Head of Safeguarding and Assessment
GBP 73,080 - GBP 78,049
This role will provide effective leadership and stewardship of some of our most essential services to vulnerable children and families in our community. Working across the three areas of statutory services, safeguarding and operations, our new Head of Service will have management responsibility for around 200 staff, covering services with a budget in the region of 18 million per annum. We have worked hard to achieve the right balance between permanent and agency staff within the service (there are relatively low numbers of the latter) and we are working hard on retention strategies to ensure that we support and develop talent within the organisation to grow our capacity and expertise.
You'll play a key role in establishing the systems and culture that support high standards of service delivery, clear accountability and an evidence-based approach to budget management and service prioritisation. Bridgend County Borough has relatively high numbers of looked after children and we are committed towards reducing this, ensuring that risk is assessed and managed effectively. You'll help to bring about the cultural and operational changes that we need to support more successful early intervention strategies, and it's important that you can bring a strategic approach to managing resources, balancing long-term objectives alongside immediate challenges. It's vital that you have management skills rooted in resilience, diplomacy and effective communication to negotiate the practical aspects of change in complex service provision.
Your career to date will have equipped you with a thorough and tested understanding of children's services, and you should be able to demonstrate a well-informed perspective on both the current and emerging sector agenda. We expect that you'll be able to share practical examples of leading service improvement and an understanding of change management within a service that has traditionally been demand-led. Budget management experience is important as you'll be asked to make recommendations on how we can best allocate our resources to deliver the right outcomes for our community, while supporting the council's overall drive to reduce costs.
Closing Date : Monday 15th June 2015 - Noon
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