporting Statement to shortlist so please be sure to address how you meet all the criteria in the person specification, drawing on any relevant work/life experience, education, or personal interests.

For guidance on how to write an application see our how to apply page and our statement on the use of AI.

Interviews will take place in person on Friday 13 November 2026 at St Mary’s House, Eastbourne. Candidates who meet certain criteria are given priority when we shortlist. See our priority status page for details.

Working within the Education Division is a privilege and offers the chance to support the people of East Sussex to live life to the full. In this job you assist with that every day!

In addition to opportunities to grow your career within our team, we offer a diverse range of benefits to help and support you during your employment, which include:

• Opportunities for flexi-time working
• Regular CPD opportunities
• A generous leave entitlement which increases with length of service, with the option to purchase additional leave
• Access to financial wellbeing resources and products
• A wide selection of discounts with high street retailers, holiday companies and more
• Travel expenses paid from allocated base
• Options for lease car scheme
• Loans for certain purposes at preferential rates

More information can be found on our benefits page.

If you have any questions or would like to have an informal discussion about the role, please email Vidyulatha Narayan, with your questions:

Vidyulatha.Narayan@eastsussex.gov.uk

For work that makes a difference, choose East Sussex!