Children’s Social Care - Head of Service Improvement
Contract: 12 Months
Recruiter: Aatom Recruitment
Aatom Recruitment is currently seeking an experienced OR99281 - Children’s Social Care - Head of Service Improvement to work on behalf of a local authority.
Job Details:
*Be fully responsible for all aspects of service delivery and performance management of the FFP and wider care reforms programmes. To set clear key objectives for the short, medium and long term including overall business performance and improvement targets.
*To lead the service areas preparation and action planning for inspection outcomes, including any DfE requirements.
*To work as part of the wider Children’s Services Senior Leadership Team to improve outcomes for all children in Swindon in line with our vision and priorities.
*Provide strategic and practice leadership across all elements of the transformation and improvement/ reform agenda within children’s services alongside promoting effective partnership working.
*To ensure an effective governance structure, including programme board, workstreams, RAG reporting and risk registers. Roadmap milestones delivered on time and within agreed resource envelope.
*To ensure statutory responsibilities Section 11, statutory guidance, Working Together 2023 are met
*Lead the development and delivery of the roadmap to implementing national and local social care reforms, ensuring clear milestones, strong governance and measurable outcomes.
*Co-design, pilot and embed new models of working including Early Support, Multi-agency Child Protection Service/s, Family Help Teams, Fostering and Kinship support building on current strengths. Develop further existing family group decision making approaches. Translate reform objectives into operational reality, supporting managers and practitioners to adopt new ways of working while fostering a culture of reflection, learning and continuous improvement across Children’s Services.
*Work closely with partners across education, health, police and the voluntary sector to strengthen integrated working and joint accountability.
*Use data, feedback and evaluation to evidence impact, inform decision-making and refine our roadmap as reforms progress.
*Develop and implement co-production models with children, families, young people and carers across the Early Support and Social Care systems
*To proactively contribute towards the work of the Swindon Safeguarding Partnership by ensuring progress is reported to SSP Executive.


Supplementary Accountabilities
*Provide formal reports and evidence of impact to the Swindon 2028 Transformation Board , Children’s Improvement Board, SSP Executive and other key strategic forums and to ensure alignment to other council and partners transformation agendas.
*To represent Swindon on local, regional and national platforms.
*Liaise with senior leads, appointed advisors and caseworkers within various parts of the Department of Education.
*Develop business cases and business plans and maximise any income opportunities through accessing further grant funding.
Managerial
*This role is developmental and the number and roles of repartees may change over time in , line with service development. The post holder will line manage at least one Programme Manager as well as working with multiagency partners within reform based workstreams.
*Lead strategic meetings and coordination with the Department for Education to ensure that data and performance returns are accurate and timely.
Professional
*Significant recent experience of leading sustained change in Children’s Social Care.
*Ability to develop and maintain effective relationships and communication with internal and external service users.
*Providing expertise and technical assistance in best practice with children and families.
Decision making:
*Supporting a range of key strategic governance groups to make best practice decisions and advising on deployment of resources.
*Manage and evaluate the deployment of grant funding and other budgets and resources as required .
*Ability to prioritise and reprioritise programme planning delivery and competing demands in light of transformation, improvement and inspection cycles.