Jobs

Salary: £120,000 - £136,000 per annum

Location: Sandbach, Cheshire

Closing date: Midnight, Friday 16^th July 2021

In Cheshire East, we’re rewriting our future. With clear direction, a new corporate plan and close working with elected members, we’re bringing significant positive change to the borough. At the heart of this, is our ambition to create a more open, fairer and greener future for all our residents. Our leadership team is devoted to improvement, driven by ambition and eager to explore new opportunities in how we can make Cheshire East the best place to live, work and visit. We’re confident about our offer, we know what we need to deliver and we have the resources to make it happen.

About the role

This is an incredibly exciting time to join Cheshire East Council and lead our Children’s Service. By disaggregating the Executive Director roles for Children’s and Adults we’ve added additional capacity to our Corporate Leadership Team and we’re excited about what can be achieved.

Our Children’s Services were graded as ‘Requires Improvement’ by Ofsted in 2019, and whilst significant progress has been noted in a number of areas, there is still much to be done on our improvement journey. Our schools have an established, nationally recognised reputation for excellence and we are working very closely with our education partners to ensure all children, including those with additional needs, have a high quality, enjoyable education. Covid-19 has shone a light on and amplified the existing inequalities in our society, none more so than the opportunities and life chances of children and young people from different backgrounds. We are utterly committed to narrowing this gap to create a fairer Cheshire East in which everyone can flourish and reach their true potential. Our new Executive Director will be integral to realising this ambition and must maintain the momentum and pace of improvement to create lasting, sustainable change.

Reporting to our Chief Executive, Lorraine O’Donnell, you will be the voice of children and their families right across the organisation and work closely with our key partners as part of a whole system approach. As the Council’s statutory Director of Children's Services, you will have responsibility for all aspects of safeguarding and services to children, young people and schools, ensuring our strengths-based practice is further embedded to bring about positive outcomes.

About you

We’re looking for a talented, senior leader in Children’s Services who will provide strategic vision and visible leadership. You will have the ability to knit all the relevant services together into a high performing and collaborative Children’s function and create an identity for the newly formed directorate.

With a strong track record of improvement, you will share our ambition to get Cheshire East’s Children’s Services to Good and Outstanding and be driven by providing the best possible life chances to our children and young people. You will ensure that practice is consistent, vulnerable children’s situations are improved at pace, and all children have a high-quality education.

We’re looking for someone to ensure the basics are in place but with the ability to think strategically and horizon scan to ensure we are one step ahead of the curve. And, in return, you’ll get to work with a Council that will give you the support and backing to innovate and to make a real difference.

You will have a proven ability to manage complex, demanding and diminishing budgets whilst continuing to provide exceptional levels of care and support services and provide the best value for money possible.

You will have genuine energy, drive and passion for improving outcomes, with the ability and knowledge to work across the Council and wider children’s services agenda in education and health. Working collaboratively with the rest of the Corporate Leadership team, you will break down siloes and develop a one-Council approach.

As we embark on the next stage of our journey, there has never been a more exciting time to join Cheshire East. If you have what it takes to deliver transformational change and improvement for our children and young people as part of our new leadership team in an innovative and ambitious authority, we’d love to hear from you.

To apply

Please click the Apply Now button.

We are working with Tile Hill on this important appointment. For a confidential discussion, please contact Anita Denton on 07725 554802, Chris Barrow on 07437 839048 or David Weir on 07391 565064.