The Hearing Support Service works with deaf children across Dorset and BCP. We are a team of Advisory Teachers and specialist support staff who support deaf children and young people, their families, schools and settings to achieve the best possible outcomes. Our role involves working with young children from diagnosis, often within weeks of birth and a high priority is early years support for language and communication development. We are looking for an experienced and proactive Specialist Teaching Assistant to join the team. You will be working alongside Advisory Teachers to provide intervention support in homes, pre-school settings, mainstream schools and colleges. Experience of working with deaf children is essential and you should have a firm knowledge of deaf awareness strategies to support inclusion. The role involves technical support of the children's hearing aids, radio aids and listening devices. A knowledge of hearing technology is needed, and full training will be provided. The ideal candidate will have at least BSL Level 1 and opportunities to develop sign language and gain further qualifications will be supported as appropriate. The role involves supporting the Advisory Teachers to develop and maintain teaching and Audiology resources including a library of books and toys. The role is peripatetic involving travel across the county to different schools and settings. An ability to work independently with initiative is essential. Further Information The successful candidate's centre of duty office will be either Dorchester or Wimborne. We support flexible and hybrid working and ICT equipment will be provided. This is a part time role at 20 hours per week, term-time only. This role involves outreach support at various schools and settings and a travel allowance is payable. This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed. This post involves working with children and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders. See our policy on safeguarding children and young people. Term time only contract: We base the pro-rata salary on: the number of hours the number of weeks worked paid annual leave entitlement for an employee under 5 years’ service In the first year of service this salary may need to be adjusted to ensure you are paid accurately to reflect your holiday entitlement. A similar adjustment may be made at the point your employment ends to ensure that you are paid accurately for the number of days worked in any academic year. Interviews are planned for the week beginning 11th November 2024 with a start date as soon as possible. For further information, please contact: Ursula Murley Principal teacher, Hearing Support Service [email protected] About Us We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception. At Dorset Council we: provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents have ambitious aspirations are excited about our future care about Dorset and all the people who live here know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success You will: have access to a range of employee benefits be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role. We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments. We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process. If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn. This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process. We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant. Find out more about how to apply .