Care Home Contracts Team Lead

£50,269 to £54,495 per year, Competitive

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: Full time

Disability Confident: Yes

Closing Date: 05/03/2026

About this job

As part of the Council’s Commercial function, you’ll lead a small team of Contract Managers and Contract Officers. The team oversees the management of contracts for 850 residential and nursing care homes, which in turn deliver Council funded care services to over 3600 adults. The Council is about to reprocure its care home contracts, and about to change both its finance system and social care case management system. So you’ll be joining at a time of change, with opportunities to shape and develop systems and processes.

Working primarily from the Council’s offices at Staffordshire Place, Stafford (or a hybrid of office working and smart working from home or other locations), you’ll need to work closely with internal functions such as commissioning, brokerage, finance and quality assurance teams, with external stakeholders, and particularly with external care providers and care home owners.

Main Responsibilities

• Manage and supervise the Care Home Contracts Team;
• Promote effective relationships with care providers;
• Hold care home providers to account in meeting their contractual obligations, and where needed remind the Council of its own contractual obligations;
• Develop and manage contract management processes and related information systems, including overseeing processes for contract notices, variations, novations, suspensions and terminations, and for monitoring contract compliance;
• Contribute to the Council’s quality assurance and provider failure processes, including helping identify risks and mitigations;
• Help to shape and apply contract documentation, contract specifications and procurement activities;
• Handle disputes, complaints and escalated queries from care providers, including disputed payments under contracts.

The Ideal Candidate

• A degree or relevant professional qualification or other equivalent relevant experience;
• Experience of effective contract management within health or social care setting;
• Experience of effective provider relationship management;
• Experience of holding external organisations to account;
• The ability to effectively motivate and manage staff to achieve their maximum potential;
• A proactive approach to problem solving and the ability to develop innovative solutions.

We’re aiming for interviews to be held during the week starting 2 March 2026. Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Kevin Harrison, Head of Commercial Management.

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council: Our Values: The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively. Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy: We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future. We look forward and race ahead that goes for your career too.

Our benefits: We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to our rewards and benefits.

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities. As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.