Service Director - Quality Assurance, Strategic Safeguarding & Commissioning

Job Description

How youll make a differenceAt South Gloucestershire Council Were not where we want to be. But were clear what changes and improvements we need to make, and our senior leaders and councillors are committed to investing in us to make it happen. In thisstrategic role as Service Director for Quality Assurance, Strategic Safeguarding and Commissioning youll be central to those plans. In this broad and challenging role, you will make a significant contribution to one of the Councils key priorities: Creatingthe best start in life for our children and young people as you focus on driving change and transformation across a spectrum of services leading to improved outcomes for children and families.To do this, you will provide strategic and operational leadershipto review and deliver an effective quality assurance and childrens commissioning function and will take lead responsibility for planning and delivering key elements of our Council response to the Care Review, which will shape future strategies within thewider provision of childrens services.What will you be doing From significant investment and a council wide restructure, you will create a new team, bringing together staff from across the council to form one, single cohesive team. It will be your responsibilityto develop, lead and oversee this new quality assurance function, with a strategic aim to embed quality improvements to ensure the bests outcomes for children, young people, and families. You will focus on embedding quality improvement, audit, risk managementand monitoring systems and processes ensuring that learning leads to improvements. This will include the and development of policies which recognise the national and local context to ensure safe delivery of services that best meet the needs of children andfamilies. Working with partners and stakeholders you commission high quality residential placements for children, working with the sector, both locally and further afield to ensure quality, safety and sufficiency of these placements. you will commission preventativeactivity to ensure we take the opportunity to provide support at the earlier possible point for children and their families. Having oversight of Strategic Safeguarding you will work with partners including Childrens Partnership and Safeguarding Adults boardsto implement and embed the national recommendations from the government following the National Child Safeguarding Practice review following the cases of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson. It will be vital for you to ensure we have efficient processes inplace to ensure effective engagement with and participation of children, young people and families and that your work always reflect the voice of children and young people, and that they are able to participate in helping us on our improvement journey.Ultimatelyyour aim is to work with colleagues, partners, children, young people and their families throughout improvement journey, playing your part in ensuring we deliver strong Social Work support to children, carers and families.What we need from you You will bean experienced and passionate leader, who wants to make positive change happen. You will be forward thinking, with the ability to look at the improvements required and provide strategic thinking and oversight to move us forward. You must be a qualified socialworker with demonstrable understanding and knowledge of developing strategy and quality improvements. It is also essential that you have solid experience in Quality Assurance processes and Safeguarding You will have established experience of delivering strategicpolicy direction and leadership, operational management and financial control and a substantial level of strategic leadership experience, providing depth and breadth of knowledge to act with credibility at this level both internally and externally. How a careerat South Gloucestershire Council is differentWe know our team work best when they have balance in their lives and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance. We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and weare recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work. As part of our benefits package you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing supportand you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone andensure that individuals are selected, promoted, and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities. Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. Were building and shapingcommunities which people are proud of Were working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life Were investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.Weve achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference. Were making a difference, be part of it! To apply: Please complete the application form in full, in the final box please provide your coveringletter, which must include your motivation for applying.Please note, we will not see your CV, this is only provided to help you create part of your application form. Interviews: Interviews will be held on Wednesday 13th July and successful candidates willthen need to attend a members panel interview on Monday 18th July.