Education Welfare Officer; Hybrid sites

Kinver High School is seeking dedicated Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) to support schools and families in our community. This vital role focuses on improving school attendance, safeguarding children, and helping families overcome barriers to education.

As an EWO, you will work in partnership with the school, parents, pupils and external agencies to identify attendance concerns, implement targeted interventions, and support families in re-establishing positive routines. This is an excellent development opportunity for teaching assistants, pastoral staff, behaviour mentors or family support workers looking to progress into attendance, safeguarding or social care pathways.

• Attendance & Casework
  • Manage attendance cases, focusing on persistent absence and early intervention
  • Reach out to families via phone to understand their circumstances
  • Develop personalised support and intervention plans
  • Advise the school on attendance processes, statutory responsibilities and best practice
• Safeguarding & Welfare
  • Identify and elevate safeguarding concerns in line with WPA, Momenta, OFG and local procedures
  • Contribute to risk assessments and multi‑agency meetings
  • Maintain accurate, compliant case records and reports
• School partnership & reporting
  • Build strong relationships with Headteachers, SENCOs and attendance leads
  • Deliver attendance reviews, action plans and data analysis to SLT
  • Produce professional reports for the school, families and Local Authorities
• Represent Kinver High School professionally across partner schools, and manage your caseload independently.

To be responsible for the planning, delivery and monitoring of the academy’s systems and strategies to raise student attendance; reduce persistent absenteeism; and reduce persistent lateness.

• Experience supporting children, young people or families
• Strong communication and report‑writing skills
• Confident IT user (Word, Excel, case systems)
• Understanding of safeguarding and attendance barriers
• Full UK driving licence
• Right to work in the United Kingdom
• Experience in attendance, pastoral, behaviour or family support roles
• Knowledge of attendance legislation and statutory guidance
• Mediation experience

• Maintain accurate and comprehensive sets of student attendance and punctuality data.
• Maintain accurate lists of student absences, and determine (in line with legislation and academy policy) whether this absence is authorised or unauthorised.
• Line‑manage and lead the work of the attendance data assistant.
• Implement response systems for students with failing or poor attendance or punctuality, which include: a robust first‑day contact procedure for absent students, and an emergency third‑day contact procedure for absent students when we have not received earlier communication from their family.
• Build supportive working relationships with families which have an impact on raising student attendance or punctuality. Conduct meetings on the phone with families to investigate and challenge student non‑attendance.
• Work with relevant staff to develop individual action plans which improve student attendance or punctuality.
• Raise the profile of high attendance and punctuality throughout the academy.
• Work with relevant staff to develop and implement a reward system for students with excellent or improved attendance and punctuality.
• Maintain accurate and detailed lists of all students who have left the academy (who are ‘off‑roll’) including their destinations and share this information with the local authority as appropriate.