About the role
Our Council vision is to create a greener, fairer, and more caring Cambridgeshire. That means we need inspiring, collaborative, compassionate and inclusive leaders to be part of our extended leadership team to help drive and direct that vision to become a reality.
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population across two cities in Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, historic market towns including Huntingdon, St Neots and Wisbech, and more rural communities. This diversity and contrast mean we need to work harder to ensure everyone shares in the county's benefits and opportunities.
We are looking for a Service Director who can lead and manage Children's Social Care and Targeted Support, undertaking a full leadership role in the Children, Education and Families Management Team to ensure that children’s needs are met across the whole spectrum of intervention and prevention.
We are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive and flexible working environment. We are proud to serve the diverse population of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to reflect this diversity, which benefits our employees, the organisation and the communities we serve.
For more information or for an informal chat about this opportunity please contact Martin Purbrick Executive Director for Children, Families and Education via email to martin.purbrick@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
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.
What will you be doing?
As a Service Director and member of the Extended Leadership Team (ELT) you will take collective and shared responsibility for the effective leadership and corporate management of the Council's services, delivery of improved outcomes and the achievement of value for money.
You will lead and support raising the quality of practice across the service and multi-agency partnership to ensure that it is performing highly and providing the best outcomes for all children and young people to secure the best possible OFSTED rating. You will champion innovation by being open minded to new and radical ways to deliver services, actively seeking out good practice from others to learn from to develop our own service design and delivery.
Having responsibility as a key member of the Director's Management Team (DMT) for the overall Children, Education and Families budget of approximately £7 million. You will manage the Children's Social Care budget, leading and directing the setting and realignment to meet identified priorities.
Leading, directing and managing a range of children and young people's services, either directly managed or commissioned from other providers to ensure the highest possible quality of care, development, learning and support for children and young people. Developing and implementation of effective communication and engagement arrangements with service users, stakeholders, communities and partnership agencies to facilitate effective relationships that drive improvements in service delivery.
You will ensure the Council fulfils its duties in relation to standards, complaints and scrutiny, to maintains an open culture of transparency, accountability and ownership, taking responsibility for mistakes, putting them right and learning lessons for future improvement.
You will deputise for the Director of Children's Services (DCS) across the Children, Families and Education directorate when needed.
For a full list of the responsibilities of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.
About you
We seek a compassionate and inclusive leader whose values and behaviours align with ours and who wants the best for their people and our residents equally.
You must:
- Be a qualified social worker with current Social Work England registration and demonstrate strong leadership and management skills.
- Be a strategic thinker and have the ability to identify and implement strategic solutions with a proven track record of effective change management.
- Share our values and inspire confidence with colleagues at all levels of the organisation while forming collaborative relationships.
- Be able to demonstrate a clear and strong personal commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and a track record of leading by example.
- Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently.
For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.
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
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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