The role

This is a central leadership role within our Children’s Services team – one of two Deputy Directors who report to the Director of Children’s Services.

It offers a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious social work professional who can ensure effective leadership of a diverse range of our most vital services for children. These include:

• Our Children’s Social Care team 
• Referral and assessment
• Long term child protection
• Leaving Care team
• Quality Assurance team
• Youth Offending teams
   

You’ll have strategic and operational oversight across the full range of these service areas, so it’s a role that demands both a breadth of perspective and an agile approach. In return it offers the ideal platform for you to develop and hone your strategic leadership experience.

As you would expect, it’s a high-profile role in the organisation – with oversight of a portfolio that attracts considerable attention and scrutiny. But you can also be assured of unwavering political and organisational support to our work in Children’s Services, which is an absolute priority for the Council.

You’ll be encouraged to continually develop our practice and the tools we employ, such as our signs of safety practice model. And you’ll have the freedom to look at new ways of working, to identify what we can do better.

There will also be considerable opportunity to work on a regional stage, as this role acts as the commissioner for the Regional Adoption Agency, which works across the South-East, Kent and Medway.

We expect that as the lead for professional practice in this area that you will be a qualified social worker and that you will have a clear sense of how to quality assure current practice. It’s important that you can build excellent relationships with others, within and outside the organisation, and that you can build consensus and momentum behind improvement initiatives.

In a time of high demand and ongoing recruitment challenges, it’s essential that you can thrive in a busy working environment, and that when required, you are happy to get close to the detail and be hands-on in your approach. A well organised approach, supported by a resilient outlook will be a valuable attribute.