Assistant Director Additional Needs Transformation - The Guardian : Job Details

The salary scale for this position is £87,561 - £98,431 per annum based on a 36-hour working week.

This is a fixed term role for 18 months with the possible opportunity to extend or make permanent subject to funding.

We are excited to be hiring an Assistant Director to drive forward our extensive and ambitions plans to improve and transform services, relationships and outcomes for Surrey's children, families and schools for those with Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND).

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

Transformation

The Transformation Programme brings together work required to deliver our:

• Inclusion and Additional Needs Partnership Strategy 2023-26 - our guide to the improvement work across the partnership
• 'Safety Valve' agreement with the Department for Education underpinning our progress towards financial sustainability of the High Needs Block
• Improvement Plan addressing the feedback from our Ofsted Area SEND inspection

This is a multi-year partnership programme that is several years into delivery, and includes focus on inclusion in education and community, EHCP timeliness, capital investment to improve sufficiency of specialist places and partnership accountability. The Assistant Director for AND Transformation role provides the crucial leadership of this high profile and fast paced work.

About the Role

Reporting to the Director of Commissioning for Transformation, Suzanne Smith, you will join a capable and motivated leadership team who are committed to working in partnership with transformation. You will lead a programme team supporting the delivery of impactful change, ensuring a rigorous and robust project-based approach.

This is a key leadership role with a big focus on stakeholder management to ensure that our transformation programme progresses positively. An ability to quickly develop strong working relationships with internal and external senior stakeholders is critical, particularly with those beyond our direct organisational boundaries including education, health and care leaders, where you'll advise and influence them on the details and development of the programme. You will ensure there is accountability for plans across the programme and that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined with all key stakeholders. You will be adept at horizon scanning to pre-empt and mitigate risks associated with the programme, escalating these as required and feeding them into forward planning.

You will have a genuine interest and understanding of the SEND agenda and the education, health, social care sectors, recognising that each has its part to play in the overall transformation of the services we deliver. You will have strong programme management, financial management, performance management and report writing skills, with a focus on the quality of outputs from your team. You will have the natural ability to present yourself positively with both confidence and conviction, inspiring respect and trust amongst colleagues, partners and peers, working as part of the directorate team but with a real outward focus on successful collaborative working. You will be passionate about design-led change that puts citizens at the centre.

If you can demonstrate a proven track record of successful delivery of complex projects of similar scale across partnership structures, dynamic leadership skills, clear strategic thinking and strong influencing and negotiating skills, we would love to hear from you. Your contribution to our transformation journey will build upon on the good progress we've already made in helping to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 26th September 2024 with in-person interviews taking place in Woking on 4th October 2024.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

A basic DBS 'Disclosure and Barring Service' check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) will be required for this role.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applicants where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.