Introduction

Portage workers provide a home teaching service for pre-school children with special educational needs, which may include physical or learning difficulties. They also provide help and support for the children’s parents and can help them learn how to teach their children skills through a carefully structured and flexible programme.

Work Environment

Portage workers have an office base, but spend a good deal of time visiting families in their homes. They may also work part of the time in nurseries and schools.

Normal working hours are 30-35 per week, mainly during the working day. However, they may need to visit families in the evening, to see parents who work during the day. In these cases, they would usually take time off during the day to make up for the extra evening hours.

Daily Activities

Portage workers help assess children with special needs in areas such as:

• infant development,
• social skills,
• cognitive (thinking) skills,
• self-help skills,
• motor skills,
• language development.

Duties include:

• working with parents to prepare a programme of activities for the parent and child to practice;
• visiting families weekly to check progress and agree new goals and activities;
• writing regular progress reports on their clients and developing long-term teaching goals for the child, in consultation with the parents;
• ensuring programmes are tailored to each individual child so that they can learn effectively;
• working closely with other professionals, such as speech therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, health visitors and social workers.

Skills & Interests

Portage workers need to be:

• excellent communicators,
• able to work with a wide range of people, including children, parents and other professionals,
• sensitive and tactful,
• good at giving advice,
• good report writers,
• interested in child and family development.

Entry Requirements

Portage workers usually require a professional qualification in nursing, social work or education, such as NNEB, CACHE, teaching qualifications or a degree in social work. Alternatively, you may be required to have level 3 N/SVQs in Early Years Care and Education.

Training opportunities in portage are available for workers who are not already qualified in the basic portage workshop through the National Portage Association (NPA). These workshops usually last three or four days. More advanced modules in play and home visit, emotional support and working with multiple learning difficulties, for example, can also be taken through the NPA.

As portage workers make numerous home visits, they usually need to have a clean driving licence and sometimes use of a car.

Estimated salary range

Around £15,000 – £20,000 per year.

Please note that salary information is a guide only and there may be local agreements in place. For further information about salaries for particular positions, please contact your local council directly.

Future prospects & opportunities

It may be possible to progress to manager or supervisor of a portage service. Other possible career developments for portage workers include specialising in one or other of their skills and moving into nursery nursing or speech therapy, for example. You may also be able to move into other professional areas working with children such as social work or teaching.

Related Occupations

Follow this link to view a list of all related occuptions in Caring For Your Community.
Alternatively, follow this link to view all career profiles placed in the same job area.

Further Information & Services

National Portage Association www.portage.org.uk

Children’s Workforce Development Council www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

Community Service Volunteers www.csv.org.uk

Follow this link for social services recruitment contacts within local councils in your area.

You may find further information about this area of work in your local Connexions service/careers office/school careers library – under F or V.

What should I do next?

Look for current local government Portage Worker vacancies in the following places:

• LGjobs.com - the official recruitment website for local government.
• Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly jobs bulletins produced by local councils themselves, available from libraries, community centres, town halls/main civic buildings and central council personnel departments.
• Local council websites.
• Local newspapers
• National newspapers – The Guardian is particularly well known for its public sector job advertisements on a Wednesday.

Find out about the council and get some work experience if possible by:

• Making the most of work experience placements arranged through your school, college or university.
• Contacting councils close to your home to find out about the work experience opportunities they offer.
• Talking to someone who does the job you are interested in – ring your local council to see if someone can spare some time.
• Making an appointment to see a careers adviser for more specific information about jobs and training.