Lookout Koorie Cultural Advisor

**Overview**:
**Work Type**:Ongoing - Full-time

**Salary**: $113,022 - $136,747

**Grade**:VPS 5

**Occupation**:Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services

**Location**:Loddon Mallee

**Reference**:VG/DE/SRS/1871460

This position can be based at all North-Western Victoria Regional Office locations.
**_This position can be based at all North-Western Victoria Regional Office locations._**

**Role Restriction**
- This role is identified as available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants only. Confirmation of the Indigenous status of applicants may be requested.
- The Department of Education is committed to taking positive action to eliminate discrimination to the greatest possible extent. It recognises that discrimination can cause social and economic disadvantage, and the achievement of substantive equality may require the taking of special measures. To this end, the Department of Education considers this position to be a ‘special measure' for the purposes of section 12 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic).
- For information on special measures provisions visit:
**About the Department**
- The role of the Department of Education is to support Victorians to build prosperous, socially engaged, happy and healthy lives. It does this by supporting lifelong learning and healthy development, strengthening families and helping to equip people with the skills and knowledge for a 21st century economy and society.

**About the Group**
- Schools and Regional Services (SRS) offers central, regional, and local expertise to enhance learning and development outcomes, supported by a diverse and geographically dispersed workforce. It comprises 17 areas within 4 regions, backed by 5 central office divisions, all collaborating to deliver improved outcomes for early childhood services, schools, communities, and learners, in line with Education State commitments. SRS regions serve as a bridge between the central office, schools, and service providers, ensuring smooth transitions for learners and achieving the department's ambitious targets. Each region includes divisions specialising in school performance, student wellbeing and early childhood support, working with area-based teams to tailor local interventions and practices. The 17 areas provide crucial insights into local trends and issues, facilitating effective policy and program development and driving child and learner outcomes across all services and programs.
- The Student Wellbeing and Engagement Division is responsible for promoting and implementing regional and statewide consistency in areas relating to school services, student health, wellbeing, inclusion, and engagement supports. The LOOKOUT Centres were established in 2016 to address the educational disadvantage of children and young people in out-of-home care (OoHC) and raise the profile of the Out-of-Home Care Education Commitment. LOOKOUT improves outcomes for children and young people in OoHC through capability building of school staff and leadership teams to understand children's needs and strategies to engage them and their carers to best support their education, strengthening relationships between the service systems (DE, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, community service organisations and Aboriginal community controlled organisations) and improving monitoring and reporting of children in care, ensuring that they can be tracked and identified within the system and prioritised for support.

**About the Role**
- The LOOKOUT Advisor - Koorie Cultural Advisor will work closely with schools to advocate for the educational and cultural needs of Aboriginal students in out of home care. The Koorie Cultural Advisor will draw on the capacity and expertise of the Divisional Koorie Education Manager, Koorie Education Coordinator and Koorie Education Support Officers (Koorie Education Workforce) to have a comprehensive and c onsistent approach to supporting Aboriginal students in out of home care. Working in collaboration with the Koorie Education Workforce the Koorie Cultural Advisor will build the capacity of early childhood education and care services (ECEC) and schools to provide culturally appropriate supports and opportunities to build connection to culture.
- As part of the LOOKOUT Centre's multidisciplinary team, the role will contribute to the development of policy and practice to improve education outcomes in Victoria for out of home care children and young people, working to support ECEC, schools and professionals working with children and young people in out of home care to provide culturally appropriate services consistently. The role is required to establish effective working relationships with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH), ACCOs and other key stakeholders. With the LOOKOUT team the Koorie Cultural Advisor will collect and analyse data specific to Aboriginal children and young people to monitor attendance, engagement and achievement against agree