Service Director Children’s Social Care and Preventative Services

How you'll make a difference We are thrilled to announce that in 2024 Ofsted assessed our services as ‘Good’ in all areas and acknowledged that the pace of progress over the last few years has seen fantastic improvements for services for children in need of help, care and support. A stable senior leadership team, increased investment, strengthened partner agency working and a whole council approach to children, means that we are actively supporting the lives of children and young people in South Gloucestershire. We are delighted with the Ofsted outcome, but recognise that there can always be improvements, and as a senior leader you will make a difference and play a pivotal role in both maintaining and striving to build on our existing practice and performance. What you will be doing First and foremost, you will maintain and improve on the work that has already taken place to improve our services, reviewing the steps already taken and implementing strategies to maintain performance and further improve. You will have accountability for the leadership of services to improve outcomes for all children and young people living in South Gloucestershire. Specifically, you will be expected to ensure that the council provides a consistently good quality service that protects and promotes the safety and wellbeing of children, in particular, those most at risk of harm or poor outcomes. Directing, leading and determining service delivery, you will agree a strategy and operational provision to meet the full range of children’s and young people’s needs, ensuring services are within national and local performance and regulatory standards. We are developing our plans in response to the government’s proposals to reform children’s social care. This reform will play a major role in shaping the work you and your teams deliver, and you will lead your team through this change, working with them to embed new ways of working and best practice. What we need from you You will have a professional accreditation or equivalent working knowledge with proven experience and be a qualified and registered social worker. It is important to us that you are aligned with our values and behaviours, especially those behaviours that fall under ‘Leading Others’ where we require you to direct and support those with line management responsibilities to deliver results. Experienced in creating a vision and plans, you will enable managers to transform services, where people are motivated to improve the delivery and service for children in need of help, care and support. It is essential that you have experience of creating strategies, providing realistic long-term objectives and targets against national policy and frameworks and create an environment where people have stretching but achievable workloads. You can drive improvements for children and families, supporting innovation and consulting with stakeholders to take complex and long-term decisions which shape services. We require you to establish and maintain a positive culture where your managers feel able to support performance and challenge ineffectiveness to improve best practice. What you need to know All candidates that successfully reach the interview assessment panel will be required to provide a 10-minute presentation as part of the recruitment process. Details of this will be shared with you when you are invited to interview. This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office at Badminton Road, across our locality sites and from home. You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel. The interview assessment day will take place on Monday 24th February. A second stage process will follow, attending a member’s interview panel on Tuesday 25th February. These will both be in person at our office at Badminton Road, Yate. If you would like to discuss this role in more detail, we would happily arrange a call with Chris Sivers, Executive Director of People. To do this, please contact Rhiannon Sim, PA to Chris Sivers on Tel: 01454 863253 or email Rhiannon.Sim@southglos.gov.uk How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities. We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities. Office-based, you’ll be part of a team. If you need specialist expertise or just a bit of advice from someone who’s been there and done it, it’s right there for you. Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of. We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life. We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential. We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference. We’re making a difference, be part of it!

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