Assistant Director, Children\'s Services in London

North Somerset is a place where relationships matter. We’re a small, friendly authority with big ambitions, and we’re looking for an exceptional leader to join us as our next Assistant Director of Children’s Services. This is a pivotal role at a critical time, offering the opportunity to lead transformational change. We have ambitious plans to make a positive difference to the lives of our children and young people. With the arrival of our new Chief Executive, Mandy Bishop, this is an exciting time to join us as we embark on a new phase of reform and transformation.

A qualified social worker, you will be responsible for providing professional leadership to our multi-skilled workforce and driving practice improvement. Our Practice Approach is called Building Connections and underpins everything we do - strengths-based, restorative, and trauma-informed practice model, and we are looking for a leader that truly believes in family led decision-making and keeping children within their local community and extended family networks.

• Lead our children’s support and safeguarding services, including early help, family support, corporate parenting, youth justice, and quality assurance.
• Support the implementation of the Families First Reforms during a period of organisational change and a November restructure.
• Bring experience of improvement, a clear understanding of what good looks like, and the ability to work across boundaries with a genuine interest in connection and collaboration.
• Support the continuous improvement journey towards the best outcomes for all our children.

• Qualified social worker with a track record of leadership in children’s services.
• Experience of change management and implementing service reform within a local authority setting.
• Strong ability to build relationships across adult services and other directorates, with financial credibility and strategic direction.
• Commitment to the Practice Approach Building Connections: strengths-based, restorative, trauma-informed, and family-led decision-making.

We are a Council with strong values, good members, and a clear sense of purpose and commitment to transformation. Like all councils, we face financial challenges, but you will be well supported politically, and we have recently been supported with additional investment for the creation of our own in-house residential provision.

For a confidential discussion, please contact Tile Hill colleagues:

Anita Denton 07725554802 or anita.denton@tile-hill.co.uk; Helen Alwell 07931 543 313 or helen.alwell@tile-hill.co.uk

For more information or to apply please visit: www.leadingnorthsomerset.com

Closing Date for applications: Sunday 5th October at midnight

To apply:

To apply, please submit an up-to-date copy of your CV (three sides of A4 maximum), along with a supporting statement (three sides of A4 maximum) detailing your experience and achievements and addressing the key criteria for the role, using examples to demonstrate how you meet the requirements. Documents should be uploaded via our website; please include and upload the information in two documents only. If you experience any issues whilst applying, please contact rebecca.keen@tile-hill.co.uk.

Applications should include:

• Full contact details;
• Names, positions, organisations and contact details for two referees (we will ask your permission before contacting referees));
• Details of your current salary and notice period
• Notification of any dates when you are not available for an interview.

At Tile Hill, we are committed to inclusion and accessibility. We champion and support all individuals to ensure everyone feels valued, listened to and motivated to get the very best out of each recruitment process and that processes are designed to meet the needs of individuals. If you have any specific requests and would like a confidential discussion with the Tile Hill team, then please email inclusion@tile-hill.co.uk.