Assistant Director, Youth & Communities—Strategic Leader

At Suffolk County Council, we’re entering an exciting period of transformation to strengthen youth services, community support, and early help across the county. With national reforms, including the government’s Youth Strategy and Family Hubs, we’re rethinking how we engage with children, young people, and families and how we bring support directly into communities. This is early help in its truest sense, and we’re looking for a leader to shape this vision and make it a reality.

As our Assistant Director – Youth and Communities, you’ll provide strategic leadership across Family Hubs, Youth Justice, youth work, and wider youth-facing services. In this brand new role, you’ll shape Suffolk’s developing Youth and Communities model, creating a coherent, evidence-informed, partnership-led offer that delivers prevention, early help, and community-based responses.

You’ll oversee services supporting adolescents across the full continuum of need, including child exploitation, missing children, and targeted interventions for vulnerable young people. Some of the key priorities include:

• Implementing Family Hubs
• Delivering Suffolk’s youth strategy in line with national policy
• Driving the early help strategy
• Preparing for the upcoming Youth Justice inspection

You’ll also play a key role in collaboration with children’s social care colleagues, ensuring an integrated approach that considers care leavers, housing, and community impact - helping the “front door” to respond effectively.

You’ll work closely with schools, health colleagues, police, and voluntary sector partners to integrate youth, safeguarding, and early help functions, reducing fragmentation and improving continuity for young people. Your leadership will ensure services are designed around the lived experience of young people, embedding participation, inclusion, and co-production, while representing Suffolk locally, regionally, and nationally to shape youth policy and practice.

We’re seeking a visionary, collaborative leader with the confidence, energy, and curiosity to innovate. Experience in youth work methodology, adolescent services, or youth justice is valued, but above all, we’re looking for someone with integrity, strategic vision, and a passion for prevention, early help, and empowering communities.

This is a pioneering role with real influence and career-defining potential. With national reforms underway and a strong Children’s Services leadership team supporting you, you’ll shape the future of youth and community services in Suffolk.

Join a supportive, ambitious, and collaborative leadership environment and make a lasting difference in the lives of children, young people, and families across Suffolk.

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 set out on this site and using examples to demonstrate how you meet the requirements.

Documents should be uploaded via our website. If you experience any issues whilst applying, please contact matthew.ashby@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 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.