Head of Service - Children\'s Services

Panoramic Associates are exclusively working with Swindon Borough Council with the key and critical hire of a Head of Service to manage the Front Door and Assessment Service for their Children's Services, as they push forward and continue on an ambitious transformation journey.

This is an exciting and critical senior role, fundamental to the welfare of vulnerable children across Swindon. You will inspire, give confidence and be committed to supporting children to achieve their potential.

Swindon's Front Door - Contact Swindon - provides support and guidance for parents, carers, members of the public, young people and professionals.

Details:

• You will oversee all functions of Contact Swindon and will play a key role in Swindon's safeguarding partnership.
• You will be adept and driven to working in a challenging and demanding role to the greater good.
• You will need to be an exceptional team player with a track record of forming good strategic relationships.
• You will be confident in managing the threshold for child protection and getting things right, irrespective of the time of day.
• You will champion the voice of the child and their family, ensuring that the decisions we make are informed by their experiences.
• You will be able to lead and influence, winning hearts and minds far beyond our organisational council boundaries.
• You will understand the power of data and use your experience alongside it to continuously improve the service.

Key:

• Previous or current experience as a Head of Service, or a Service Manager with the right experience looking for a step up.
• Experience of working at a senior level in a political environment to provide assurance and effect change.
• Strategic experience of leading and managing complex projects and programmes to improve and transform services.
• Excellent influencing and negotiating skills to secure collective responsibility both internally and across the partnership.
• Extensive experience of working within Children Social Care services and leading teams.
• Budget management and utilising a best value approach to council funding and grants.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations and guidance and latest research on social care matters that affect children, young people and families.
• Experience of writing strategies, plans, policies, business cases and reports, liaising with other departments where needed e.g. Finance, Legal, Human Resources.
• Experience of delivering presentations along with being skilled at presenting complex issues to a range of different audiences.
• Experience of developing and using quality assurance systems and processes for monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience of facilitating co-production and capturing lived experience within quality and performance feedback.
• Professional social work qualification (degree or diploma) - essential.
• Registered Practitioner with SWE England - essential.
• Management qualification or significant experience managing in a social care setting - essential.

Next steps:

Please drop me a call or get in contact if you would like to know more about this position and have a further discussion on it. 1st stage interviews will be held week commencing 30th June, with face-to-face interviews happening the following week.