About the role
The Head of Service is responsible for the management, oversight and strategic development of the Disability Social Care 0-25 Service, which delivers a tiered approach to supporting children and young people aged 0-25 years with eligible complex health needs and disabilities across Cambridgeshire. Focussing specifically on good quality preventative work, a range of short breaks, operational statutory intervention under both children’s and adult’s legislation, and preparation for adulthood, the role sits within our adults, health and commissioning directorate to provide continuity for children and families throughout the life course.
The successful candidate will lead services to provide evidence-based support for vulnerable children and young people who have additional learning, social, and/or mental health needs, working closely with parent carers, families, and partners to achieve short and long term outcomes and ensuring the council can fulfil its statutory role and functions for SEND.
Interviews will be held on the 28th September in person.
For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Donna Glover, Service Director, Adult Social Care at donna.glover@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
What will you be doing?
Reporting to a service director in our adults, health and commissioning directorate, you will also have strong links across to children and families, commissioning, education and health colleagues, as well as other partners (such as Pinpoint, Cambridgeshire’s Parent Carer Forum, and the Voiceability Speak Out Council).
As a strong, visible leader for the 0-25 service you will drive improvements in outcomes for children, young people and their families, contributing to strategy development and then implementation.
You will provide leadership for the operational service consisting of five frontline statutory social work teams (4 x children’s and 1 x young adults), three residential children’s homes, a community support service, and a dedicated finance team. You will have five direct reports (2 x Service Managers for statutory social work, 1 x Group Manager for provider services, 1 x Service Development Manager and 1 x Finance Manager.) You will also be budget holder for a multi-million pound budget which covers the revenue and capital spend across this diverse service area.
About you
You will bring significant experience of working at a senior level in social care and be able to demonstrate how you have provided leadership that has improved outcomes for children, young people and their families.
You must have detailed knowledge of legislation relating to children and young adults, and best practice in safeguarding and social work, and an ability to support and manage the performance of others.
You must be a strategic thinker who can see beyond the detail, instigating change where needed. Your leadership skills will inspire the confidence of those around you and enable you to persuade and negotiate. Your communication skills will allow you to present information in all formats to a diverse audience. Most importantly, you will have a strong track record of involving people with lived experience in developing and designing services.
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:
- Flexible working
- Flexible Bank Holidays
- A comprehensive wellbeing package
- Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
- A comprehensive pension scheme
- IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
- Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
- An employee recognition scheme
For our Social Workers, we offer more specific benefits like:
- Generous annual leave provision (28 days, plus bank holidays)
- A supportive management team that will champion your learning and development
- Employee Assistance Programme – access to free support 24 hours a day
- Payment for business mileage expenses (45p per mile, and for the 2022/2023 financial year an additional fuel allowance for those driving over 300 business miles each month)
- Plus, 6 days of protected time each year to enable our Social Workers to maintain their Continuous Professional Development.
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we believe benefits our employees, the organisation and our communities.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
Attached documents
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