Quality Improvement Officer – West and South in Chelmsford

Permanent, Full Time £30,585 – £35,982 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Community-based worker

Closing Date: 7th July 2026

Interviews: 22nd July 2026 via MS Teams

Do you have experience working with or supporting regulated care providers? If so, we want to hear from you! Join our Quality Improvement Team and play a key role in supporting the delivery of good and outstanding care across Essex. This is your opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of people in our communities.

ECC Adult Social Care is moving towards a transformational shift from a focus on long-term care support, to a model with four key principles – prevention, early intervention, enablement and safeguarding. This will enable people, their families and carers to access information and tools to live healthily and independently, and to respond pro-actively to growing service demand within the Council’s financial constraints.

The role is focused on the development and implementation of the council’s approach to quality improvement of the adult social care market across Essex. It ensures that the adult social care market adheres to regulatory and contractual requirements and provides a consultancy service to the care market to deliver contract management and quality improvement. Providing early identification and intervention to manage risk effectively is key to ensure working systems function effectively and to conduct regular audits of suppliers to ensure a good standard of quality and to monitor improvement work.

Accountabilities

• Provide consultancy services to the social care market on how to improve the quality of their services to ensure customer outcomes and experiences improve.
• Work collaboratively with partners and stakeholders to maximise opportunities for quality improvement through innovative approaches to service delivery, delivering greater service user choice.
• Identify and challenge care delivery that falls below standards, providing support to improve the quality of service provision.
• Provide expert advice and support to providers during periods of safeguarding activity to inform ECC’s safeguarding responsibilities and duty of care.
• Ensure providers comply with all external regulation and contractual requirements, addressing any issues in a timely, effective manner.
• Identify best practice opportunities, learn lessons from others, and build professional knowledge to maximise the value of networks and influence service improvements.
• Support and guide the Quality Improvement Assistants to ensure day‑to‑day activities are delivered and skills within the quality function are developed.
• Identify patterns and trends in care delivery and share intelligence with People Commissioning to inform future commissioning intent.
• Achieve individual and shared targets and objectives as defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to RQF Level 3 (A Levels) equivalent or equivalent experience with evidence of continuing professional development.
• Proven experience within a social care setting with evidence of ensuring quality of outputs in service delivery.
• Good communication skills and an ability to develop rapport and engage with diverse groups of individuals.
• Evidence of a good understanding of quality standards, analysis, organisational development and demonstrable practical application of these.
• Ability to develop good business relationships and influence others with compelling arguments for change or improvement.

If you would like further information or an informal discussion about this role, please contact Cathrine Johnson on cathrine.johnson@essex.gov.uk.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and commits to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under its Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements. We also interview all veterans and care leavers who meet the minimum requirements of the role.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area, including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, and to transport service users and their belongings. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) you will be required to undertake DBS checks and register with the DBS update service, an annual subscription you will be responsible for maintaining.