Assistant Director of Early Help and Inclusion

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About the role

Stronger Families, Stronger Schools and Stronger Communities!

Are you passionate about making a difference for young people in North Northamptonshire?

Reporting to the Director of Children's services, you will navigate the changing educational landscape and ensure the effective relationship management with a range of partners and stakeholders, recognising their different priorities to coordinate a shared vision for SEND and Inclusion provision

You will find this job both challenging and rewarding, and that is why you need to bring a comprehensive understanding and experience in leading commissioning, contract monitoring, quality assurance and procurement at a strategic level.

You will have the opportunity to help shape our children's services for the future.

What will you be doing?

One of your key priorities will be to deliver the relevant strategic and service plan priorities with a key aim of delivering greater outcomes impact for children, young people and their families.

You will act as the Council's lead professional in managing the most complex and contentious issues in relation to Early Help & prevention, SEND and Inclusion with Strategic responsibility for the operational delivery of Early Help & prevention in delivery of Four Family Hub Networks), Stronger Schools, Team around the school services, SEND services, including the development of Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs).

You will be the strategic lead for Early help and prevention in leading the delivery and implementation of Stronger Families, Stronger Schools and Stronger Youth and Communities across four localities.

You will lead the development and implementation of appropriate plans, programmes and initiatives including the results of inspections, audits and service reviews, ensuring continuous improvement and effective implementation.

You'll provide Strategic direction for Early Help, SEND and Inclusion services so they are designed to deliver the council's vision, values and priorities with the children and families of North Northamptonshire placed firmly at the centre of this vision.

For an informal discussion about the role or to find out more information, please contact Charisse Monero, Executive Director of Children's services at Charisse.monero@northnorthants.gov.uk

About you

You will have Experience of developing and implementing service development in a multi-disciplinary and partnership environment. With extensive experience of strategic management and service delivery within local government or social care services.

You will have worked at a senior level in a political environment, skills in understanding and responding to different perspectives and taking a cross-organisational perspective.

You'll be educated to Degree-level or equivalent in a relevant subject, with a Post-graduate management qualification and have Membership of a relevant professional body.

For further information please refer to the Job description and person specification attached below.

Our benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we're transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You'll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our Key Commitments

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

North Northamptonshire Council re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in June 2024 which highlights the Council's pledge to support the Armed Forces community. The council obtained the silver status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) and we are now currently working towards achieving Gold status.

We aim to be a carbon neutral Council by 2030.

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)