Director: Strategy, Transformation, Quality & Commissioning

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Job description
Children & Education Directorate

Full time, Permanent

Leading in partnership and driving change to transform lives for children and young people in our ambitious, vibrant, global city.

The challenge

Bristol can be the best place to grow up. As a city we have everything going for us; vibrant culture, developing economy, dedicated partners and a community committed to eradicating inequality. When you join us in this exciting senior role, you'll focus on leading the development of our children and young people partnership strategy, and will drive a positive culture of continuous improvement and learning across our own services. You'll also lead our ambitious children's social care transformation programme and play a vital role in the design of our commissioning and early intervention programmes.

Your role

When you join us in our vibrant, upbeat city, you'll provide strategic leadership as a key member of our directorate management team, with a particular focus on strategy, performance, quality assurance, safeguarding and partnerships for the children's services and education directorates. Working collaboratively with your peers, you'll lead and develop external strategic partnerships as part of the corporate partnership approach and enables an effective system of children's and education services that identify and meet a wide range of needs and demand.

But your work won't stop here - you'll lead the development of our service performance management and reporting framework that aligns with our corporate approach. Monitoring and reporting progress against the strategy and transformation portfolio, we'll also expect you to direct the development, implementation, review and communication of the directorate's strategy and governance arrangements. In addition, you'll facilitate the design and delivery of a number of transformation and savings programmes, and an operating model that delivers against our ambitious directorate and corporate strategies.

About you

You will bring significant experience of establishing and leading partnerships which drive transformation in children's services and education that secure better outcomes for young people. You'll be an inspirational leader and capable of influencing and effecting positive change. With strong partnership, performance and data skills, and excellent commercial awareness, you'll be capable of leading diverse activities across multiple service areas, meeting agreed targets, and managing large and complex budgets.

It's important that you possess a successful track record of leading, motivating and developing high-performing teams, and of building credibility and trust at a senior strategic level. A confident communicator with the emotional intelligence necessary to deal with complexity and ambiguity, you'll be a critical thinker and imaginative problem solver with the skills to apply your insights in an engaging style. We'll also expect you to have well developed knowledge of the opportunities and challenges faced by a diverse city like Bristol and the wider public sector, as well as the associated national policy and governance requirements.

The benefits

Join us in this role and you'll have access to a range of valuable benefits including membership of the Local Government Pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement. We place high value on creating an inclusive, healthy workplace and offer a range of flexible working options and family friendly policies.

Please see attached the full Job Description and Person Specification. For informal enquires please contact Hannah Woodhouse, Executive Director of Children & Education - Hannah.Woodhouse@bristol.gov.uk

To apply

Please submit your CV with the supporting statement which details how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification, why you are interested in the role, what skills and experience you would bring, and what you will aim to achieve during your appointment.

No agencies please.

Closing date: 8 April 2025

At Bristol City Council, we value having a workforce as diverse as the city we serve. We therefore welcome, develop and promote people from all sections of the community. Appointments will be made on merit.