Planning And Performance Team Leader

This is a Full Time, Fixed Term position due to funding for 12 months.

ROLE AND PURPOSE

To lead and manage the Planning and Performance Team to contribute to delivering a safe, high quality, efficient, value for money Passenger Transport Service for Children’s Young People and Family Services and Adult Social Care that supports independence and attendance at school or Day Care Centres / Respite of significant numbers of Special Educational Needs Children, Looked After Children, Pupil Referral Units, Post 16 and adult clients. Ensures that the councils statutory duty of providing free “home to school” transport for eligible children of compulsory school age living in the local authority area is discharged and compliant with national legislation. Provides and interprets key performance indicators that inform service decision making, service development and reports performance against agreed standards to Elected Members, Safeguarding Boards, Corporate Strategy Team and stakeholder Management Teams.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• To promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.
• Statutory Obligations – The Education Act 1996; the Education Act 2002 and the Education and Inspections Act 2006 places a duty on the Council to provide free home to school transport for eligible children of compulsory school age living in the local authority’s area.
• Lead, motivate and direct the Planning and Performance Team including recruitment, induction, staff development, performance management, holiday planning, sickness absence and conducting grievance and disciplinary procedures to contribute to the effective and efficient delivery of the service. Ensure that there is positive communication throughout the team; that regular contact is made to allow for cascade of information and to receive comments and concerns from staff. Take independent action or escalate where appropriate.
• Lead the Planning and Performance Team in working with Children’s Young People and Family Services and Adult Social Care to ensure full and complete information is received for young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND); looked after children (LAC); pupil referral units (PRUs); young people post 16 and Adults. Manage the planning / scheduling of routes for all passengers and allocate resources (contracts, drivers, passenger assistants) that correspond to their needs, from both the internal delivery team and external contractors to ensure that transport is delivered safely and on time to support independence and attendance at school.
• Identify passengers with complex medical needs and agree any necessary specialist support with Children’s, Young People and Family Services or Adult Day Care. Commission the additional support (i.e. nurse or responsible adult and/or specialist equipment) and ensure that appropriate safeguarding controls and risk assessments are in place to ensure safe transportation.
• Establish and maintain records that demonstrate that external contractors hold a clean, current PSV or PCV license and an enhanced DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) and that they progress through a training programme that meets best practice for Safeguarding and Health and Safety.
• Lead, supported by Corporate Procurement, regular reviews of external transport contracts. Support suppliers to engage with the Councils Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) to allow the sourcing of external resources from the market place via competitive tender that contributes to delivering effective and efficient services.
• Implement and contribute to the development of a Performance Management Framework for the overall Operational Transport Service. Manage the external contracts by measuring, monitoring and analysing a broad range of performance information including – actual service delivery against plan, customer satisfaction, contractor feedback (with particular focus on safeguarding concerns and /or challenging behaviour of passengers) and financials to inform decision making, the production and presentation of reports to stakeholders and a significant contribution to continual service improvement.
• Authorise validated payments to external contractors, identify services failures and apply penalties if appropriate. Devise and implement improvement actions and develop appropriate governance arrangements that incorporates clear decision making and sound monitoring procedures to maintain / improve effective and efficient service delivery.
• Ensure that all data held in Operational Systems (i.e. Mob iSOFT and Assyst) is accurate and complete to inform operational decision making, positive customer, staff and other stakeholder communications and performance management / reporting. Manage the development of operational systems to contribute to meeting the needs of customers, the transport service and the wider council.
• To be a point of contact for the Planning and Performance Team and respond effectively and efficiently to day to day and complex enquiries and complaints to promote and maintain, positive relationships with customers.
• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated legislation places responsibilities for health and safety on Hull City Council, as your employer and you as an employee of the council. In addition to the Councils overall duties, the post holder has personal responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing and that of other employees; additional and more specific responsibilities are identified in the Council’s Corporate H&S policy.

Compensation Grades: GRADES 7.

Pay Ranges: £32,597.00 - £35,412.00

Benefits of Working of Hull City Council:

• A competitive salary
• An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Initially 23 days annual leave depending on length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year, and three additional days off, one in May/August and one during the Christmas/New year period
• Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods
• Supportive and forward-thinking culture
• Great career development opportunities

Please ensure that you complete and submit your application by midnight prior to the closing date. We are committed to increasing the diversity, equality, and inclusion within our workforce to represent the people we serve and build an environment in which everyone can feel like they belong. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

We adopt a ‘name blind’ approach to shortlisting. Recruiting managers will not have access to personal information, including your name and contact details, until a shortlisting decision has been made. Equality monitoring information is not accessible by recruiting managers at any stage.

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

Online searches, including social media, may be carried out as part of the recruitment process.