Senior Attendance, Prosecutions and S19 Complaints Officer

The Service & Team

The team within Cornwall Council's Attendance and Alternative Provision services works closely with Education, Legal Services, Social Care, Health, Police, Youth Justice and other partners. They are responsible for delivering statutory duties relating to school attendance enforcement, Section 19 provision, and complaints, with a strong focus on safeguarding, fairness and achieving positive outcomes for children and families.

Role

The Senior Attendance, Prosecutions and Section 19 Complaints Officer leads the delivery of statutory school attendance enforcement and complaints. The postholder provides strategic and operational oversight of the full legal process, from issuing Penalty Notices to authorising Section 444 prosecutions, ensuring all actions are lawful, proportionate, robust and compliant with statutory requirements. They also lead complex, high risk, Ombudsman linked complaints, delivering thorough investigations and resolutions that protect children, families and the Council's legal and reputational position.

The role provides strategic oversight of the Council's Section 19 duties, ensuring children with medical needs, SEND or safeguarding vulnerabilities are properly assessed and offered suitable education before any enforcement action is pursued. They work collaboratively with schools and multi agency partners to ensure consistent, evidence based decision making and strong safeguarding practice across the county.

The postholder line manages two Senior Business Support (Legal Intervention) Officers and two Attendance Officers responsible for Section 19, and provides ad hoc operational oversight of staff across the Attendance and Alternative Provision services when needed. They support performance management, quality assurance and professional development within the team.

This is a public/customer facing role, with the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers. The position will be subject to a criminal record disclosure check.

Working Pattern

The role is full time and operates within Cornwall Council's flexible working arrangements, offering hybrid and other flexible options in line with service requirements and Council policy.

What You'll Need to Succeed

The successful candidate will bring a solid foundation of knowledge and experience relevant to education, safeguarding and statutory attendance work, be degree level educated in a suitable field and demonstrate clear analytical thinking, sound judgement and strong organisational skills. Effective written and verbal communication, calm and professional approach to complex situations are key.

Experience in managing staff or leading within an education or local authority setting is desirable, as is familiarity with attendance legislation, safeguarding responsibilities, penalty notices and Section 444 prosecutions. Understanding of handling complex complaints and experience preparing or presenting casework is beneficial.

Overall, the role requires collaboration, thoughtful response to challenges and positive contribution to a service focused on achieving the best outcomes for children and families.

Benefits

Cornwall Council offers a range of flexible working options and a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward employees. Core employee rewards include:

• Competitive salary
• Defined benefit pension scheme, based on career average earnings, with optional extra voluntary contributions
• Generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave
• National award winning employee health and wellbeing programme
• Employee benefits scheme providing access to discounts on local and national goods and services

Additional Information

Cornwall Council is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfer existing sponsorship for this role.