Strategic Programme Manager - Children, Young People & Community Development in London

London Borough of Brent is embarking on an ambitious transformation agenda in children's services. Across Early Help, SEND and inclusion, the early years, and employment and skills, they're reforming how they work with - and for - their families. This is a rare opportunity to come in and scope, shape and knit together that programme, rather than inherit something already developed.

They are looking for a Strategic Programme Manager who thrives in ambiguity, sees the connections others miss, and wants to leave a genuine legacy in a borough where there is a huge amount to play for.

About the role

Sitting within their Children, Young People & Community Development directorate - and with a direct line into the council's wider corporate transformation portfolio - you'll lead the strategic delivery of four connected priorities:

• Families First Partnership Programme - transforming Early Help, embedding multidisciplinary working and evidence-based practice.
• Making Brent an Inclusive Borough - SEND and inclusion reform, layered EHCPs, inclusion standards and multi-agency partnerships.
• Best Start in Life - rolling out the government's Best Start agenda and Family Hubs, targeting our most deprived communities.
• Employment & Skills - helping young people and families to upskill and access good work.

Alongside these, you'll help drive two test-and-learn pilots - flexible working models (meeting need beyond the 9-5) and area-based service delivery - and ensure everything we do aligns to our cross-cutting themes: early intervention and prevention, multi-agency working, using data and evidence well, future workforce, co-production, and digital and technology.

These programmes run on different timelines but share deep interdependencies. Your job is to join the dots - building the governance, the plans and the relationships that turn a set of parallel workstreams into one coherent, well-managed programme, and connecting it into the council's neighbourhoods and resident-experience work.

You'll also build and develop a small programme team beneath you as the structure takes shape.

What you'll do

• Establish programme governance, planning, risk management and reporting from the ground up.
• Actively manage the interdependencies between workstreams and maximise the commonalities across them.
• Own financial and non-financial benefits planning and tracking, so we can evidence the difference we're making.
• Translate national reform and organisational strategy into deliverable, trackable milestones.
• Build trusted relationships with internal teams, partners and multi-agency stakeholders - adding value to work already underway rather than cutting across it.
• Represent CYPCD priorities in the wider corporate transformation programme, and bring that systems-thinking lens back into the directorate.
• Lead, develop and grow a small team of programme professionals.

About you

This is not a role for someone who wants to be handed a ready-made programme to run. It's for a strategic thinker who can sit with ambiguity, shape a programme that doesn't yet fully exist, and bring people with them.

Essential

• Demonstrable strategic programme management experience - governance, planning, risk, managing interdependencies, and benefits realisation.
• A track record of scoping and shaping complex change from an unformed starting point.
• Experience managing multiple, complex - ideally multi-agency - stakeholder relationships.
• The ability to translate strategy and reform legislation into clear, deliverable plans and milestones.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, with the credibility to work alongside subject-matter experts.
• A systems-thinking, cross-cutting mindset - curiosity, and the ability to pick things up quickly across unfamiliar areas.
• The credibility and capability to lead and develop a small team.

Desirable

• A local authority background.
• Experience of early intervention and prevention programmes - the thread that runs through everything they do.
• Familiarity with more than one of: children's social care, SEND, early years, or education.
• Aware of the relevant national reform agendas (Families First, Best Start in Life, SEND and inclusion reform).

You don't need to be a subject-matter expert in any single discipline - they have those experts across the directorate. What matters is the programme management skill, the strategic mindset, and enough understanding of the children's services context to speak the language with confidence.

Why London Borough of Brent

You'll join a directorate that's serious about doing things differently, with the backing of senior leadership and a clear mandate to build something new. There's genuine scope to put your stamp on the work, develop a team, and shape how a diverse London borough supports its children and families for years to come.

How to apply

This role is being managed exclusively by Panoramic Associates on behalf of the London Borough of Brent. To find out more or to apply, contact the Panoramic Associates transformation team for a confidential conversation.

The London Borough of Brent is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and to equality of opportunity, and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.