Director Older Adults & Urgent Emergency Care in Birmingham

Overview

Birmingham City Council is seeking a Director of Older Adults and Urgent Emergency Care & Neighbourhood Health. This is a permanent position with a salary range of £135,398 - £175,419. The role requires working 36.5 hours per week, on-site in Birmingham at least 3 days per week.

As the Director, you will lead Birmingham’s journey to Outstanding Adult Social Care, ensuring that every older adult can live with independence, dignity, and choice. You will report to the Executive Director of Adult Social Care & Health and be part of the Executive Directorate Management Team, overseeing a critical portfolio that includes urgent and emergency care, neighbourhood health, continuing health care, hospital discharge and flow, locality-based social care teams, and occupational therapy.

What You Will Deliver In Year One

• Faster, safer flow: Lead system escalation for urgent & emergency care; improve hospital discharge and flow across P1/P2 pathways, reducing avoidable delays and length of stay.
• Neighbourhood strength: Lift performance and consistency across locality social work and OT, enabling reablement, prevention, and independence at home.
• Assurance ready, every day: Embed robust performance and quality oversight aligned to the CQC Single Assessment Framework, with clear evidence of good-to-outstanding practice.
• System leadership: Deepen integration with NHS partners across urgent & emergency care and CHC, strengthening resilience and winter planning.
• Culture & capability: Build a high-support, high-accountability culture - collaboration, kindness, and courage - so teams thrive and citizens feel the difference.
• Financial stewardship: Deliver the directorate MTFP, targeting efficiencies while protecting outcomes and safeguarding.

The portfolio you’ll lead

• Strategic leadership for Urgent & Emergency Care, including system escalation.
• Neighbourhood health and locality teams (social work & OT) for older adults.
• Continuing Health Care commissioning and quality oversight.
• Hospital discharge & flow (P1/P2 pathways).
• Professional leadership of Occupational Therapy (Principal OT).

About You

You are an authentic, values-led system leader with a track record of turning strategy into outcomes in adult social care or a closely related field. You possess deep knowledge of safeguarding and statutory frameworks (Care Act, Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act) and know how to embed them in day-to-day practice and performance. You have credible experience leading complex transformation with partners across health, local government, and communities, co-producing solutions and building resilience.

You are confident in stewarding large budgets and multi-disciplinary teams, with the ability to deliver assurance and innovate. Your leadership style is rooted in collaboration, accountability, and kindness, fostering an environment where people learn, grow, and perform at their best.

This role is suitable for an aspirant DASS or an experienced senior officer who wants the opportunity to make an impact in the largest Council in the country.

Working pattern & location

This is an in-person leadership role. You will be on site in Birmingham at least three days per week, with flexibility around how you shape the remainder of your working week to meet citizens’ and system needs.

Our commitment

We are building an inclusive, equitable workplace where everyone belongs and can do their best work, guided by our principles of being helpful, open-minded, and focused on positive outcomes. If you share that purpose, you’ll find a home here.

How To Apply

Please upload an up-to-date CV and Supporting Statement via the attachments part of your application. The Supporting Statement should outline how you meet the criteria for the role through your personal qualities, skills, and experience, and include your motivation for applying to the post. Note the Personal Statement should be no more than 1500 words. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV and Personal Statement attached.

For an informal, confidential conversation, contact resourcing@birmingham.gov.uk in the first instance.

Members Panel Interview (incl. stakeholder panels): TBC - Date to be confirmed following the local elections and subsequent establishment of the Council’s Cabinet and governance arrangements.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented, and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining, and developing all of our people. We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

Birmingham City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our citizens and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken. Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.