Lead SENDCo ( Community role)

A Community Role with Real Influence - This is not a traditional SENDCo post.

We are seeking an experienced and values driven Lead SENDCo to take on a community led role across three Outwood academies: Ripon, Easingwold , Bydales and Normanby (Middlesbrough). With Ripon as your base, your time will be strategically split across all three schools, enabling you to shape SEND provision at both academy and community level.

This role is for someone who wants to make a wider impact, developing people, practice and provision.

The Purpose of the Role

At its heart, this role is about strengthening inclusive practice across a community of schools while maintaining operational SEND leadership in Outwood Academy Ripon.

Your work will focus on three core priorities:

A Community Led SEND Role

You will operate as the community SEND leader across Ripon, Easingwold, Bydales and Normanby, ensuring strong collaboration, shared standards and a coherent SEND offer across very different contexts.

These schools are intentionally different — rural, market town, coastal village and neighbourhood — and this role exists to connect them, not standardise them. You will help each academy deliver inclusive excellence that meets its unique community needs while benefiting from shared expertise and support.

Developing SSPs and SEND practice across the schools

A central focus of the role is the development and consistent implementation of SSP’s (Student Support Plans) across the three academies.

You will:

• Lead the strategic development of SSP practice
• Ensure high quality, meaningful and impactful plans that support teachers to deliver Quality First Teaching
• Evaluate impact and refine provision to ensure students with SEND thrive academically, socially and emotionally

Growing People Through Supportive Leadership

This role places people development at its core. You will provide supportive line management, coaching and CPD for:

• Assistant SENDCos
• SENDCos within the school community
• Inclusion and SEND teams

You will be a visible leader who builds confidence, capability and consistency, modelling best practice and creating space for others to grow into strong SEND leadership roles.

Your Base: Outwood Academy Ripon

Based at Outwood Academy Ripon, you will also fulfil the role of the designated SENDCo for the academy and be a member of the Senior Leadership Team. You will be timetabled for five teaching lessons, ensuring your leadership remains rooted in classroom practice.

At Ripon, you will join a driven and collaborative leadership team united by our vision of Students First. Inclusion is not an add on here — it is fundamental to how we raise standards and transform lives.