Job Introduction
Job Title: Practice Development Lead
Starting Salary: £48,226 progressing to £53,460 per annum (pro rata for part time)
Hours: 22.2 hours per week
Location: Stevenage
Contract Type: Fixed Term until 1st June 2027
Directorate: Childrens services
About the team
Hertfordshire County Council Children’s SEND Quality Assurance Team are recruiting to the position of Practice Development Lead.
Are you passionate about staff training and development and improving services?
We are offering an exciting role to improve the quality of services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities within our Making SEND Everyone’s Business service transformation and investment programme.
The Practice Development Lead role is located in the SEND Quality Assurance Team to enable a strong QA / improvement focus. The Practice Development Lead role, however, works closely with the Learning and Development Team, and a range of internal and external stakeholders.
About the role
The role will be focused on designing and delivering staff training within the SEND Academy and across other services. This includes delivering training to internal staff within Children’s Services, as well as delivering training to multi-agency professionals and offering bespoke support and sessions to take forward practice improvements identified in quality assurance work and audits.
You will have the opportunity to be involved in the delivery of our innovative Hertfordshire SEND Academy training offer to upskill a large cohort of new and existing staff. Our aim is to develop a high quality, accredited offer, to develop a highly skilled, supportive and outcomes-focused working culture.
The role will involve improving practice in SEND provision across the Inclusion and Skills Directorate by designing and delivering a range of training and related activities within wider programmes. This will include working closely with the SEND QA Team to design and deliver follow-up training sessions and support on action points from EHCP quality audits and more broadly elements of the Hertfordshire SEND Academy.
Key elements of the role will include:
- Designing and delivering bespoke training sessions to improve frontline staff practice based on areas for improvement identified in Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) quality audits. Working closely with the SEND QA Team to ensure training content addresses QA recommendations following regular practice audits.
- Taking a lead role in the design and delivery of training sessions within the Hertfordshire SEND Academy.
- Offering a range of support to improve frontline practice informed by QA work and performance data, by offering ongoing support for frontline teams - distributing practice guidance notes, delivering information sessions on legislation updates etc.
- Gathering views and receiving feedback from a range of internal and external leads / partners across the Inclusion and Skills Directorate, managers, frontline staff, wider health and education leads, and representatives of children, young people and family voice - to enable their ongoing input to the continuing development of training and to support SEND good practice.
- Working closely with the Learning and Development Team to clarify practical arrangements and identify opportunities to share resources.
- Involvement in monitoring and reporting on the quality and impact of training and support, focusing on continuous improvement.
- Supporting with the completion of audits and actively participating in the QA requirements during inspections.
Please note, there will be a degree of flexibility required within the role due to the fast-changing nature of SEND.
About you
Essential:
- Knowledge of / experience in SEND in a professional capacity.
- Knowledge of / experience in designing and delivering training.
Desirable:
- A basic teaching qualification (such as PTTLS / Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) and / or significant relevant experience.
- Knowledge of / experience in quality assurance.
You will be part of an exciting staff development initiative; the Hertfordshire SEND Academy. This is a great opportunity to be involved in staff training, quality assurance and service improvement, which will help to develop staff skills, wellbeing and job satisfaction, and ultimately improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. In addition, you will be part of the SEND QA Team and will work closely with the Social Care QA Team.
We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.
This job role is within the Corporate Services, level 12 job profile. Please locate this via:
Job profiles - Corporate services
To hear more about this opportunity please contact lauren.sheppard@herfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.
Interview Date: 24th April 2026
How to apply
As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.
Secondment
This position is open to secondments. If you work for HCC or any other Local Authority and would like to be considered as a Secondment contract, please ensure you complete the Secondment Form as part of your application. If you do not, your application will be considered as a Fixed Term Contract only.
Additional information
Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.
English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.